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From James

             Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. (James 1:2-3)

The phone rings. You pick it up and the voice on the other end says, “It’s ____ (your neighbor.) Get out of your house! It’s on fire!”

There are times and reasons when an abrupt beginning is necessary. James may not have had time to write a longer letter, or the situation might have been that dire. I think it more likely that James was just that sort of person. He didn’t want to waste their time with platitudes or give them cause to misunderstand what he was trying to say. He begins his letter,

From James.

To the Twelve Tribes.

Hi.

Trials are good for you.

The Twelve Tribes were used to all sorts of trials: slavery under Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Iran (Medes and Persians), and the Greeks, inconvenient commandments, famine, drought, and poverty. Like most of us, they tended to think trials were the bad things that happened to punish them. But James cuts right to the punch line out of the gate with “Consider it all joy when you face trials…”  

Joy? JOY?

I suspect we’ve all read this verse many times. But then something happens that doesn’t please us, and whatever your habit is, mine is to start examining Exhibit Me. What am I doing wrong? For what am I being punished? Why can’t I get anything right?

You may have already heard my adventures of the last couple of days. I went to a state park and didn’t take any share-worthy pictures. I went to donate blood and found out I probably won’t be allowed. They’re testing by blood, but there’s a historical issue (not my fault) and I have arthritis, so I’m waiting to hear. Tiny, insignificant, miniscule, unworthy of the label, trial, but the prayer goes out, “Lord, what’s wrong with me that these things are happening? Why can’t I? Why aren’t I?”

And this verse may suggest that God’s answer is, “What are you talking about? I’m blessing your socks off!” Because His goal isn’t to give us things to treasure, it’s to turn us into treasures. And quite a few gems are created either with intense pressure or intense heat. The good stories are the ones in which there is conflict, opposition, and struggle. And the best people are the ones whose names you’ve probably never heard, but they have learned the lesson of today’s passage.

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