Verse of the Day - Ecclesiastes 7:3

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

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It's amazing how much we'll go through to avoid being sad, huh? Tell jokes, watch a funny movie, do anything to keep from sinking into sadness. Nobody wants to go there, and we don't want to see anyone else go there, either. Sadness is just so...well, sad.

We like it on the surface of gladness, where everyone smiles and seems like there isn't a care in the world. It feels good, and we just want to stay there. Maybe that's why we latch onto Christmastime, a time that seems suspended in space, where goodness and laughter are all that we see and hear and experience. We just want to float on this sea of gladness forever. We don't want to experience emotional hurt, sometimes seemingly more painful than a bullet or a blade.

But the reality of life, with its bitterness of conflict and tragedy of death, is so very close under this slippery surface of gladness. Ever wonder why we think it's more tragic to lose a loved one in December, rather than, say, in April? Why is that? Why do we think that December should live in a plastic bubble? Because we want to escape from life, real life down deep where people fight and people die and we get sad, so very sad. Yes, it can be more painful than a bullet or a blade.

But, what do we miss out on by avoiding sadness, huh? What spiritual dimension are we sidestepping?

This verse says that sadness has a refining influence on us. Can you testify that this has ever happened in your life? Did sadness ever cause you to ponder God, and life, and your life deeper? Did it ever cause you to really take stock of your life, to weigh your goals and aspirations against eternity? Did it ever cause you to cry out to God with complete abandon, not being concerned with convention or appearance, exhausting yourself to Him in tears? I'm sure it did. Sadness has a way of getting to the deep things in our heart and mind that gladness has no intention of touching. And we really need to get down to the deeper parts of ourselves, the part that acknowledges the serious side of life with soberness.

As hard as it is to bear the pain of grief and loss and sadness, God has plans for us through it all. One of them is called sympathy. Sympathy is defined, in part, as "the fact or power of sharing the feelings of another, esp. in sorrow or trouble; fellow feeling, compassion, or commiseration." We can't really sympathize unless we have been there. We can try, but until we've gone through the fire of deep trials, our heart sits just under the surface of gladness feeling sorry for people, pitying them but not being able to sympathize, to commiserate. And we all need others who can commiserate with us -- the misery all around us demands it.

And Jesus is our supreme commiserator. Please read Isaiah 53 and allow His sacrifice of embracing sorrow to wash over you...

Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected-- a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave.

But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels. ~ Isaiah 53 (NLT)

Jesus didn't run away from sorrow...He allowed it to wash over Him, for us. He felt every emotional pain that we feel from grief, humiliation, rejection, abandonment. He went to the deep parts of the soul where sadness lives. Willingly. For us. And we can never say to Him, "...You just don't know what it's like for me...", because He does. Every bit of it.

There have been times in my life where I have allowed the emotional pain of sadness to wash over me, not trying to cover it up, or ignore it. To just allow it. It caused me to think deeper about life, to seek after God more diligently, to re-evaluate my priorities, to look for something more than just what lives on the surface. God used it for good in my life, and I'm not the same as I was for allowing it.

Are you willing to go deeper? If so, please remember that Jesus has been there, and He goes with you. Don't be afraid -- you two can walk through the valley together, and you'll come out on the other side a person that God can use in ways He otherwise could not.

Love,
Joelene