How Sorrow is Helpful

SCRIPTURE:  Sorrow is better than laughter, for when a face is sad (deep in thought) the heart may be happy [because it is growing in wisdom]. Ecclesiastes 7:3 AMP

THOUGHT: I talked a little about sorrowing yesterday over the contents of our own hearts, and while that’s really important, there’s also a general principle about every kind of sorrow: it makes us think! It gives us all-important perspective on life and death – and everything before, during and after. God can use the sorrowing mind and emotions to introduce himself into the conversation.

Paul talks about how Godly sorrow differs from worldly sorrow. Any sorrow can make us think twice about life and death, but Godly sorrow “leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death (2 Corinthians 7:10 NLT).”

So, if our sorrowing doesn’t lead to repentance, it’s pretty much like shedding tears in vain. It makes us stop and think, but without God, our thoughts lead us to bounce between nihilism or materialism, either concluding, “there is no meaning” or “the only meaning left is grabbing whatever I can grab right now.” In the big middle between nihilism and materialism (or whatever -ism tempts one), God can reach into the sorrow to help us grow in wisdom if we’re willing. Earlier in Ecclesiastes, Solomon reveals that God has planted eternity in the human heart (3:11). We instinctively know there is something more, but our attempts to find it apart from God are frustrated by the very same one who put the seed there.

Ultimately, sorrow can be a vehicle God uses to draw us to himself for answers and wisdom, to mature us from “players” at worldly life, to pilgrims on a journey toward life without end.

PRAYER: Oh God, use these sorrows in my life to give me your kind of wisdom.