Tears for Fears

I just wrote and posted this for Faithful Feet, but I also wanted to share it here.

Tears for Fears

You know, I never really “got” (or even thought about) this band’s name back in the **cough, cough** 80’s **cough, cough**.  Okay, come on…Tears for Fears…”Shout, shout, let it all out…these are the things I can do without, come on…I’m talkin’ to you.” Oh, and “Sowing the seeds of love, the seeds of love…” and one more…”Ev-ry-bo-dy wants to rule the world…”  Okay, if you don’t recognize this **umhm** 80’s English pop rock band by now, then you just must have missed them.  Now, I will say this…after going back and reading the lyrics to these songs and others of theirs, I must say they were a troubled duo whose writing was very deep, and even political and sometimes even dark.  Of course, when I was originally singing along to these songs (picture the BIG 80’s hair, neon clothes, jelly shoes and all), I really was clueless as to the depth of what I was singing along to (and sometimes banging my head to…no, not to Tears for Fears…Hair Bands…YES, I admit it! I was a child of the 80’s!  There, I said it.)

All of that aside, the reason I was reminded of them recently is because I found myself sitting in my living room with my precious four-year-old son in my lap reading the Caring Bridge website updates of a dear cousin’s five-year-old daughter who just in the past couple of weeks was found to have a brain tumor.  As I read the update of her surgery, which basically said that they could not remove it and will have to treat with only chemo and radiation at this point, I had sudden, uncontrollable tears flowing.  I held my son tightly and kissed him as he asked me, “Mommy, are you crying?  Why are you sad?”  Whether you are a parent or not, you understand the tears that were flowing.  Tears for fears.

Though the band actually extracted its name from a line in a book that said “tears as a replacement for fears”, I would have to say that my tears were not so much a replacement for my fears but rather an outward, uncontrollable expression of my fears.

Fears…we all have them.  When the reality of them hits you in the face as it has me recently, you must admit that there are so many fears related to so many what if’s that we don’t even realize the fears we have until we are forced to do so.

A dear friend or relative’s child, very near the age of your own child, has a sudden, unexpected diagnosis.  A loved one is involved in some sort of trauma – car accident, bike accident, fall from a horse, 4-wheeler accident, you name it.  A person near and dear to you “falls from grace”…very publicly (as if any of us could truly “fall from grace”…really, grace is grace…there is no falling from it…anyway, that’s another subject).  Someone you know just discovered she is no longer going to give birth to the tiny baby that was growing inside of her.  Three dear friends, in a row, discover they have breast cancer.  The person you know who was once in remission and “cured” has suddenly relapsed.

The list could go on and on, but honestly, this list is pretty much exactly scripted from my recent life, much of it within the past week or two.  No, none of it has happened to me directly, but to many who are near and dear to me.  Don’t think I’m looking for sympathy.  I bet most of you reading this could script a very similar list for yourselves.  As a matter of fact, maybe some of those things HAVE happened directly to you…not just to someone you know.

Regardless…it’s times like these that really do make you face reality and the fears of all of the possible “What if this happens to me or my_____(you fill in the blank)!?!”

What do you do?

1.  Hug that “What If?” loved one that you are thinking about.  Kiss them, squeeze them, tell them you love them.
2.  Don’t try to figure it out and think it all through.  “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Matthew 6:34
3.  RUN to the cross!!!  Crawl up in His arms and cry out to Him.  Sob to Him.  Yell at Him if you must.  Whine to Him.  Explain to Him, if you just have to.  GIVE THOSE AND ALL OF YOUR FEARS TO HIM…AGAIN…AND AGAIN!!!!

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  1 Peter 5:7  and then don’t forget to follow what’s in the next verses…”Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.  And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.”  1 Peter 5:8-11

Give Him your Tears…and your Fears…over and over and over again.