Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more