Eye of the Beholder

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds" ~ James 1:2

I do not know about you, but the words “joy” and “trials” in the same sentence do not seem to be the best of matches, especially without a word like “no” or some other similar in there someplace.  For, like most people (I strongly suspect), I tend to focus more on the waves of the storm than on whatever God is doing in the midst of it far too often.

Granted, I am quite blessed that God has allowed me quite often to see the purpose in various life events, both good and bad ones, although more often than not, that is in hindsight and not in the midst of “whatever”.  Not to say that He does not show me, or anyone else, what is going on sometimes while we are in the middle of it.  Sometimes He does.  I suspect it is because of the importance of it and knowing that if we do not do it then, we probably are not going to be overly willing to do it later.  Like getting a tooth pulled, a splinter taken out or a Band-Aid ripped off sometimes we just have to get it done then and there before our nerves give out on us.

But what about well after the fact?  I do not mean a few days later, but rather, weeks, months or even years after we have gone through a somewhat unpleasant event (or extremely unpleasant) in our lives.  What do we see then?

Let’s be honest, we tend to recall the pain of the moment and perhaps even briefly relive a bad memory.  Maybe we even go so far as to have it influence our here and now and how we interact with other people or even God.  Hardly ranks as “pure joy”, to be sure.  We have all lived the lives we have.  We all have memories of past events that are far less than pleasant and no matter how much we may want to, we cannot erase those memories.  Perhaps though, it is our perspective that is the problem and not the memory itself.

What if we were to focus on God rather than the pain?  What if, rather than dwelling upon the circumstances of the moment, instead we focus on what God did in that moment or afterward and through it?  Instead of remembering pain and misery, we glorify our Lord for whatever victory He brought to us in the aftermath.  After all, how many of us can honestly say that we cannot relate to the phrase “thank God for unanswered prayers” since He could so obviously see a future that we could not at the time but now that we have lived (or are living) it would not change a thing.

Maybe, just maybe, there is indeed joy to found in the trial; if not in the moment, then in the memory.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  (1Cor. 13:14)

PS:  thank you Patty for listening to His voice and helping to inspire this post.