I'm sorry, James, but that is just plain crazy!
I believe in the absolute truth of every verse of the Bible, but some make that commitment pretty difficult. Oh, my problem isn't with believing that God created the heavens and the earth, that he parted the sea so that Israel could walk through on dry ground, that Jesus healed the sick, walked on water and fed the 5000 or that God raised Jesus from the dead. I believe those things.
But verses like James 1:2 throw me for a loop.
Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials.Really? When I am experiencing pain or sorrow or frustration, I am supposed to consider this a "great joy?" It makes no sense, does it?
On a human level, James' teaching is absurd, but on a spiritual level it is perfectly reasonable. God's purpose in our lives goes beyond our desire for fun and comfort. He is working to make us more like Jesus Christ and sometimes hardships can be his best tool in accomplishing that purpose.
In early 1980 I was recuperating from a serious skiing injury - I was on crutches for 2 months. I'd begun to gain weight so in late February I decided that I was going to run the Dallas White Rock Marathon the first weekend of December. I had nine months to get ready. So, I ran. And I ran. And I ran some more.
And it hurt. I spent a lot of time with sore muscles, sore feet, sore knees, sore hips. Training for that marathon was painful. But when I crossed the finish line (in 3:55) all the suffering was worth it - it had accomplished its purpose.
Suffering is never fun - that's the definition. But its outcome is such a blessing that if we are seeing things from God's perspective, we can count our sufferings as joy. Verses 3-4 expand on the idea.
...knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
When we are taken to the limit and beyond, when our faith is tested by suffering, God builds endurance in us - we get in spiritual shape! That helps us become mature and complete, becoming everything God wants us to be.
You can have a life of ease and comfort, if that is what you want. But you cannot demand that kind of life and also grow strong in Christ and become all he wants you to be. God's plan for your life involves spiritual exercise - from suffering and hardship - that is perfectly designed by him to produce spiritual maturity and to make you more like Christ.
I hate suffering. I've not gotten to the point where I've mastered the attitude James advocates here. But I do know this - it is the sufferings I've encountered that have caused me to grow in Christ. It is the people who have mistreated me who have helped me learn how to love like Christ. Suffering does produce endurance and spiritual maturity.
Suffering is a tool in the hand of God and we need to remember that such is the case.
Father, I say this by faith if not by feeling - thank you for the sufferings that have come my way that tend to make me more like you, that build spiritual endurance and character in me. I thank you that you care enough about me to give me what I need instead of what I want.
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