Sharing Tears in Boys Town Mexico

Published: September 14th, 2009

Have you ever wondered why tears flow from your eyes? Why don't they secretly flow from the back of your knees, down your calves to your ankles? Or from underneath your arms, down your back all the way to your hips? Tears are meant to be shared, from one pair of eyes to the other. You're not supposed to cry by yourself. Someone needs to see and share in those tears.

The other day I was sitting with a friend from Boys Town. She was retelling the story of her life to me and a friend. It got pretty intense and we had to stop, to allow the tears to flow from her eyes, and from ours. It was a quiet, sweet moment. Nobody said anything, but we just sat for a moment and shared in her suffering, gently wiping the tears from our cheeks.

As Christians we're not primarily called to be happy, to be answer-givers or to fix things. We're called to follow Jesus and sometimes that means following Him in his sufferings and pain. Like Paul we desire to know Christ, the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and somehow (this is the beautiful mystery of the gospel), to attain to the resurrection from the dead. This sweet and silent moment in Boys Town, Mexico reminded me of this passage in Philippians 3.

"I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself." Phil 3:10-11 The Message 

We're are also called to share in each other's sufferings and pain, and to see it as valuable and meaningful.

I was happy as I saw these tears flow from my friend's eyes. It tells me her heart is alive and that she's not okay with the things that happened in her life. Her tears tells me that she's yearning for something different, somehow better, for whole, restored and loving relationships. Her tears are meaningful, acknowledging the wrong and remembering the pain that helped shaped her. Somehow the suffering in her life produced a hope in her heart that life can be different and better, and for now the 'better' is being in Boys Town, having a bed to sleep in, food to eat, friends who care and an income.

In Romans Paul tells us that we can rejoice in sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. And that hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

So my prayer is that God would continue to pour out His love in our hearts and the hearts of our friends in Boys Town, that we will continue to share in the sufferings of our friends without loosing sight of the hope that's so closely linked with this suffering.   

Find out more about the 24-7ers living and loving in BoysTown, Mexico through this 24-7 Short film .

Adri Roos originally hails from Paarl, South Africa, spent a few years serving 24-7 Prayer in the UK and now lives in and loves the walled red light district of BoysTown, Mexico.  Adri loves friends, food, live music and writing. Having travelled widely, she often finds herself at home in the forgotten places.

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