Our Backward Misery

Just finishing John Pipers book When the Darkness Will Not Life, I was struck by how backward we are in our misery. In chapter 4, he makes the point that our unconfessed sin “clogs our joy”. He notes Ps. 32:2-3, in which David says,

“Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.”

When we hold onto our sin, we waste away; we suffer and groan all day long. Real healing, and therefore real joy, is found in confessing our sins to God and to our brothers (James 5:16). But far too often we do not want to go there. We would rather sit in our misery and weep in self-pity.

In chapter five, Piper writes that the “darkness of our souls is owing in part to the fact that we have drifted into patters of life that are not blatantly sinful but are constricted and uncaring.” In other words, we often feel miserable because we are too self-absorbed. We are unwilling to care and feel the pain of those around us. We instead seek only to relieve our own pain.

These thoughts are intimately related to each other, and they have caused me to ponder just how backward our sinful flesh is. We, who know Christ, have the awesome ability to confess our sins, and have them completely forgiven! God will not hold ANY confessed sins against us because of Christ. We can have the burden lifted, and enjoy the joy that comes with it. But so often we don’t. Instead, we harbor are secret sins (including bitterness and bad attitudes), and harden ourselves against loving others.

We should feel the pain of others. We should suffer with others. We should care that there are people dying without Christ, we should care that there are children who are starving, we should care that there are families being decimated by aids, we should care that our church members are lonely and need us… and on and on it goes. We should weep for these people, but instead we only weep for wont of our sins. We weep for the pain we feel because we will not give up our pride.

The only possible way this can be accomplished is to have the inward joy of a sinner who meditates the glory of being redeemed by the blood of Christ. The sinner can confess their sin with confidence, because “…there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”(Romans 8:1). It is this joy and grace that allows a sinner to bear with joy the pain and suffering of not only my own life, but also the tears of those God places before their path to love. As Piper notes at the end of His book, Paul writes, “as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10). Let us hate our sins; running from them to the joy of fellowship with Christ, and weep for the suffering.