A time to weep

It happens…… . A Time to Weep

‘It happens’—not quite the slogan I’ve seen on T-shirts,  but near enough. It does.

Soon enough, however, happy our circumstances, we will come down to earth with a bump. We have never cowered in terror with bombs exploding around us, or left our homes and possessions, our businesses and schools and pleasant lives, to find refuge in a strange land. We haven’t known famine, or want, or sat in a busy street with a placard proclaiming we are homeless. We have been the fortunate ones. And yet even the privileged have their trials and sorrows, their losses and sufferings. Difficulties come. Hopes are not realized. Businesses fail. Accidents, illness, depression, tragedy, can happen to any of us. Children make wrong choices, or we do so ourselves. We mess up.

I remember 5 years ago and before that I had a plan for my life since I was in my 20’s and I worked hard for that plan to come true. I had it practically all planed out. I bought my house at 32, I wanted a stable government job, I wanted a degree, I wanted experience, I wanted more stamps on my passport than my hand from clubbing, I wanted to LIVE and be ALIVE. In 2014, I just graduated with a Maters Degree in Education and to top that off a 4.0 GPA. I celebrated, I went of a long cruise (not my first, but my best) I bought a BRAND NEW CAR with all the bells and whistles. I wanted a car no one but the manufacturer sat in. I took a well deserved cruise (not my first but my best) and a trip to Hawaii. I felt I deserved it all because I put in the work.

On September 9, 2014 everything came crashing down although it made no sound for I was in a coma, soon enough I heard that crashing noise. Maybe the worst thing that can happen is the feeling that God has somehow left the picture. And strangely enough, it often seems to happen at the times we most need him.  C.S. Lewis, during a time of great personal pain, cried out to God and said he got ‘a door slammed in [his] face, and a sound of bolting and double-bolting on the inside. After that, silence.’   We feel that God has totally deserted us in these times. Where has he gone?

It is okay for us to cry out to God in our pain. It is okay to express our anger. There is a time to weep. God hears. He has not gone away, he collects up all our tears and he has not turned his face from us. He understands. And he will restore.

Psalms 126:5 “Those that sorrow in tears will weep in joy’

a time to weep… and a time to mourn,” there is also “a time to laugh… and a time to dance. — Ecclesiastes 3:4

Life is not meant to be a solemn, morose affair.

It is not meant to be endured. It is meant to be lived, which includes working, sleeping, eating, loving, hurting, weeping, laughing, and yes, dancing.

There will always be difficult times, but don’t let them completely steal your joy and your desire to dance. Dare to delight in the God who loves you whatever the season you find yourself in: Twirl in the arms of a springtime rain. Shuffle along with the rustle of falling autumn leaves. Tap your toes in winter’s first snow. Be led by the waltz of a summertime breeze.

Don’t hesitate: dance for the sheer delight of being alive – I spent some time weeping wondering where did God go and why did he leave me. Only to realize that was my time to weep and it was okay to weep. If you are weeping today I am here to tell you it’s going to be okay and there is nothing wrong with it, just don’t weep too long or else you will miss your time to dance.

Thanks Phoenix: Live Love Laugh Learn!