A widowed mother of eleven sits in her 15×8 shack unable to nurse her youngest infant because of her sickness and smiles broadly as she confesses complete faith that God will provide for her family’s next meal.
In
China, the pastor of an underground church lives with the constant threat of arrest and likely death for his treasonous proselytizing endeavors.
Yet, he pleads for Christians around the world not to pray for the cessation of such heinous persecution.
His rationale? The Chinese church has never been more passionate or more pure.
James 1:2-4 says Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything.
The paradox of this passage is completely counter-intuitive.
Words such as trials, testing and perseverance do not often carry joyful connotations.
In fact, they are typically words associated with suffering and hardship – neither of which promise celebrative outcomes.
Yet, principle exists deep within this charge.
Consider the statement: He who has everything needs nothing.
The simplicity and apparent redundancy of this statement should not be discarded before pragmatic application is sought.
As a white, middle-class American child, I grew up with want for nothing.
I never missed a meal (and enjoyed many of them), I had clean clothes that fit, a family that loved me, friends to play with and entertainment outlets virtually anytime I wanted them.
In short, I needed nothing.
Fast forward twenty years and see a similar life of a young, attractive college graduate embarking on a career trek where the sky is the limit.
An attractive girlfriend, new car, prestigious social circle and the like are but scratching the surface of all that life holds for this fortunate young man.
Who is to convince him of his desperate need for a savior?
Who is to say that the happiness he feels is, in actuality, lacking at its very core?
For the Christian, this principle rings true as well.
The easiest times, the most comfortable, rob us of desperation for the presence of God.
How often do we go about our lives, eating our meals, driving our cars, swiping the credit card for anything that meets our fancy only to have rushed, obligatory, mediocre times spent with our Creator (assuming we remember to in the first place)?
Yet, the absence of basic needs, relationships that are difficult and outside our control and environments that are spiritually oppressed or attacked are all times of suffering that invoke within us a desperation for the presence of God.
How clear Gods voice in the storm.
How close is His touch in the battle.
Discovering desperation in comfort is a battle few realize they are fighting.
Those extravagantly blessed often pity those in need.
Yet, the faith of those suffering, the faith I gain when forced to run to the arms of my father, shames any substitute the world has to offer.
I do not enjoy suffering, but I like who I become when I am in the midst of it.
View from San Juan on Lake Atitlan
