Sorrow is Better Than Laughter

THE NOTION that grief is better than rejoicing is counterintuitive, but the lesson is profound: Wisdom is gained through suffering. On the surface, Ecclesiastes 7 seems terribly downbeat: “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting” (v. 2); “Sorrow is better than laughter” (v. 3); “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning” (v. 4), and so on. The point is that true wisdom is gained through adversity, not the pursuit of pleasure—a message that’s never been very popular. At the end of the day, what matters is eternity, and keeping our eyes fixed on that means setting aside the pleasures of the moment.