Truth is, give me the choice between happy and sad . . . I’ll take happy every time. Don’t care much for sorrow. Just as soon avoid heartache. Even less a fan of unease that’s caused by someone calling me out on something . . . although I know I should welcome “constructive feedback”, really don’t like it when it hits home and churns me up inside. But as I read 2Corinthians 7 this morning, I’m reminded there’s a place for . . . and blessing associated with . . . what Paul refers to as “godly grief”.

As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you . . .    (2Corinthians 7:9-11a ESV)

Paul had grieved those at the church in Corinth with a letter he had written . . . having said some tough stuff that needed saying. If the letter Paul’s referring to here is 1Corinthians, perhaps what brought them sorrow was Paul’s strong rebuke concerning tolerating sin in their midst . . . or allowing congregational politics to fracture their fellowship . . . or their trigger-finger in being willing to go to court in order to settle disputes among them . . . or their disregard for the Lord’s table. Whatever the matter was it had brought grief and sorrow to the believers at Corinth. But, says Paul, it was a productive sorrow . . . a sadness that led to repentance . . . a heartache which led to revived earnestness for the kingdom . . . a godly grief.

And I’m reminded that sometimes, though I don’t welcome it or like going through it, being made sorrowful or suffering grief can be used of God as part of His sanctification toolkit. In this case, it’s not sadness borne of misfortune . . . it’s not sorrow due to what someone else is going through . . . but it’s grief which comes from being confronted with, or made aware of, sin in my life. I don’t like even typing that . . . sin in my life. But sometimes God will open the door on rooms I’ve got locked up . . . sometime He’ll cause me to peek under the carpet where I’ve swept some dirt . . . sometimes he’ll send a friend to shed light on something I’ve hidden . . . and in those times it causes grief. The soul is downcast . . . the gut is in knots . . . the chest is heavy . . . not a place I like being.

But it can be a productive place. It can be a barren feeling that produces fruit of righteousness. It can be sadness that results in joy when this sort of grief leads to repentance.

There’s a sorrow that can lead to a change of mind resulting in a change of life. It’s not a sorrow that destroys but a sorrow that saves . . . not that the believer needs to be re-saved . . . but saved in the sense of deliverance from the bondage of some sin which has tripped up, or gotten a grip, on the child of God.

It’s not a grief which results in shrinking away hopeless despair, but grief that compels us toward the holy throne of God . . . enlisting the One who ever lives to make intercession for us . . . confessing our wrong-doing . . . asking for forgiveness . . . based not on our worthiness, but solely because of the finished work of Christ on the cross . . . knowing that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9). And there, at the throne, grief gives way to gratefulness . . . sorrow gives way to joy . . . sadness is swallowed up by grace.

Nope . . . don’t like sorrow. But when it’s sadness caused by the inner voice of the Spirit, or a brother or sister led by the Spirit, shedding light on an area that needs to be called out, might I know, by God’s grace, that godly grief . . . that leads to repentance . . . that produces an earnestness for the things of God . . . that results in a walk that pleases Him . . . for His glory.