By Artem Voloshyn
Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. - Ecclesiastes 7:3
What do you think of that? Perhaps somewhere deep inside, you already feel a little resistance. Questions may subconsciously arise—not only for Solomon, but perhaps even for God Himself. There are probably two main ones:
- How can sorrow be better than laughter?
- Why do we so often think the opposite?
The Blessing of Suffering
As we begin answering the first question, the Apostle Paul only adds to the confusion:
And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations... - Romans 5:3
Have you ever boasted about your troubles? Suffering is difficult enough to accept, let alone to boast about. Usually, we boast about new achievements in different areas of life. Could Paul be suggesting that through suffering, we actually accomplish something?
And that is exactly the point. Paul goes on to reveal a significant benefit of suffering:
...And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. - Romans 5:3-4
In other words, how can we learn to endure if there is nothing to endure? The question is rhetorical. The fruit of the Spirit grows in the soil of suffering—there is simply no other way.
The opposite is also true. Circumstances that feel like a “walk in the park” can cultivate in us an attitude of, “I’ve already figured life out.” Competence and self-sufficiency can often compete with the trust in God that the Father so deeply desires to restore in His children.
Another benefit of suffering has to do with the very essence of Christianity—knowing God. The truth is that we always have so much going on. And all those things can keep us from truly knowing the Most High. That is why God says:
Be still, and know that I am God! - Psalm 46:10
And what stops us better than suffering? What makes us slow down and “take our foot off the gas”? Again, the question is rhetorical.
God desires to communicate with us and have a living relationship with us, so He uses different means to accomplish this. C. S. Lewis once put it beautifully:
God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.
Pain is God's megaphone, through which He tries to reach the human heart that has been dulled by sin.
God once “shouted” to Job, who thought he was righteous and knew God. Yet through tremendous suffering, God humbled this Old Testament righteous man, and Job came to know God in a way he never had before:
My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes… - Job 42:5–6
It was through suffering that Job gained a profound experience of repentance—something he had never experienced before. He came to know God more deeply, and God's glory became enough for him. He was at peace even after losing everything.
Why We Resist Suffering
Now let's try to answer the second question. Why do we value joy more than suffering?
Perhaps it is because we have been “trained” to believe that everything should make us happy. John writes:
For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life... - 1 John 2:16
Everything around us is supposed to satisfy our desires. The philosophy of hedonism—“get everything you can out of life”—has taken our hearts captive. We often try to maximize our pleasure while minimizing our pain. Suffering becomes an obstacle for the “hedonist.”
That is why we try to run as far as possible from the difficulties that God, in His love, allows us to experience.
To be honest, God does want us to rejoice. And perhaps that is precisely why He allows us to go through different trials: to turn our attention back to Him, the only true source of joy—the very source we so easily have a tendency to leave.
The prophet Jeremiah says:
My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water,and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. - Jeremiah 2:13
My prayer is that together we could say with David:
…In Your presence is fullness of joy... - Psalm 16:11
