J: Joy

The word I originally wrote down for today is joy. I tried all day yesterday to find a different ‘j’ word. Part of the reason I struggled was related to the verse that automatically comes to my mind when I think of joy is James 1:2. I learned that verse: count it all joy, my brothers, when you face all kinds of trials. Now that may not be any “version” exactly, but that’s because I was raised on RSV, grabbed LB as a new believer, used the NIV as a pastor for over 20 years, came to like the NRSV, and have spent the last ten years using the NLT. Sprinkle in there a liberal dabbling with The Message and you see why I’m not much of a memorizer.

What I realized as I read and studied the verse is that I was putting a period in the middle of the sentence. By putting a period in the middle I was reading that I was supposed to be joy-full when I was being tried, as if going through difficult was a good thing. Well, in a way it is, but God is not about difficulty and trials for difficulty and trials sake. God doesn’t not look down on his people and play a let’s make them miserable game. There’s a point and that’s the part we miss if we stop, put the period, too soon.

Read the whole thought: 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (Today’s New International Version) It appears that James wants to understand that the point or purpose to trials is to mature us and complete us so that we will not lack anything. And we shouldn’t try to short circuit the trial, because then we will come away without the thing that God wants us to have.

We have a God who can work things out for good. I’m not much of a cook, and that’s probably overstating it. Over the years we’ve had to learn how to take the results of my efforts and turn it into something edible. Most recently, I was trying to make cornbread for a soup supper at church. Nelson had made some wonderful chili and my job was to take the batter (which he had already prepared) and bake them. I sprayed the pans, but the muffins refused to come out. I had a bowl full of cornbread crumbles. We took them to the meal and I was quite apologetic. Everybody loved them. They went perfectly right into the chili: no muss, no fuss.

Going through a difficult time? Facing the trial of your life? Have you considered how much God loves and trusts you, and wants you to be mature and complete? Don’t circumvent his plan. He has you right where he wants you. He wants to give you everything that you need.

Quite often people quote Jeremiah 29:11 to their friends who are facing unbelievable trials, or they grab onto it to bolster their own faith. It truly is a powerful verse. But I would challenge you to go put it in context of at least the whole chapter. Keep in mind these folks were captives in exile and God told them to settle in, build homes, and trust him because he really did have a plan and purpose in all this. It wasn’t going to be easy, but they were to hang on because he would bring them home. Maybe not the way they wanted, but they would come home.

When Jesus was talking to his disciples at the end of his life, he was aware that things were going to get tough for them. Some would lose their lives because of their faith. John records that final time together and in the chapter on abiding and pruning, there are these words: I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete (John 15:11). There’s that same trio: joy, trial, and completeness.

So keep the period where it belongs, at the end of the thought. Hold on, and rejoice that he considers you worthy of completion.