Hospital - a "House of Mourning"?

It is better to go to the house of mourning
than to go to the house of feasting,
for this is the end of all mankind,
and the living will lay it to heart.
Sorrow is better than laughter,
for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

Ecclesiastes 7:2-4


Of course I want to be in the house of feasting and enjoyment if this means enjoying every good and perfect gift that comes from the Father of Lights. Of course I want to glorify him and enjoy him forever (not enough though). Of course I look forward to heaven where there will be pleasures for God's people forevermore.

But now in this world there is a tendency for us to be distracted by those good things we enjoy. Even the Preacher (of Ecclesiastes) asked that he would not be made so rich that he would forget God. Then there was the foolish rich farmer who, distracted by his success, neglected his own soul.

Is it for this reason that it is good that we occasionally receive afflictions or sadnesses that we would never wish upon ourselves? These come from the hand of God just as much as the pleasant and enjoyable things we receive.

I suppose that anywhere is capable of being a "house of mourning" in some sense. Even a wedding, which we rightly would normally expect to be a house of feasting, can for some be a house of mourning and sadness. If this can be the case with a wedding it should surely not be out of order to call a hospital (for some) a house of mourning. It is a place, at the very least, where we are prone to experience fear, sadness, grief and stress or a place where disability and illness are discovered and death is present. There are many tears shed by patients and relatives in hospital. True, there are many smiles of joy and relief there too.

For me hospital was, I think, a "house of mourning", albeit not one of deep grief. It was certainly a place of sober and serious reflection which in some way approximates to what the Preacher said above. It definitely was not a place where I would naturally dance and sing for joy as a result of my circumstances.

What is surprising to me is that I wouldn't have swapped this "house of mourning" for a world cruise or any other enjoyment. In one sense this is a foolish thing to say, because if the Lord provided me with such a cruise there would be no better place on earth to be. But I am sure you can see what I am getting at; during the seven days which I spent in hospital I believe that I was greatly and immeasurably blessed. The Lord brought healing to me through the work of medics as well as through the workings of my own body. But much more than that, I believe he brought to my mind, through his word and my fallible understanding of his providences, much wonderful truth about himself, myself and others.