Sorrow is a mourning or weeping of the soul. It is a pure, accepting emotion. If words could describe it, the words would be -- "It is finished."
Sorrow is the result of the death of a cherished desire and our hearts break and our souls mourn as a dream is destroyed. It may be a loved one gone, a friendship ended, a vision faded, a marriage unfulfilled, an opportunity lost, or work never to be.
At this critical time we will do one of two things. We will despair of life and bury ourselves with the lost dream, committing ourselves to die with it OR we will "let it go", lift ourselves up and move on. If we can do the latter, in time a new and purer hope will be born within us.
When my husband and I were in Israel a few years ago our plans were thwarted and our dreams of what we might do for God vanished. But at that critical time a purer faith and hope grew within us. Expressing it in words: "GOD IS". At that moment we knew nothing else. But it was enough! Sorrow had laid bare for us the foundation of our faith, the root of our life in God.
I pray that you will allow sorrow when it comes (and it will come to every Christian), to be a creative force in your life. I pray that you will welcome it. As new Christians we dream about the wonderful things God will do for us; as we grow we begin to dream about what we will do for Him. But as we experience the depths of sorrow our hopes and dreams are purified until they anchor themselves in the only reality there is; they change from what He will do to what HE IS. And it is enough.
MC