James 1:1-3

James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes of Israel which are scattered abroad:  Greetings.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

What a radical way to view trials:  Count it all joy.   Can we do it?  Is it possible?

And more importantly, why would we do this?

I am not someone who has fallen into many circumstantial trials.  I have friends who have suffered blow after blow to their bank accounts, families, cars, homes, children, jobs, relationships, and bodies.  I thank God in lots of ways for sparing me from much of that kind of trial.

But at times, I have thought that perhaps deliverance would have been easier if my trials were so exterior, so tangible.  Instead, I have had to fight my battles on the inside.  A relentless, blood bath of a war with falling to temptation and every evil desire of my heart, mind, and tongue.

And so, why are we called to count it all joy when were are in the midst of these battles?

In my experience, it is because only at those times can I receive the Truth the way its intended to be received.

I believe a real life illustration is needed at this point …

I was raised in a family where it was deemed better to be tough.  I don’t know where that warped perspective comes from, but I grew up in the midst of it and there it is.  The problem is that we then try to hide our discomfort or hurt or pain at all costs so we are not seen as being “weak.”  As a kid, I had no idea why I was playing soccer games on a broken leg, or ripping off my wrist cast in the car before a big tournament, or using part of a broken hockey stick to splint my knee before an all-state hockey game.  I guess I thought it was winning me approval with all the other people who seemed to agree that “being tough” is better than being weak.

But eventually, the outward, physical infirmities that are brushed off like this start to carry over to the internal issues.  As I experienced it, it became weakness to cry when a friend wasn’t kind to me, to get upset when my parents were getting divorced, to be sad when a relationship ended.  Showing emotion became, in my mind, showing that I wasn’t able to handle my life.

Essentially, it was PRIDE.  Which is SIN.

Jesus says in Luke 5:31:  “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”  I don’t want to mis-interpret God’s Word, or put my own words in the place of His own, but I think that what He might be saying here is that “those who ‘think’ they are well have no need of a physician, but those who ‘know’ they are sick.”

As we read in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  So, if we are all sick, then when Jesus says, “those who are well,” He must not be talking about anyone.  Except Himself.  Unless He is including “those who ‘think’ they are well.”

That was me for a long, long time.  Toughness, a strong exterior, pride:  they were all inhibitors to receiving salvation because I was convinced that by being strong, I was doing okay.

But nothing could be further from the Truth.  He came to save, to heal, to be our one and only Physician!  We can’t receive what He offers if we think that we are doing okay!  And that is why I think that we are to count it all joy when we fall into various trials:  because when we are in touch with our weakness, only there can we be ministered to.

While being in a constant battle with trials — external or internal — is exhausting and at times discouraging, it is the place where our God meets us and that, I think, is why we can receive it with joy.

So yes, it is possible:  sing with all joy when you tell another lie, or when your money gets stolen from online hackers, or when your kids have a major meltdown in the Target check-out line, or when your neighbor is plagued with grief!  These trials are there for us to be delivered, again and again, in knowing that the Lord desires us to be weak — yet expectant and full of life — in a world filled with desolate toughness.