“How can it be right to laugh when there is so much to grieve?” This is more of a question of context. We clearly must weep, just as we clearly must laugh. There are times for both, as Ecclesiastes says, but what are the proper times? Weeping should not be self-focused, but for others; laughter should be for our own battles, not directed at the tragedies of others. 

As Christians in these dark final days, we find ourselves questioning how we ought to respond emotionally to the brokenness in our world. Tolkien’s response to this dilemma is two-fold: through profound sorrow and profound laughter. Nienna, one of the divine beings in his world of Middle-Earth, “is acquainted with grief, and mourns for every wound that Arda (the world) has suffered in the marring of Melkor (the great Enemy).” Yet she is immediately juxtaposed with Tulkas the wrestler, who “laughs ever, in sport or in war, and even in the face of Melkor he laughed in battles before the Elves were born.” These two responses to deep evil in the world may contrast, but they never clash. There is “a time to weep and a time to laugh,” the Preacher says.
Both of these answers to evil – especially in our time – should surprise us. Do we not mourn enough already? And is laughter appropriate if there is so much to mourn? Both questions are just, and should be answered in turn.
There is indeed much to mourn. Death and suffering surrounds us wherever we look: abortion, euthanasia, drug addiction, homelessness, rampant crime, and human trafficking, to name only a fraction of these horrors. But how often do we truly mourn these human afflictions? Too often on the news I witness the tragic suffering undergone by fellow human beings, and I have not one tear to dry. The news not only cultivates inattention and time-wasting, but also a heart incapable of mourning. What an irony, that amid the deluge of evils, the shocked soul cannot find the sorrow for just one child murdered! The truth is that in our mortality and finitude, we cannot bear such sorrow. But just because we cannot weep for all does not mean we should not weep for some. If you cannot mourn for a church in Nigeria slaughtered by militant Muslims, or for children killed in gang shootouts, you ought not click on the next news piece. That sorrow is enough for you to mourn.
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Written by Grover E. Gunn |
Monday, November 14, 2022
Notice what Paul said, “Such were some of you, but you were washed.” The converted sinner must no longer identify with the sin that once enslaved him. He must be willing to say, “That is what I once was, but that is not what I now am. For the old me that once was has been crucified with Christ.”

In Genesis 35, God appeared to Jacob while he was living in Shechem. God then specifically commanded Jacob to return to Bethel and to erect an altar of worship there. Now that God had fulfilled His promise to take care of Jacob during his flight from home, Jacob needed to fulfill the vow that he had made there at Bethel decades earlier. Jacob’s time of halfway obedience was over, and now he obeyed God as the angels obey God in heaven. Jacob obeyed fully and without delay.
Jacob prepared his household for an encounter with God. Some in Jacob’s household may have possessed some idols that they had taken with them from Padan Aram. You might remember the household idols that Rachel had taken from her father Laban. Others in Jacob’s household probably possessed idols that they had recently plundered from the city of Shechem. Certain earrings were also idols.
There was nothing intrinsically evil about an earring shaped, for example, like a crescent moon. There was, however, an extrinsic problem with such jewelry in a culture where such a shape was associated with a moon god or goddess.
Jacob told his household to put away all such idols. Valuable as these objects might have been, everyone, without delay or resistance or complaint, turned such objects over to Jacob, who then buried them. The word here translated “hid” can refer to hiding for later retrieval, like a pirate’s burying treasure on an isolated island. The word can also refer to hiding something that needs to remain hidden, like Moses’ burying the Egyptian whom he had slain in his days as a prince in Egypt. In this context, the meaning is hiding something to remain hidden because what is being hidden is something forbidden.
In addition to putting away their idols, Jacob commanded everyone to put on new clothes. This is similar to how Israel prepared to meet God at Mount Sinai under Moses by washing their clothes. Both changing clothes and washing clothes can symbolize changing one’s character through a spiritual renewal. The Apostle Paul later used this symbolism when he commanded Christians to put off their sinful ways of living and to put on righteous ways of living. The Spirit of God must have been moving in Jacob’s household because they obeyed both his commands without questioning them.
This principle of burying idols and changing clothes continues to apply today. For example, if a man today seeks to be ordained as a minister or elder or deacon, then he needs to bury his idols and change his clothes. There are those who have engaged in homosexual acts in the past, who now claim to be converted and called to ordained service in the church. This is possible, even as the Apostle Paul made the transition from persecutor of the church to sacred apostle.
Yet some who make this claim today refuse to bury their idols and change their clothes. They say that their sinful desires are an aspect of their essential self that cannot be changed. They refer to themselves as gay Christians. Some continue to dress and groom in ways that culturally identify them as homosexuals. Some continue to participate in and celebrate certain identifying aspects of homosexual culture.
Our response to this must be an insistence that men bury their idols and change their clothes as a minimal requirement for being ordained as ministers or elders or deacons. Our response in new covenant terms must be the like the statement of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11:
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? … And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Notice what Paul said, “Such were some of you, but you were washed.” The converted sinner must no longer identify with the sin that once enslaved him. He must be willing to say, “That is what I once was, but that is not what I now am. For the old me that once was has been crucified with Christ.” How much more this should be true of those who seek to be ordained as officers in the church.
Dr. Grove Gunn is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is Pastor of the MacDonald PCA in Collins, Miss.
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If we are struggling with time management, we can ask the Lord to give us wisdom to recognize where we are lacking, and he will, but we may not like what it reveals. Making good use of our time will often hurt because it interferes with the god-like world we have sometimes created and live in. We often think the world, people, and even God should revolve around us. 

In Jonathan Edwards’s seventy resolutions, resolution number 5 states, “Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.” As a bi-vocational pastor, this is a foundational truth I desire to adhere to as well.
Time is something we will never have more or less of. I am in year nine of my third pastorate. The first two were not effective in regard to time management. In fact, in my second pastorate, “burn out” flared up, and this led to my resignation. I was working 50 hours a week, preaching two sermons on Sundays and one on Wednesday evenings, and the church was 35 minutes away. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I simply resorted to just “winging it” on Wednesdays, heading there in a rush when I would get off work, and a second Sunday sermon was just a half-baked presentation. Now I am older, and maybe wiser I suppose, and I have established a few principals both in my personal life and in the life of the church that have helped me pastor more effectively.
Ephesians 5:15-16a commands, “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time.” I must always consider how I walk, “to live, to conduct one’s life.” It is very easy to become distracted and not use my time wisely, and as a bivocational pastor, I must have a disciplined time to study for the sermon.
The preaching of God’s Word is the highest honor and responsibility a man can have, and I should not step foot in the pulpit unprepared. I deeply understand that I am responsible for feeding the flock of God. First Peter 5:2 tells me to “shepherd the flock of God among you.” I should not feed them crumbs.
For this reason, I make sure to dedicate a certain amount of time solely to the preparation of the sermon without distraction. If it is in the morning, evening, or breaks during the day, we must be wise about using this time for preparation and not be foolish and waste time on fruitless things.
I learned many years ago that sermon preparation is time consuming. The philosophy of waiting until the last minute to get a message from God because you think it is more spiritual, well, is just foolish. Honestly, we all have preparation time at some point in our day, but often we just do not want to make use of it.
Making the most use of your time, “to redeem,” is to be wise with the time you have been given.
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