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Consider It All Joy?


Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,  because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:2-4) 

          Rejoice. Talk about joy. Uh huh. Right. I am still seething about things that happened at the dog park, when the owners of other dogs couldn’t be bothered to respond: first to a squabble with my dog over a frisbee and second to the fact that his dog was harassing mine. Yes, Grace should not have gone after the other dog’s toy, and I yelled at her and was heading over, but the other dog’s owner just sat there. Mind you, the other dog was bigger and Grace was losing so what does it matter? The other one, though had no excuse. Grace and I left the park because I had the choice to leave the park or kick the dog. By the way, Grace seems to be fine physically, though she had a fright and she’s responding to other dogs with “Leave me alone.
          But I’m supposed to be writing about joy. On the way to the park, I was thinking about a poem, which I may still write. It had to do with joy not being found living in fine, fancy homes with lots of toys. That’s as far as I got. But it’s the truth. Joy is does not live in wealth, or at least, it doesn’t live only in wealth. It cannot only be found in Stepford, where true humanity is replaced with artificial perfection. The backwards or upside-down thing is that joy is not found in the places we think it will be found.
          Instead, joy tends to peak out between battles, disasters and raging storms. It seems to whisper and giggle amid the shouting. It’s a flower dancing in the rain. It’s a fire crackling in the hearth while a blizzard rages outside. I’ve said before that joy is an understanding, a deep sense that you are loved, cared for, and safe or that things will be OK. It is felt most clearly or intensely when one does not have a lot of stuff around that masquerades for it.
           Today’s passage says to consider it joy when you encounter trials because of what trials do in our lives. I tend to think that the trials James was writing about were religious persecution; you know, “suffering for Christ’s sake.” Irresponsible, inconsiderate people and their rude dogs at a dog park, we’re supposed to be above all that. It’s not supposed to even be on our radar when we think about trials or testing. Some less than loving words escaped my mouth (“Flaming idiot”) and some even less loving thoughts of retaliation have been wandering through my mind. There is no joy in those, but as I learn how to deal with them better, there will be joy in that victory.

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