What Makes You Cry?

Lately I find myself intrigued to discover why certain things make us cry or at a minimum tear up. I’m not talking about sad feelings or our response to sad events. I’m talking about that inexplicable feeling you get when you witness a certain scene in a movie or a commercial and something inside of you relates to it and produces, in some cases tears and at other times the feelings that accompany tears. It appears to function at random and without warning. What is it inside of us that causes that to happen? I understand that some folks are definitely more emotional than others. Some folks appear not to have any emotions at all which leads me to believe they have endured a lifetime of suppressing their feelings for whatever reason. Yet some people, myself included appear to have the capacity to feel strong emotions and it doesn’t seem to take much for those emotions to come out. So I ask you, what makes you cry? For you, when you experience those feelings, what causes you to feel that way? Could it be that all of us have certain needs unexpressed or unmet and when we see or hear things that touch on those areas, we feel a natural inclination to tear up? Or could the cause be a sudden burst of inspiration or clarity that, in a moment of time, answers many questions that have been hiding in our hearts? Could it perhaps be feelings of connectedness or other associations that speak only to us? Indeed a mystery; a real conundrum. What makes us cry?

I should start by offering that not all tears are caused by sadness. Have you ever laughed at something so heartily that your eyes began to leak? I know I have and often when it’s not that hearty of a laugh at all. Other times the tenderness and love we witness can bring on those tears. I have often mused that the tears we experience are related to something being healed in our hearts. Our hearts appear so foreign and mysterious to us at times and we cannot always even express why we feel the way we do. It has been said that our emotions are the barometer of our heart. We feel how we feel for a reason. Sure our emotions can be easily manipulated like when we see commercials for starving children or pleas for help concerning abused animals. But my quest concerns the genuine emotions we feel and understanding what those emotions are communicating to us. It is already clear that there is a whole world of things going on around us that we do not understand nor can we comprehend. So what are our emotions telling us?

I believe that human beings have been talked out of paying attention to things that are happening and the feelings we feel at any given moment provide us with a sort of clue concerning something. Sometimes in our quest for getting and obtaining we miss the finer points of life. We simply move too fast from this thing to that thing while oblivious to all that is occurring in between. Maybe life is found amidst the in between. Maybe there is more to experience, more to acknowledge, more to understand than we have previously considered. Could it be that those seemingly random feelings are trying to point us towards something? Is there something missing in our lives and when those missed elements show up in whatever form, they are encouraging us to think a little deeper, get below the surface, pursue something we don’t normally pursue? Many times joy appears as tears as does love. In fact, it seems all of the finer and more virtuous feelings are often accompanied by tears. Anger also produces tears but those tears are generally more based on frustration and our inability to do something about what is causing us pain, than on any more pleasant emotions. Whatever you are feeling has a basis for what you are feeling and that appears to be the touchpoint for discovery.

I know it has been said that our emotions are no guarantee for truth, but could those same emotions be a way that God communicates with us? God is at work at the heart level and it is entirely plausible to me that He would work with our emotions to clue us into certain realities. At times God needs to get our attention and being perfect, He would always work in a way that helped us and didn’t hurt us in any way. As I consider it further, our hearts form the basis of who we are and where the “real” us resides. We all do and say many things that may be entirely contradictory to who we are in our hearts. Most people, because of the world and its endless cruelty, are reluctant to even show you their hearts. Revealing our hearts seems to make us vulnerable to potential ridicule or being maligned. Living in this world we have all experienced jokes made at our expense or being chastised when we have revealed our true selves.  If you have ever noticed, young children almost always function at the heart level that is until the world beats it out of them. Yet our response to their hearts revealed is almost always tender affection as we see in them our real selves. We see the unconcealed, unobstructed, unhardened version of ourselves. Thus maybe, just maybe those things that cause us to tear up are a response from our hearts longing to live in a way filled with love, acceptance and belonging. Maybe the feelings we experience are things we have suppressed over the years. Perhaps that seemingly random emotion we feel welling up inside is an appeal to that best version of ourselves. Maybe?

There is so much more to life than we already understand. There is so much for us to discover if we are willing to look. Those dreams you have entertained in your heart about how life could be are not fantasy, but an appeal from our Creator to love; to live in love; and to share love. It has always been love that fuels us and it is love that heals every wound. Those feelings you have inside when you witness moments of tenderness or compassion are real and are encouraging you to do the same. Sometimes those feelings may be ideals observed and in effect the best way. Whatever they are and exactly how they come about may still be a mystery, but one thing is clear. They are pointing us to a greater and more fulfilling reality available to us. They are tiny appeals made by a Mighty God to help us and bless us and heal us. So what makes you cry when you aren’t feeling sad? I’m guessing it is love…

Just some good thoughts.