Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
James 1:2-3 ESV
What a strange concept this seem, counting trials as joy! To our human senses this seems nothing short of crazy. How can anyone count trials as joy? While there are many different (and true) ways to view this verse and expound on it, there is one I’d like to mention today.
For me, one of the most powerful aspects of this verse, perhaps the thing which makes really take it to heart, is this; the author lived through unimaginable trials and chose to write this.
As a first century, early church father, James’ life was not easy, in fact in was down right hard. Both the Romans and the Jews did not want Christianity to spread and were persecuting them harshly. Only one of the first century fathers was spared martyrdom and that wasn’t James. Their lives were harsh, difficult, against insurmountable persecution and nothing but by the grace of God they existed. Beaten, stones, rejected by family and friends, chased out of citys, mocked, scorned, and eventually killed. All for the sake of the Gospel.
I can’t fathom the depth of pain and suffering they went through. Yet despite it all, James writes, count it all as joy, find the joy, count the trials as joy because the point to something greater!
What even more incredible is that it isn’t just James who comes to this conclusion, Paul writes a very similar thing in Romans 8:18. He doesn’t even count the suffering worthy of being compared to the gloy which is to come.
Wow! How incredible is that! While I find this incredibly challenging to live out, I also find great comfort in it too. No matter how hard, horrible, harsh life is right now, we can have hope that something greater is coming. And if not in this life, we can rest assured that is definitely will be in the eternity to come!
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Musings by Tee 