When you have a baby...now that’s pure joy. When church members bring you food so you don’t have to cook . . .ahh, pure joy. When my son steals a ball and makes a layup or when Samer Tohmy improves his jumpshot . . . pure joy. Basically, anything good that happens to ME or the PEOPLE I LIKE are things that fit my description of “pure joy.”
Yet James tells us, “consider it pure joy my brothers . . . when you face TRIALS and TEMPTATIONS of many kinds.” What’s that supposed to mean? When I get cut off in traffic . . . “Pure joy.” When my neighbor complains about my dog barking . . . “Pure joy.” When a raccoon bites me . . . “Pure joy.” (Sorry, Julie!) When something bad happens to my children . . . “Pure joy.”
Now that’s some pretty hard line advice. If we think of James’ advice as a haughty slap upside the head to all spiritual slackers, then it’s a little hard to swallow. James has been read for too long as a series of little pithy bumper stickers for macho Christians like . . . “when the going gets tough . . .” But when we think of James’ admonition as the wise words of a man who had faced his fair share of “trials and temptations of many kinds . . .” then we see that he is standing alongside us. He is saying, “I’m old and strong and mature now, and I got there by being tested. I got here by persevering . . . not necessarily by being perfect or by being excellent.”
I think it is encouraging to read James and not feel pressured or burdened to “feel pure joy” when the raccoon bites us (or whatever random crazy things come along), but rather to “consider it pure joy” to have persevered the encounter with faith not only intact, but enhanced. Otherwise we are caught in a trap where the only joy we can feel is when something really good happens to us or the people we like . . . which Jesus reminds us, isn’t any different than the rest of the world we are trying to reach.
Yet James tells us, “consider it pure joy my brothers . . . when you face TRIALS and TEMPTATIONS of many kinds.” What’s that supposed to mean? When I get cut off in traffic . . . “Pure joy.” When my neighbor complains about my dog barking . . . “Pure joy.” When a raccoon bites me . . . “Pure joy.” (Sorry, Julie!) When something bad happens to my children . . . “Pure joy.”
Now that’s some pretty hard line advice. If we think of James’ advice as a haughty slap upside the head to all spiritual slackers, then it’s a little hard to swallow. James has been read for too long as a series of little pithy bumper stickers for macho Christians like . . . “when the going gets tough . . .” But when we think of James’ admonition as the wise words of a man who had faced his fair share of “trials and temptations of many kinds . . .” then we see that he is standing alongside us. He is saying, “I’m old and strong and mature now, and I got there by being tested. I got here by persevering . . . not necessarily by being perfect or by being excellent.”
I think it is encouraging to read James and not feel pressured or burdened to “feel pure joy” when the raccoon bites us (or whatever random crazy things come along), but rather to “consider it pure joy” to have persevered the encounter with faith not only intact, but enhanced. Otherwise we are caught in a trap where the only joy we can feel is when something really good happens to us or the people we like . . . which Jesus reminds us, isn’t any different than the rest of the world we are trying to reach.
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