James 1:2-4 Experiencing pain, anticipating gain 2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. “Consider it all joy” The word “consider” is an accounting term. A bookkeeper records a transaction in the plus column as income and profit. “Hurrah for the big sale today!” Or as a cost in the negative column. “Man, those repairs put a big dent in our budget.” James says that when we encounter distress or pain, “the trial of our faith”, that we should chalk it up on the plus side, count it as a cause to anticipate a profit to your soul. It is not a natural thing to consider distress and pain as a reason to rejoice. How might we begin to understand this command? Did you know that the way you interpret distress and pain has a tremendous influence on the way you EXPERIENCE pain? “The brain has discretion in how pain is perceived … fear of the dentist’s drill and the joy of childbirth each alter pain, in entirely different directions.” – Daniel Goleman Pain has a role in our lives, a redemptive role. Put your hand too close to the fire, you feel the heat, the physical pain and you withdraw. Offend your friend or family through selfishness, you sense their emotional pain and are moved by compassion and love to make amends and to restore the relationship. What if you are offended distressed or hurt by your friend or family; or on the job, at school, or on the playground? Distress happens. Pain, distress, suffering, loss will be felt. It is as inevitable as the sunrise and sunset. Sometimes the pain will be imposed on others because of us. Sometimes we will suffer, and wonder why? When distress is encountered, when our faith is sorely tried what will be effects on me and mine, what will be the duration, and what will be the outcome? James says that when distress is encountered, remember that you have a choice to make. When pain arrives, anticipate that God is present. God is aware. God is concerned for you. And that the sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient God of the Universe will give you endurance bring you through it for your good. So much of our experience of distress and pain is determined by how we respond to the distress. Will we interpret pain positively and believe by faith that the pain will produce good? Or do we believe that the pain and distress are evil and to be avoided at all costs? Wayne Muller begins to explain pain in his book, LEGACY OF THE HEART (p.1,2). “How do we understand pain? … distress come(s) in my forms, and we react … in a variety of ways. More important, our beliefs about the nature of pain can (alter) our response to our own suffering. If we feel the pain we are given is a violation or mistreatment – if we feel pain as an injustice – then we harden ourselves, fight against it, and fill with anger and rage at the person or situation that caused us hurt. On the other hand, if we believe that the particular pain is the one that will push the baby out of the womb and into our arms, we somehow try to make a place for that pain in our heart. Pain is still there: excruciating, terrible pain. But at the moment of birth, we rarely feel betrayal or rage; we somehow feel that this is simply pain that has come with life. Your mental response and attitudes on your ability to ENDURE and PERSEVERE through the distress and pain. 4 And let endurance have its perfect [f]result, so that you may be • perfect • and complete, lacking in nothing. A lesson from my Mother: that I needed to work during those long hot summers as a teen. We had food and shelter, the necessities of life. Why did I NEED to work? I did not realize the endurance and maturity that distress and pain were producing in me. But I trusted Mom and obeyed and persevered daily for the first time in my life. I really liked it when I got my paycheck, small as it was. I profited from it in my career as I employed those character lessons learned during those early difficult, distressing, sometimes painful jobs. In the midst of your distress, trust that God will bring good out of it within you, and bring you through it stronger than before, with a strengthened faith and joy in the Lord. That is always something about which we can rejoice. The joy of the Lord.
Posted on: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 13:53:29 +0000
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