Joy in Trials

A familiar passage for some of you from James 1:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

This passage is often engraved on Precious Moments dolls and other Christian trinkets. The general implication is that we're supposed to be glad when life is a colossal disaster.

Let's be clear about what James is saying here. We do not delight in trials in and of themselves. Trials are not our joy. The clock is ticking on the times of trials. There will be a great and glorious day when trials will be no more. Trials have no future. They are passing, momentary, fleeting. To hell with them. They are not our joy.

Our joy is in the fruit that is produced by the good God who walks us through the trials, the God who redeems trials, and yes, the God who from time to time leads us into trials in order to produce this perseverance. Our joy is rooted in the life that is on the other side of the trials as we undergo those trials under the watchful eye and powerful presence of the Holy Spirit.

God is passionate about our growing up. He is a good Father. A Father delights in a two year old doing two year old things. But it would be cause for grave concern if a fifteen year old were still doing two year old things.

We must be mature and complete. God is determined that we should not lack anything. He will spend our whole lives leading us into this outcome. Here in the Land of the Ruins, trials are a primary (indeed, for some of us, the only) way that we arrive at that place.

And so we take great joy not in the trials themselves, but in the hope that we have that these particular trials, tailor-made for us, are leading to something much, much greater; an eternal good that will still be growing in beauty long after the day of trials are over and done with.