Moment With The Master
“House of Mourning”
Categories: Moment With The MasterBetter to go to the house of mourning Than to go to the house of feasting, For that is the end of all men; And the living will take it to heart." (Ecclesiastes 7:2)
According to Solomons wisdom, times of laughter do not teach the valuable lessons like times of mourning. Are we really convinced of that? Our current generation is almost intoxicated with laughter. Many are deluded into thinking that genuine happiness is found in being having fun all of the time. Solomon says to the contrary! Joyful living comes from the valuable lessons learned at the house of mourning and pain and affliction.
Malcom Muggeridge wrote about affliction in his book A Twentieth Century Testimony: "Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness, whether pursued or attained. In other words, if it ever were possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo jumbo, as Aldous Huxley envisaged in Brave New World, the result would not be to make life delectable, but to make it too banal and trivial to be endurable. This, of course, is what the Cross signifies. And it is the Cross, more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ."
In times of sorrow we learn of the brevity of life and the reality of death. In affliction we learn to long for the better life beyond. In pain we experience what the Lord endured for our sins. And we should see how terrible is sin in the eyes of God.
Its ok to laugh. It is better to weep and to reap the eternal rewards!
By George Slover
