Sorrow causes us to think earnestly about ourselves.  It makes us ponder our motives, our intentions, our interests.  We get to know ourselves as never before.

Sorrow also helps us to see God as we've never seen Him before.  Job said of his terrible grief, "I have heard You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye see You." (Job 42:5)

Jesus, the perfect man, is described as "a man of sorrows," intimately acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3).  It is hard to fanthom, but even the incarnate Son of God learned and grew through the heartaches He suffered (Hebrews 5:8).  As we think about His sorrow and His concern for our sorrow, we gain a better appreciation for what God is trying to accomplish in us through the grief we bear.

The author of Ecclesiastes wrote, "Sorrow is better than laughter, for, by a sad countenance the heart is made better" (7:3).  Those who don't let sorrow do its work, who deny it, trivialize it, or try to explain it away, remain shallow and indifferent.  They never understand themselves or others very well.  In fact, I think that before God can use us very much, we must first learn to mourn. ~  David Roper