Fake Tears

A recent newspaper article on parenting began with the following scenario: “My 3-year-old has this annoying habit that is driving me crazy: When she doesn’t get what she wants, she fake cries.”

I wanted to laugh, until I began to think of some Christians I have seen act in the same manner; then I wanted to shed some real tears. The apostle Paul clearly admonishes us to “act like men” (1 Corinthians 16:13). He is not saying act like males but to quit acting like three year-olds. Why do you think a three year-old “fake cries”? I will tell you it is the same reason some Christians “fake cry.” Namely, their life is out of focus because it is focused only on themselves and/or on the “here and now” rather than the Lord Jesus Christ. To focus only on self and/or the “here and now” is to be focused on the past. It is a looking back. As one writer so poignantly put it, “Those who are solely governed by the past stand, like Lot’s wife, crystallized in the act of looking backward, and forever incapable of looking forward.” (Zodhiates, The Behavior of Belief, Part 3, pg. 18).

We only grow spiritually when our hearts and lives are focused on the Lord. The more we focus on the Lord the more we come to know our true selves and find our deepest needs are met. You want a heart and life that longs for Heaven? Make and keep your focus on the kingdom God."No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62).

Stay focused on the Lord so when you must shed the real tears of pain, sorrow, or disappointment, they will not dampen your light but rather fuel it to shine brightly amidst life’s surging storms and trials.