Sorrow Can Be A Beautiful Thing
2 Corinthians 7:10
“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”
Nothing reminds us of the impermanence of life as much as what the news feeds us daily. Lately, the deaths of public school students, apparently due to suicide, has caused me to question so many things.
There’s the question about how the educational system looks distinctly different now than it was a decade ago. Were the things taught in school now much harder than it was before? Was it enough to trigger someone, not even in their 20s to take their own life? I wonder how heavy and empty things must have felt for them to resort to a dark escape. To choose to end it all — for what?
Another question that I had in mind was how families are training their children nowadays to become men and women of good character — with that of fortitude, patience, and determination, if there is any training at all.
But all these questions, as important as they are in the context of the deaths of the young students I’ve read in the news, are just a few of the many things that could lead to one suicide. That’s only one. According to the WHO, there are approximately 800,000 deaths due to suicide every year — that’s about one person every 40 seconds. Can you imagine?
For us, who are trying to live as best as we can, enjoying the moment as much as we can, I remember saying last week, that so many things could possibly go wrong at any moment in our lives. That to waste any moment without seeking Christ’s help and guidance would be regretful for a Christian and just plain sad living without knowing God.
In this verse, we are shown two different kinds of sorrows: Godly and worldly sorrow. These oxymorons, as what they are called, produce two kinds of results: life and death. Godly sorrow leads to penitence, something that makes us see and live our lives in light of the promises and the Word of God and eternity while earthly sorrow — or what we call depression nowadays, leads to death. That is very clear.
With these things in mind, we can say that sorrow, too, is something that we should embrace in life. But the question is, which sorrow will you embrace?
Dear Lord, thank You for your Word. Thank You for teaching us how to live in light of your promises and Word, which only have our best interests in mind, and that is focused on us spending eternity with You because You love us.
Lord, we acknowledge our sinful nature and that we can only turn to You, in every minute of our lives, for we are weak and can do no good in Your sight. But we thank You for Your love and Your grace. We are not deserving, but still, You chose us. Help us to become more like You and teach us to grow stronger in faith, through repentance and going deeper in Your Word every single day for the rest of our lives. We love You, Lord. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.