Crowns

             Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. (James 1:12)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.  (John 17:3)

          Today’s Biblegateway.com verse harkens back to Monday’s passage and the discussion of the condition of being blessed as not being magical. I suspect that it’s not that God sprinkles blessings down on people after they’ve persevered under trial or somehow proven that they love Him. Rather, it’s that those who love Him already have the crown of life. That’s what the verses in John make clear.

          The trials under which we must persevere aren’t to earn God’s blessing of eternal life. They are a consequence of having the blessing of eternal life, and ultimately, they reveal the nature of that eternal life. And just as building and maintaining endurance is part of being physically healthy, so building and maintaining endurance is part of being spiritually healthy. The problem we often perceive is that building muscle requires that we go beyond what we thought we could.

Building endurance is the same. We may pat ourselves on the back for enduring something in a way we think is well, but if we don’t keep enduring it, or enduring more, we’re likely to lose the endurance for which we’ve patted ourselves on the back. I used to run 6.5 miles per day, five days a week. Then I walked it. Now I can’t walk it. I used to endure the discipline that got my weight down to healthy levels. Now I can’t seem to endure the discipline to lose ten pounds. The same happens spiritually. What we don’t use, we lose.

Something else comes to mind with this passage: the crown. It might be a literal spiritual crown of some sort, but I suspect that the crown is life itself. I’ve never worn a crown, but I’ve worn headbands, hats, scarves, facemasks, and earphones. I suspect I fidget with them more than I realize. For that matter, I fidget with my hair, especially if it’s not in a bun or ponytail. I can only imagine that if I were given a crown and told to wear it, I’d fidget with it, put it on, take it off, and possibly even find it irritating. Can you get a crown blister? I suspect so. And wearing a crown tends to mean having to behave properly. At first, at least, we’re likely to be very conscious of it. After a few months, it’s old hat and we’re likely to even neglect to care for it or to reach the conclusion that it’s not a very nice crown.

But what we may decide is no better than a piece of ribbon tied around our heads may become dear to us. We may find ourselves enduring for the sake of the crown. Someday, we may take a look in the mirror and rediscover just how beautiful it is (or perhaps that it has become.)