Sadness and its Purpose

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Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us.

Eccl 7:3 (NLT)

Sadness and sorrow have an assignment.  They can produce a glad heart.  Seems like an oxymoron, but it is true.

Although sadness is debilitating, lonely and, often, inconsolable—it produces. 

“How is that possible,” you might ask.   What kind of a “wise man” could proclaim in the Bible that sadness/sorrow is better than laughter?  Surely you jest!

(No pun intended.)

This same book in the Bible says laughter is silly, meaningless and reserved for feasts.  You are free to disagree if you wish.

What is more interesting to note is what is said about sorrow.  It says it is better than laughter.  The main point here is sorrow teaches us, laughter pleases us.

What brings about sorrow?  Sickness, wayward children, adverse circumstances related to love, money and relationships – many life situations bring about sorrow and sadness.

But this condition also forces us to ponder life, the decisions we have made, the people we are connected to, the past, the present and the future. 

Remember the story of Hannah in the Bible found in the first book and chapter of Samuel?  She could not have children and was teased because of it.  The teasing and her barren womb produced a sorrow in her heart.  Her face was sad.  She was so sad, that when she went to the temple to pray, the temple priest noticed her sadness.  But Hannah was also proud and arrogant—which, as we know, are unattractive qualities.  (Hannah admits it in the second chapter of 1 Samuel.)

Already sadness is producing.  It prompted Hannah to pray which means it produced humility.  It also produced a willingness in Hannah to communicate with God.

This scripture says that sadness makes the heart glad.  Sadness does something that changes the heart’s condition from one place to another.  Since we normally understand the heart to be the inner essence of a person’s existence, where decision making, wisdom and understanding reside, it is of equal importance to note how we make better decisions after a season of sorrow.  We have an appreciation for the gifts in life that wasn’t there before.

For example, a decision to judge someone is, naturally, wrong.  But, if we find ourselves in the same condition as someone we judged, our face will become sad.  That sad face often produces a sense of isolation which leads to thinking about our actions.  Often, we make a decision not to make the same bad mistake again, because we don’t like the consequences.

It is the same way with an ex-offender.  Stealing often leads to being arrested.  Being arrested means being incarcerated physically.  But psychologically, an offender may also sit in bondage questioning the logic of their actions.  Thus, a new decision is made to pay for future purchases and the heart is now filled with wisdom and understanding.

To make something means to bring it into existence.  What does sadness bring (or make) real?

Sadness produced wisdom.  (I better think about this act before I do it.)

Sadness produces a willingness to do what is right.  (If paying my bills means I will not be in debt, then I will pay my bills.)

Sadness produces a cheerful heart, a joyfulness in the mind.  1 Samuel 2 reveals that God heard and answered Hannah’s prayerful request for a child.  She is now filled with joy and rejoicing in the Lord.

That is not to say that if God doesn’t give us what we want, we can’t rejoice in or after sorrow.  Instead, it means that sometimes God uses adverse situations and difficult people to groom us and refine us.  God needs to take what is useless in our hearts and replace it with something better.

Sadness has produced in me an appreciation for life.  Sorrow has prompted me to examine the health of many past relationships thus producing an awareness of appropriate behavior and boundaries for future relationships.  Thank God for sorrow.

What “better” things has sadness produced in your heart?