A time for Joy

This and the next few entries are inspired by my reading from James.
I have been reading this book in a time in my life where my future is pretty well only a day at a time and not much is in sight. Not that I am by any means doing it tough, no, but a lack of consistent vision and goal has been frustrating me to no end. I'm sure as you have your own problems or worries, trials or tribulations, most probably far more significant than my lack of vision. However we all know the saying, "size doesn't matter"  

 James 1: 2-4
" ² Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. ³ For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. ⁴ So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing."

Don't you just love life....when its perfect, job is going great, your getting along with the missus or just loving having single as your facebook relationship status (with a few likes), your tight with God, money isn't a problem, car is running well, your healthy..... Basically your at the top of a mountain or maybe a plateau and everything is just peachy....

Don't you just find life such a drag when only one of those things above is starting to cause you to slip off the mountain. Then all of a sudden it seems that we are falling off that mountain faster than you can like something on facebook and BAM! rock bottom. Then out of no where everything hits us. We are struggling at work, car sucks, money is no where to be seen (expect for our tax shouting the boys on the dole at the pub a few) and you start fighting with your friends. One look and it seems that you left the part about being tight with God on the mountain and forgot to anchor life down to that so that when you fall off that mountain (and we always fall) our ropes are tied tight to the unmoving anchor of God. Just me? or is this the recipe for life that normally cooks to perfection but hardly tastes sweet.

When I was reading this vs about counting the troubles of life and the tests of life as an opportunity for joy I was slightly taken aback. To be falling off the mountain there is only one way to count any of the crap life throws at us with joy, to be anchored in our faith. Like say we are on the mountain of life and fall off it...dragged over by our car  insurance and phone bill.... we crash down to the ground and should die but cause its a metaphor we just hit the ground hard and there is not a iota of joy in the experience. But if we tie off first bam that jump turns into a face first adrenaline pumping abseil down the mountain only to hit the ground with confidence and a light step. 2 scenarios that have only one difference, our anchor point in life.

In my faith I was challenged because I was having a dodgy attitude to my circumstances.  It hit me that where I am is just the next step in my faith, in my life. That I should count it a joy to be abseiling off the mountain top of life because it meant I was strapped in safe and sound to God who wasn't going to let me drop and die and was going to lower me down at a rate no faster than I can handle.

Its in the first few steps over the side of the mountain when your abseiling that are the worst. Its the crunch time of will it hold or not. Am I walking to my death willingly? When we got God we can march over that mountain top strapped in and embrace life and what it throws with confidence that our anchor is at the top so when we are finished we can climb straight back up.

Its not to make light of our circumstances or forget about them, but for me this idea of counting trials a joy it means keeping my focus where it counts on God, and working through the uncomfortable times, knowing that its in the fire we are refined.

I wanna finish this line of thought with what is said in vs 12-18,

" ¹² God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. ¹³ And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. ¹⁴ Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. ¹⁵ These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.  ¹⁶ So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. ¹⁸ He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

I love that through the trials and as we are going over the mountain top we can know its all worth it. That for everything we endure we become that little bit more refined. That each day that goes by we can count our challenges with Joy because we know our anchor is God. Just as it says in vs 17, God wont change, he wont let go, no matter how long we are off the top he wont move. For me this is the one real constant in my life, God. And at the end of the day when its all said and done we will be made like him in his perfection. Today I am challenged to live a life that counts my trials with joy not because its easy, not because the trials are not real but because I'm anchored to the top of the mountain by God. I pray that wherever you are, in what ever circumstance you would be blessed abundantly and strengthened to keep running the race and replenished to keep enduring your trials but most of all that you would find a joy in your suffering, peace in your circumstances and new life so free in the one who made you.

x C