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Sorrow is better than laughter, For when a face is sad a heart may be happy." – Ecclesiastes 7:3 (NASB)
I recently had the honor of ministering the Gospel through rap music to a college football team during their pre-game chapel. The team chaplain asked me to give the guys a freestyle verse, which is an attempt to craft an impromptu rhyme with no previous rehearsal. Usually, I have no problems freestyling, but on this day, I fell flat on my face. For some reason, I had a really tough time pulling my thoughts together quick enough to articulate the point I was trying to make. So for what seemed like an eternity (really it was only 30-45 seconds), I found myself tongue-tied while staring into the faces of these burly football players who stared back at me like "Are you going to say something?"
The embarrassment on my face clearly showed my frustration with how things did not go as planned. However, after realizing the true root of my frustration, God later used my wife to shift my perspective by challenging me to give thanks for my apparent failure (II Corinthians 4:17).
This verse in Ecclesiastes is one of the paradoxes of life; that joy can exist with sorrow. Sorrow in this particular verse can mean grief, vexation or even anger. Most people rarely express gratitude for their shortcomings, but allow me to suggest a few instances in which sorrow is indeed better than laughter:
1. When sorrow solidifies a pledge of future glory. (Romans 8:17)
2. When sorrow drives us to a place of greater, more serious thought. (Romans 8:18)
3. When sorrow becomes the lens through which we examine our motives and attitudes. (Romans 12:3)
4. When sorrow plows the depths of the soul that we might yield richer harvests. (Romans 12:9-21)
Charles Spurgeon said, "To be where others can observe our faults is a healthy thing though painful." On this particular day, those words were never more true for me . . . that was until I remembered my son attended the chapel service with me. At that very moment, my sorrow became better than the football team's laughter. My son got to see me fail forward, and in the process see that I'm flawed. What greater gift than my imperfections in plain view could he witness in order that he might seek beyond me and strive for the Flawless One?
God knows, just like a good coach, that pain doesn't necessarily equal harm. It sometimes equals growth and conditioning (James 1:2-4). When you really think about it, many of the richest blessings we have inherited are the fruit of sorrow or pain. We should never forget that our redemption is the fruit of the world's greatest pain. And that is reason enough to fail forward and give thanks.
"The pain will leave as you learn to see Me in all things." – Laura A. Barter Snow
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