Good Grief

Passage: 2 Corinthians 7:8-16

About ten years ago I found myself in a music store in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  My wife and I had just moved from Toronto.  She, a church music director, was shopping for resources.  I, a relative non-musician, was killing time.  For lack of anything better to read, I picked up a book entitled, How to Teach Yourself the Bass Guitar.  My curiosity was piqued in part because, 12 months earlier, I had taught myself the bass guitar.  I decided to assess how well I’d done.  As I flipped through the first few pages, my curiosity was replaced with shock; then with sadness.  I discovered that I’d learned my instrument, from basic technique up, completely wrong.  I was grieved. 

And I had a choice to make.  I could forget that I’d ever opened that book, and go back to playing (albeit badly) in blissful ignorance.  Or I could start from scratch, and relearn the right way. 

In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul addresses a church that has experienced grief.  Their grief was induced by a harsh letter Paul had written some time earlier.  A letter in which Paul confronted a number of what the Corinthians thought of as “normal” behaviors.  Behaviors that, it turned out, were killing their fellowship and eroding their faith.  The Corinthian church could have dismissed Paul’s criticism out of hand.  They could have said, “How dare you judge us?  How dare you suggest we’re doing something wrong?  How dare you say that God doesn’t just accept us as we are?  Change?  Forget it!”  Here in his second letter, Paul commends his church.  Why?  Because they didn’t say forget it.  They grieved.  They accepted the Apostle’s word of correction.  They repented, and started fresh.  Paul calls the Corinthians’ grief “good grief”.  That is, grief that rightly acknowledges something is wrong.  Laments damage done and time wasted.  And then turns around and accepts a new way. 

Don’t be afraid to acknowledge that you’ve gotten some stuff wrong.  If someone loves you enough to confront your errors, love them (and yourself) enough to receive the truth.  And trust that there’s still time to get it right.  We will all be confronted with our errors sooner or later.  Embrace the good grief now, while there’s still time to try a better way.