The Holy Sorrow That Purifies
“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret…” 2 Corinthians 7:10
This weekend as I worshipped with my family, tears continuously flowed from my eyes. I was not upset, nor sad in the natural, I was just overcome. Sometimes when the Lord moves upon our hearts, He is touching and healing us in places that we didn't even know were broken. Hidden corners of our souls that only He can see. As a people who are full of God, sometimes that satisfaction in Him only leads to us aching for Him all the more. For His touch on our families, our relationships, our health, our finances. Our witness to others.
This week, pilgrims, don’t run from the ache.
Sometimes the most sacred stirrings begin in silence, in sorrow, in tears you didn’t expect.
St. John of the Ladder calls this grace-touched sorrow "compunction:"
“a golden spur in a soul that is stripped of all bonds, a holy sorrow that purifies the heart.”
It's easy to resist sorrow.
But in the Kingdom, sorrow becomes sacred.
It loosens our grip on illusions.
It softens us to mercy.
It becomes the water that cleanses the eyes of the soul.
Compunction doesn’t condemn. On the contrary, it awakens!
That's right. Compunction is a special grace that wounds us awake with His love.
It is the ache of a heart being reoriented toward God.
Not because we’ve failed, but because we’ve been found.
And then St. John of the Ladder gives us this vision; one of the most tender and powerful in all of medieval Christian history:
“When the soul becomes cheerful, moist and tender without effort or trouble, then let us run, for the Lord has come uninvited, and is giving us the sponge of God, loving sorrow and the cool water of devout tears to wipe out the record of our sins. Guard these tears as the apple of your eye until they withdraw. Great is the power of this compunction, greater than that which comes as a result of our effort and meditation.”
These are not tears we conjure, they are gifts.
Gifts that come like morning dew, unexpected and holy.
And when they do, they cleanse more deeply than our striving ever could.
Practice for Today:
Sit in stillness for two minutes.
Read 2 Corinthians 7:10 slowly.
Pray: “Lord, give me the sponge of God. Let Your tears cleanse what my strength cannot.”
You were made for tenderness, not to gaslight yourself to preserve a façade of toughness.
You were made for union, not performance.
For joy that flows from holy sorrow.