Real Men Don't Cry?

Keep having this dream about my old man
I'm ten years old and he's holding my hand
We're talking on the front porch watching the sun go down
But it was just a dream, he was a slave to his job and he couldn't be around
There's so many things I'd like to say to him
But I just place a rose on his grave and I talk to the wind

I don't know why they say grown men don't cry
I don't know why they say grown men don't cry

I'm sitting here with my wife and kids
And everything I hold dear in my life
We say grace and thank the Lord
Got so much to be thankful for
Then it's up the stairs and off to bed and my little girl says
"I haven't had my story yet"

And everything weighing on my mind disappears just like that
When she lifts her head off her pillow and says
"I love you dad"...

And I don't know why they say grown men don't cry
And I don't know why they say grown men don't cry

(From the song: "Grown Men Don't Cry" by Tim McGraw)

Tim McGraw is the epitome of one of the "Good Old Boys"
Songs about rugged Country Life, being the ultimate "Cowboy"...

One of the first songs of his career was called, "Don't Take The Girl"
The first time I heard it I had to pull the car over because... well,,, because... it's hard to drive and cry at the same time.... An extremely moving song...

Recently there have been some folks on T.V. talking about men who cry. Right now John Boehner is all over the news because he sort of had a "perclempt" moment while talking about his political career.
Glenn Beck gets hammered a lot because he has a tendency to get teary-eyed when he talks about America, America's Founders, ..... his family.... God.....

I know I'm a very emotional guy. My wife says it makes me a good songwriter. I don't know about that, I just know that things effect me deeply and my emotions usually present themselves with salty tears. I try to hide it the best I can.
"I just got something in my eye"..... "darn Kansas sand storms!"....

I also realize that tears can be deceptive. I think about when Jimmy Swaggert was on t.v., crying big-time over his dalliances with prostitutes. Was he sorry?....Or sorry that he got caught?... Sorry that he betrayed the trust of his friends and family and church, or sorry that his multi-million-dollar "ministry" just took a huge financial hit?..... I don't know...
I do know that he was unwilling to follow good counsel and step down "for a season" to get help with the issues in his life. To me, that means that his tears were pretty much a sham. That's just my opinion, ......based on some good evidence. I saw him on t.v. recently... they didn't "pan" the audience.... for good reason.... there weren't many of them to pan... (You can have tears without real repentance..... and you can have real repentance without tears).

Tears. Do "Real Men" cry?

There are some "evolutionary scientists" who say that it's a sign of being on "top of the evolutionary chain"....that humans are the only "animals" with the ability to cry.
I don't know if that's true or not. Since I don't believe in evolution anyway, it's probably a moot point. I think my cat cried the other day when I accidentally stepped on his tail. They might have been tears of anger since I have a habit of doing that quite often. I do know that cats can cuss. Where that puts them on the "evolutionary chain"... God only knows....

Anyway, for all those who like to engage in arguments over whether it's manly or "sissified" for a guy to shed tears once in awhile..... I have only two words to say.........

It's the shortest verse in the Bible... but it speaks volumes...

John 11: 35

Jesus Wept.