Let us suppose you are a pleasure worshipper – what is to be done for you? You need sorrow to sober you up. It might get you to think – to consider the consequences of sin and of a wasted life. You will start to have insight into your own conduct and you will feel ashamed and say, I am bad tempered, I am spiteful, I am deceitful, I am unclean in my thinking, and you will come and repent. The heart is made better, because he has encountered the living God and listened to his word. God will change you, and you will find you are nothing like as susceptible as you were to temptation. But laughter wants to feel no shame and be with people who cheer us up; that laughter will die away and leave you empty. Better for heart, to come under sorrow – conviction of sin, fear of facing God with sins unforgiven.
‘The heart is made better’ – what is wrong with the heart? The assumption is that you have a heart problem. You have now come into a patch where reality has dawned. Even the young may get this and become serious about relating to God. All seems pointless and unsatisfying. Some may even think of taking their life. What is the point of it all? Here is the remedy. Sorrow is better than laughter. Dare to ask the most serious questions you can about life. Listen to the answers that come from the word of God and struggle to understand the message of salvation.