Sorrow is a monster! Worry is its companion. Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it compounds it. I experienced incredible sorrow and was grief-stricken when my brother committed suicide. I’ve never gotten over it. As I look back on it and try to discern its purpose, I did learn many things from it. The most important was I found that the only way to take sorrow out of death is to think long term. I think of heaven every day of my life and that this life is but a vapor compared to eternity. It gives me hope where there was none.
It is a paradox that haunts us that the deepest sorrow comes from recalling happiness in times of misery. But we all do it and weep. It is normal to do so, just as it’s normal to wish you had more time, or that you might have done something to prevent it.
Robert Browning Hamilton wrote this poem that is sure to stimulate your brain concerning sorrow: I walked a mile with pleasure, she chattered all the way but left me none the wiser for all she had to say. I walked a mile with sorrow and not a word said she, but oh the things I learned from sorrow when she walked with me.
Is it possible to celebrate instead of drowning in sorrow? God knows what sorrow is like. Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected — a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We are sorrowful for His suffering and pain but celebrate and rejoice at His resurrection and victory. God’s plan was to defeat death and sin through Jesus. He was victorious and now we can reunite with God and live with Him forever.
The Bible states: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Note that the joy of knowing that sin and death had been defeated allowed Him to endure the cross. Shouldn’t we try to emulate Him?
Since we live in a fallen world, sin is a normal part of life for now. The psalms are filled with David’s pouring out to God the sadness of his heart due to his grievous sin of committing adultery with Bathsheba and then having her husband murdered. Like David, we often feel that God has abandoned us in our times of sadness caused by our sins. David cried out to God asking: “How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?”
But David despite his sorrow and agony put his trust in God. “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.
To conquer sorrow, we too must turn to God and rejoice in Jesus’ salvation.
There are numerous examples of sin-caused sorrow, but not all sadness is caused by sin we commit. Sometimes it’s just living in a sin-cursed world among fallen creatures. Job was one who experienced great sorrow and sadness, through no fault of his own. His wealth, wife, and ten children were all taken from him at one time, leaving him sitting on an ash heap covered in boils and sores). To add to his misery, his three “friends” came to comfort him by accusing him of sinning against God. Good grief!
Why else, they reasoned, would a man find himself in such circumstances? But as God revealed to Job and his friends, sometimes God causes or allows circumstances that result in sorrow and sadness in our lives for His holy purposes. And sometimes, too, God doesn’t even explain His reasons to us.
The psalmist tells us, “As for God, His way is perfect”. If God’s ways are “perfect,” then we can trust that whatever He does — and whatever He allows — is also perfect. This may not seem possible to us, but our minds are not God’s mind. It is a fact that we can’t even expect to understand His mind, as He reminds us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts”. We must have faith in His goodness and love most important of which was demonstrated on the cross.
Sometimes God’s perfect will includes sadness and sorrow for His children. But we can rejoice in that He has a plan for our lives, and it is a good one. We just need patience which admittedly is hard to muster in times of grief..
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”