Counting it Joy

Is it all Joy?

James 1:2-8New American Standard Bible (NASB)

2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

If you are like me this verse presents some real challenges. “Consider it all joy,” this is a thing not so easily done in a society that values ease more than anything. It’s in our very subconscious that easy is good and hard is bad. I cannot even count the number of times I have heard people say that they just wanted an easy time of it, or “why can’t this or that” just be easier. The very idea that the hardships we face should be considered a joy is a backward idea in this modern age. But joy, what is it really? Well here is what joy means:

noun

1. the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation:

She felt the joy of seeing her son's success.

2. a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; something or someone greatly valued or appreciated:

Her prose style is a pure joy.

3. the expression or display of glad feeling; festive gaiety.

4. a state of happiness or felicity.

verb (used without object)

5. to feel joy; be glad; rejoice.

verb (used with object)

6. Obsolete. to gladden.

So where does this leave us? If you are like me, then we are the exact opposite of what James is talking about. Very rarely in my past have I considered the ups and downs of my life a joy, but maybe I should have. You see, this idea of counting the things that test us the most as a joy led me to one of the great revelations I have had in my life. If the trials of this life are supposed to be a joy to me, then what is the purpose of the trial?

You see, we as believers are not just called to endure this life so that we can pass on to the next but we are here to overcome this life. The very means by which we transform this life from one of mere endurance to one of joy is hidden in the way we see trials that come our way. For the most part we look at life in a very adversarial way. Life is the game we play, like chess, to make the moves that will give us the greatest advantage in getting us what we want. It is for this reason we view trials as obstacles to be overcome or avoided at all cost if possible. In fact, if we are honest, we look at those suffering through trials as though they have done something wrong or at the very least, if they had planned better, the trial they are going through may have been avoided. So you see, we do not see trials the same way as James. These things we labour and suffer with, are they our joy? Doubtful, but why? The simple answer is, we do not see life in its proper context. The meaning of life is an obscure idea to us that seems lost in time. The history of the Christian church has been so consumed with the idea of salvation that the purpose of a life now saved has been lost. So your salvation is assured, but now what do you do with these trials that come your way?

Joy from pain? Happiness from suffering? This should be the kind of people we are, but how? The solution to this dilemma, I feel, is in how we look at the problem. What is the point of a trial? Part of it I believe, is to test our mettle and see what we are made of; but the greater purpose of us going through the trials of this life is to be transformed from something of little worth to something of great value for all eternity. You see, you and I are only going to be here in this life but a little while, and yet we will spend a great deal of time in the presence of the Almighty, and in His house even the streets will be paved with gold; so you see there will be nothing in eternity that is of little value. The trials of this life are the process by which we are transformed by the Potter’s hand to be works of great beauty; not only in this life but for all eternity. What we do should only ever be a reflection of what we are, and when we see people who are suffering in their trial we should be able to come alongside them and share in the joy of their trial and celebrate that they too are being shaped, instead of us looking down on them as though the trial is a problem they brought on themselves. Can we learn to love the touch of the Creator in our lives when He works through the trials that come our way to chip off our rough edges and reveal the hidden diamond that is there below the surface? Can we learn to count it a joy when we are found worthy to suffer what this life brings our way in order to enter the next life a radiant gemstone worthy of a place in the Creators house, or are we going to continue to fight against the Potter’s hands in order to try and find our own version of temporary happiness? This is what I see as one of the great challenges of this age, we no longer find pleasure in the things our Creator does and so we become oppositional to the things that He is lovingly trying to do in our life. “Count it ALL joy” easy words, but to live them will take a complete transformation on how we look at this life and our place in it. If we can’t be willing participants in the process of transformation then we are not going to find many moments of joy, and in today’s world that is a sad tale as we are in desperate need of a people who are filled with real joy.

More than ever as our societies drift away from what made them great we need to find the source of all joy. We must transform the way we look at this life from one of mere endurance to one of joy. If the world is ever going to look at us again as a source of hope then we as God’s people are going to have to change how we move through this life. Can we truly be a people that count all that this life has to offer us, the ups and the downs, as a joy? Can we once again learn to love the Potter’s hand as we are being shaped as much as we love His hands when the good times come? Our days are short on this earth, and all we do here will echo with us in eternity; so let us with all the haste due those called by the Master earnestly seek to change how we see this life, that we may once again be the salt and the light, and once again be the overcomers that we are called to be. A people who once again walk the earth with the knowledge of the true source of joy, and a people who can once again inspire hope to the hopeless.

Shalom

Jay