FRESH THYME
Before you read this story, I’ll preface it by saying that we all have crying times…no matter our status, our position in life, or our economic situation. Life is hard and it hits us all hard on different days. And crying is warranted.
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But what this story is about is when life is good…and we’re still crying. And I’m writing it to myself, because I’ve been in this situation many times, “crying from a yacht.” I don’t even know if that’s a phrase that people sling around, or even where I heard it, but I wrote it down. And I think I wrote it down because many of us live in a yacht, so to speak, where we’re on the “high seas” of life, the sea is smooth, we have more than we need in the way of entertainment and belongings, and yet we find ourselves on any given day feeling pitiful and maybe even crying…”for no good reason…” we might say.
Aside from hormones, or circumstances, or being tired…what it is that makes us feel pitiful and like crying when life is good?
Is it the fear that life might not be good tomorrow? That might be it, sometimes. Everything is going well but we hear the news or watch a friend receive a devastating diagnosis, and our first thought is, “Oh my, I hope that doesn’t happen to me.”
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Is it because all these things we have going for us don’t really satisfy that deep hole in our hearts? That might be, because even when we have all the tangible things surrounding us…we need peace and contentment. And that only comes through knowing Christ and his character and allowing him to fill our hearts and needs.
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Is it because we’ve acquired all these things and achieved our successes and married this or that person in order to fill that hole in our hearts…only to be disappointed and bored in all of the above? Well, surely that is the case for many. We see it in crime thrillers and all sorts of movies, where the person who has it all does something crazy because they didn’t have the one thing – the joy of living.
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When our kids “cry from a yacht” (whine when they have all the toys in the world but they want that one), we discipline them, shake our heads, and try our best to teach them to be content with what they have, give away and share with those in need, and to find joy in the little things like flowers in the yard to pick, or the shapes in the clouds. We point them to creation. We steer them away from things. We back off from overindulging.
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When I heard this phrase, I liked it, and I could envision it. A lady of luxury, laying back against a soft cushion on the boat, sipping on her favorite drink, hair blowing in the wind…headed off to some exotic place and tears are flowing…because she broke a nail. Sounds silly, right? And we’d never do that! Would we?
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Thanksgiving is coming next month. It’s the time of year when we make our lists, we invite the kids to write something on a paper leaf and hang it on a cardboard tree. Then we sit around the table and read all that we’ve written. We sit at a full table, with friends or family, and we make ourselves be thankful, whether we feel like it or not.
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I remember when my kids threw a fit and stomped their feet over the silliest things, I told them it was okay to be disappointed but it was not okay to throw a fit, hit their sibling, or be rude with their words. Not allowed. No crying on the yacht allowed. And it stopped. They got no audience for their crying, so therefore their tears dried up.
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I don’t want to be the lady on the yacht with tears falling because my painted nail has a crack. But I have been. I’ve cried because a store was closed when I showed up to shop (well I didn’t cry, but it might have ruined my day.) I’ve cried when a dinner was ruined because I burned it, or when he didn’t plan a date when he said he would, or when (today) the heat lingered instead of the cool breezes I so long for.
Why do we cry from yachts? I suppose we’ve overindulged and it might be good to be a little bored, have the lights go out, and find ourselves sitting in the dark with only His presence near…so that our thankful hearts turn to Him, instead of things.
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I’m still thinking on this one…