Consider it Joy
Part 2 of the Bandaid Encouragements Series.
To refresh your memory, or catch you up, bandaid encouragements are those quotes, verses, and cliches that people love to slap on our suffering in an attempt to make us feel better. But, they don’t usually make us feel better; they feel like shallow attempts at comfort.
In this series, our goal is to critically think through these verses and cliches to determine whether they are accurate reflections of real life, and to shift our perspective in how we interpret them.
In Part 1 we talked about how resiliency produces the strength we need to endure hardships. This week and next week we will talk about two major components that create resiliency. The first component is wisdom.
James 1:2-4 in the Bible says,
“Consider it a great joy, my brothers [or sisters], whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”
James is one of the books of the Bible where we see a lot of wisdom (James was Jesus’ half brother after all). You may be reading the above verses though and wondering: how wise was he really if he’s telling people that they should be happy when terrible things happen? That mentality seems to be lacking wisdom, and feels insensitive towards people’s pain.
Naturally, we cringe when we hear “consider it a great joy” in our moments of very-much-NOT joy. It’s as if we’re being told to suppress or ignore the hurt we feel. “Why are you depressed? You’re still alive aren’t you? Get rid of that sadness and replace it with joy!” It leaves us no room for grief, or questions, or the task of processing our emotions.
Many of us grew up in an era of church where we believed that certain emotions were negative, should be given no extra thought, and needed to be removed immediately. It was taught that the only way to remove these emotions was to pray them away and replace them with positive ones. Verses like these ones in James have been used as a weapon to cast off negative emotions, but it often didn’t work. Hence, our visceral reaction to hearing the verses now.
Any good therapist today will tell you that suppressing or ignoring emotions does not enable us to rid them from our mind and body. It’s through processing emotions that we can work towards releasing them and replacing them. Feeling and processing emotions is a healthy, important part of life.
So if we can’t simply rid ourselves of sadness or hurt, and we know it’s not healthy to suppress or ignore these feelings, then what do we do with these verses in James? Is this passage even applicable to us today?
If we study the book of James we see that his writings are a combination of the teachings he heard from Jesus and the wisdom that’s found in the book of Proverbs. He’s not teaching any new theology or new ideas here.
Additionally, James is writing this book to the Christians of the early church who are being socially and physically persecuted for believing that Jesus was the Messiah. The Roman Empire and the religious leaders (the one’s who didn’t follow Jesus), wanted to squash any trace of Christianity from the world.
What James is trying to do is encourage these Christians to cling to their faith-to not let it be destroyed in the midst of what they’re facing. He is reminding them of the teachings of Jesus that they’ve already heard and chosen to follow. Teachings that explicitly state there will be suffering in this world, but that we will be given strength and endurance to withstand the suffering.
James does not scold the believers, nor does he tell them to suck it up and be happy as they face possible martyrdom. He offers wisdom that reveals to them the positive effects of choosing joy when facing trials.
If you look at verses 3 and 4 it says, “knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”
James doesn’t just tell them to consider joy in verse 2 and then moves on; he tells them WHY they should consider joy in verses 3 and 4.
“Consider it joy…when you face various trials”.
Why?
“knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance…so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”
The people are reminded that trials are not useless or hopeless. Rather, trials provide a way to test our faith —> which produces endurance —> which leads us to maturity —> which leads us to a place of wholeness.
But the only way they can confidently choose joy, the only way this encouragement from James works, is if the people are also confident in knowing what choosing joy will mean for them.
See, for all of us, to be able to consider joy when we face trials, we have to have the basis of knowledge of what the trial is producing in us. None of us are going to be inspired to choose joy over anger in moments of pain unless we first have a knowledge of the positive things that can be produced from the pain.
This right here is the wisdom of James’ writing!
To consider it joy when we face trials is to learn to have a perspective beyond the current pain we feel. A perspective not rooted in blind faith, but in wisdom.
At this point you may still be asking, “But what do I do with my anger and my sadness in trials? Does a renewed perspective mean that I’ll automatically have joy when a trial comes?”
Sorry, but no. Wisdom does not alter our emotions in painful situations, but it does allow us to manage those emotions in a better way. Joy will not be an auto-response to trials, ever… But look back with me at the very beginning of the passage in James. What’s the first word? “Consider”.
Maybe James isn’t implying that it’s easy or natural to have joy in trials. Maybe he’s pleading with us to just consider choosing joy. James knows the hardships of life-he himself ends up being killed for the gospel. But James has also experienced the wholeness in his heart, mind, and soul that comes as a result of the trials he’s lived through.
I imagine James writing this passage with the passion and care of a good leader and friend:
“Guys, please just take a second to consider the thought that this trial has the opportunity to produce in you a new heart, a renewed mind, a wiser self, a more compassionate humanity. I know that if you cling to your faith in this hard time God will not fail you! I know that He can bring you to a place where you can still have joy, peace, and hope even when fear, anger, and sadness are present in your circumstance. Just consider the possibility of what good and beautiful things God can produce in you and in others through this trial.”
This is my plea to you as well.
I know it’s not easy to make the choice of joy over anger, sadness, hurt, resentment, or any other primary emotions in our pain. But I’m begging you to just consider the idea that something good can eventually come from the trials in your life! Because I know the freedom, the peace of mind, the comfort, the strength, and the resiliency that comes from choosing joy in our pain; and I so desperately long for you to know and experience these things in your own life.
Can you do that for me? Can you assess the lives of others who have made that choice and allow that to encourage you to even consider the idea of choosing joy in your own trials?
I know you can, and I’m in your corner.
-Stephanie Lauren Auman
