Joy?

When you find yourself face on with temptation or falling headlong into trial, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? What train of words play in your head? Maybe your first thought is, "Again?!" Or maybe "interruption", "annoyance", or "inconvenience" are the descriptives your thinking supplies for the testing you are facing. Unsurprisingly, God supplies us with a rather different perspective on our struggles — he tells us to consider them, "Joy".

I recently found myself under some God-appointed endurance builders. I say "God-appointed" because sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that our trials are just a part of this life — but they are not, at least not for the child of God. These trials are assigned by our loving Father to make us more like his Son; they release patience to do her perfect work in our lives.

James, the apostle of Christ, sends us words of encouragement in the letter that bears his name,

My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ¹

Joy? How do we consider hardship joy? Most of us are not so naive to think that we are supposed to enjoy pain. But pain isn't about the now — it's about the coming, the future, the joy of what will rise out of our suffering. I like to think of this in natural terms to help me understand:

• When our house is being remodeled, we understand that a beautiful home is in the future, but that work has to be done to before we receive the reward and enjoyment of our new abode.

• When a sword is being made, it is tempered by heat and hammered into shape. Before it can fulfill its purpose and be wielded by its owner, it must endure this process.

• When a fine wine is being aged it must remain still and lay in a temperate climate — and it must wait until its time has come before it can be enjoyed and appreciated for the fine wine it is.

And so with us. The process to perfection takes time and requires that during the periods of testing we allow ourselves to come under the influence of God. In fact, the endurance (or patience) that James is encouraging us in his letter means to remain under. ² Remaining under this work of God brings our being into integrity or wholeness. As Thomas Goodwin so insightfully wrote,

"In general, a thing then is perfect when all the parts that belong to it are finished." ³

We are in a process which will one day, in the blink of an eye, be completed to the result of all of our "parts" being finished. We shall be like him. This is our hope. And until then, may we come under his kind yoke with an attitude of joy.

References

¹ James 1:2-3

² The Greek word for endurance is ὑπομονή (eep-o-mo-nee') and is a compound of two words meaning under and remain or endure. This is the state of remaining under the challenges God allots in life as he enables us to do so. (Strong's #5281)

³ The Works of Thomas Goodwin, Patience and its perfect work, p446