Purposeful Sorrow

"Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us" (Ecclesiastes 7:3).

In our western culture, especially, one of our biggest spiritual -- likely, emotional and physical as well -- problems is that we want to avoid all pain.

We live our lives with ulcered stomachs, disillusioned minds and fretful faces because this world comes complete with both laughter and weeping, pleasure and agony, rejoicing and mourning, delight and grief.

We revel in the highs, but we fail to reconcile the meaning of and therefore desperately seek to avoid the lows. And we miss out on great manifestations of God's strength in our weaknesses, and we stunt our spiritual growth.

For a plant to grow, it needs both light and rain. We are no different. If we have only the warmth of sunny rays, we eventually begin to dry out and wither. The rain that comes in the storms of life provides water to revive and renew us if we are willing to soak it in.

From an earthly perspective, there would be nothing better than a world without hard times, a life free from strife. But, God is preparing and proving us for eternity. And the circumstances He uses to bring us into perfection often look very different from those we would desire ourselves.

Therefore, if we truly and eagerly desire holiness, we must take up our crosses and follow in the footsteps of a Savior who was crucified. We must never glamorize this journey in our minds, in our hearts.

The breaking of His flesh and the blood poured out was real and raw, and it was excruciating. And if we endure, if we are faithful to Him as He deserves and longs for us to be, we will face excruciating crucifixions of our own. Were that the end of the story, it would be a discomforting and disheartening thought to say the least.

But through Christ, God ultimately takes what is painful, that which causes us to lament -- recognition and repentance of sin, physical tragedy, material loss, sickness of the body or unexpected circumstances -- and He turns it into dancing; He turns it into joy (Proverbs 30:11) to bring us into mature faith and spiritual wholeness and to glorify and bring honor to His name.

Christ has indeed won the victory for us. While we may walk through the dark hours and desert places, we have a "hope set before us" (Hebrews 6:18) that allows us to endure as Christ, knowing that by God's promise, we will be raised to walk in the Power of His resurrection.

"When I feel the sting of the wind in my face and the fury of the waves in my soul, may I learn to put my trust in you, not in the strength of my hands or in the smoothness of the circumstances that surround me." (Ken Gire)