We all want to be happy, don’t we? In fact, in a way, we’re all somewhat hedonistic. We see happiness as the ultimate goal. We think this is the best that we can get in this life. There are so many people desperate for happiness that they will fill their bodies with drugs, legal and illegal, just to feel happiness again. Happiness is a beautiful thing, I don’t deny it. It is wonderful to be happy. But maybe we’re all too eager to silence the sorrow we inevitably face in this life.
Because it is through sorrow that we discover our emptiness and so are driven to Christ.
Sorrow reminds us that we do not have enough within ourselves to survive.
Sorrow erases all pretensions of self-sufficiency and we are left with the brutal honesty of our complete inability to make everything right.
Sorrow makes us realize that all happiness is a precious gift from God, that any joy we have is only because of His grace, because we have nothing to offer of our own.
Sorrow allows us to cry with a suffering friend, it is sorrow which unites all mankind and gives us this common identity as fellow wanderers in this life which can be so dark.
Sorrow makes us question all the presuppositions and values we’ve held; it is sorrow which knocks the neat, tidy compartments of our mind down, it is sorrow which shatters our assumptions and forces us to rebuild ourselves again, deeper, and stronger.
Sorrow makes us wonder how many people we’ve purposefully or inadvertently wounded, it is sorrow which makes us more careful people because we know how much it can hurt.
Sorrow reminds us that this life is a journey, that we are traveling to a greater home, where there will be no tears or mourning.
I really like this! It shows how dependent we are on God. I never thought of sorrow quite this way before.