Trials of many kinds…

It was 12:30 am and the pressures of my life were getting to me.

I had had a “bad day.” Nothing tragic had happened – in fact I was relieved because my friend Heather’s brain surgery had been a success and she was in recovery, working on coming out of her anesthetic. I had been on edge all week, praying and crying, and I should have felt huge waves of joy and gratitude with the wonderful news. But instead I was weary and worn out and the challenges of my day personally were tearing me down. I felt defeated and depressed.

I clicked over to Heather’s to check for the latest update. Mark, Heather’s husband, had posted. Along with good news of Heather’s progress, he included this passage James 1:2-12, quoted from The Message.

“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don’t ever count on it. You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that’s a picture of the “prosperous life.” At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.

Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.” James 1:2-12, The Message.

I had gone to Heather’s site feeling guilty that I was allowing my life’s challenges to get me down when people like Heather and Mark were going through so much bigger trials.

But as I read the verses, it hit me that my challenges and difficulties, no matter the size, are still vital to what God is teaching me and doing in my life. It is how I respond to these pressures that matters.

Sometimes when our challenges are really big, we meet them head on, aware that we are being tested. But in the every day, stressed out moments of life, sometimes the trials seem so small, hidden in the framework of our lives, that we barely notice they are there. We just feel the pressure slowly building until suddenly they have defeated us – a covert attack on our spirit.

The words from James reminded me to look at all of the different challenges life brings me – from life and death matters, to parenting frustrations, to work and financial stresses – as opportunities to strengthen my faith and persevere through the strength and grace of God, while keeping His eternal perspective.

When I faced my years of illness in my late teens and early twenties, these verses from James were some of my life verses. The challenges for me were obvious back then.

Now as a weary mother, facing the challenges of parenting, finances, health and work, sometimes I forget to take on my challenges in the same light. Somehow, I seem to tell myself I should be able to handle it all and I try to take it all on with my own strength.

But I can’t do that. Nor should I want to. I need to accept my trials, the big and the small, take them to the Lord and rejoice that when I have stood the test, I will receive the crown of life promised to me.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the teasting of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything…

Blessed is the man (or mom!) who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” James 1:2-4 and 12 NIV (parenthesis mine)

What trials in your life are quietly threatening to steal your joy? Right now is it the big challenges in life or the everyday stresses that are testing you? What has helped you to “persevere under trial?”