There is this song that I love so much. It simply says “Silent tears from the inside of your heart. When no one knows but you, what you’re going through. When your friends don’t understand that it is all in God’s hand, God hears your silent tears… Sometimes you’re hurting real bad and you really can’t seem to let it out, and it is like a knot in your throat. You really can’t tell anybody because you have tried that before and it seems like everyone got their own problems, but we came tonight to tell you that God hears your silent tears. You try to hold yourself together and go through the service as if nothing is going wrong, but on the inside you are getting ready to burst. Someone is hurting tonight and you have not told anyone about it.”
I think that this blog if it is not for anyone else, it is definitely for me. There are times when we go through so many things, but we go through them silently. We don’t let anyone know that we are in pain. We don’t let anyone know the agony that we are dealing with. We don’t let anyone know the trials or tribulations that we are facing. We don’t let anyone know the hurt that we are dealing with. It is not that we are on the brink of giving up on God. It is not that we are on the brink of turning our back on the Lord. It is just we are in pain. The mountains don’t seem to be getting any smaller. The desert does not seem to be providing any refreshment. There is no rest for what we are going through.
And rather than letting anyone know what we are facing. Rather than confiding in someone. We keep it all in. We smile. We laugh. We joke. We act like everything is going great. We raise our hands in church, we jump, we shout. And it is not that we are not sincerely praising God when we do this, but inside there is a pain that no one knows about. Our world is turning upside down. The pain, rather than subsiding only grows. The hurt, rather than going away, only gets bigger.
I don’t know if this blog is for anyone else. But I know it is for me. There have been countless times, when I have been going through or dealing with so many things. I smile, I laugh, I act like everything is okay. I act like my world is great. But the tears that come out at night. The pain that I hide. The hurt that I don’t let anyone see.
I want to let you know today that I don’t know if you are dealing with anything. I don’t know if you are facing a huge trial in your life and you have not let anyone know. I don’t know if it seems like you have been climbing this mountain forever and you have yet to reach the top. I don’t know if you feel like you have been in this valley for months and there is no ending in sight. I don’t know what you are dealing with. I don’t know what you are facing. I don’t know the hurt, I don’t know the pain, I don’t know what your ‘silent tears’ are. But I want to let you know two things:
God knows. He sees those tears. He feels your pain. He knows the situation. He, as this song says “knows your sorrow, He feels your pain. He is there to heal you, wipe the tears away. He has not left you.” When you feel like you are all alone, God is right there. When you feel like you can’t climb the mountain, God is giving you the strength. When you feel like the valley is never ending, God sees an end in sight. Those tears that you are not letting anyone else see, God sees. He is there.
And I also want to let you know that it is okay to be transparent. It is okay to let someone know what you are going through. And believe me, I am speaking to myself right now, because I tend to be incredibly private. I tend to keep everything inside of me. I tend to not want anyone to know what I am going through or what I am dealing with. But it is okay to be transparent. It is okay to call someone on the phone and just tell them “I need prayer, I have this situation I am dealing with. I have this pain that I have been facing.” It is okay to send an email, telling people “Pray for me because this mountain seems impossible to get over.” Not only is it okay to be transparent it is important that we are transparent. If you look in the Bible, David had Jonathon. Esther had the handmaidens. Daniel had Shadrach, Meshach and Adednigo. Paul had Timothy. These are all people who had friends, in other words, they did not go through things alone. It is so important that when you go through trials, when you go through tribulations that you know that you can turn to someone. That you know that you have a support system who is praying for you.
You don’t have to let those tears remain silent. You don’t have to fear letting someone know what you are dealing with. You don’t have to keep that mask on. Afraid to let anyone know what are you going through. You don’t have to keep the charade up, acting like you okay when you are dealing with pain. Today if you are going through something, as you are reading this, if you are dealing with a trial, if you don’t have the strength to climb the mountain, if you don’t have the energy to go through the valley, know that there are people who want to help you, know that there are people, if you just let them know what you are going through, they will pray for your burden as if it were their burden, they will cry out to God for you as if it were their trial they were going through. I love the song, I began this thought with, but I want to let you know, although God sees your silent tears, you don’t need to keep them silent, you can share them, you can reveal them, because there is someone who will unite with you and who will pray with and for you.