Turn Up the Heat

Well the heat has officially arrived
here in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala and so has the sweat. Its starting
to really feel like the World Race. It is definitely baptism by fire
out here for us Americans. On top of the heat we all seem to be
getting sick with various things and we have even had a couple trips
to the hospital, a surgery, and a bunch of stomach issues and head
colds. I know this sounds pretty bad but we really are doing ok and
pressing on. It really just brings me back to that frustrating verse
in James about counting it all joy and such. I think it is easy for
us (yes I am guilty) to read this passage as “when your life sucks,
too bad, just be happy about it.” Ok so maybe I am the only one who
has seen it that way but this is my blog so I’m gonna talk about it
anyway;-)

Here is the verse I am talking about. I
am sure you remember it:

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various
trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect
and complete lacking in nothing.”

James 1:2-4

The
Lord has been teaching me a lot about the real meaning and
significance behind this statement. I don’t think that James is
really saying you are supposed to like the trials, but rather be glad
when the trials come because of what they mean and the result they
are going to have for you. This is really about attitude.

We
know that we are out here to bring Love and Hope to people who don’t
have much and we know that the Enemy doesn’t like this idea. So he
brings his fire and hits us with anything he can: heat, head aches,
fevers, sinus infections, kidney stones, appendix that needs to be
removed… (yes we have had all of these so far) And his intended
result for these things is to get us to worry about ourselves, our
own well being, give up and go home. This could very easily be our
reaction to these things. “Well this is hard and my well being is
at risk so I better get myself back to my safe comfortable place.”
Or if we do stick it out we could still do it and not gain anything
for it. “Well I’m staying out here but OH It’s sooo miserable!!!”
This isn’t gonna help us or anyone around us. What about the people
we are supposed to be serving and ministering to? What about the fact
that this is their home and they don’t have anywhere else to go. If
we let the trials scare us off, or we let the discomfort of the
situation to make us un-joyful, unloving, and just not really full of
hope (the very things we are supposed to be bringing to the
situation) than who will these people have to help them?

“But
there are more forces at work in this world, Frodo, than just the
will of evil.” (Sorry, just watched Lord of the Rings so I had to
throw in a quote there) Why is the Lord saying this about joy and
trials in the first place? He is giving us a clue into things that He
sees that we cannot, things that are eternal. When we encounter the
trials that the enemy puts in our path, it is a reason to be excited.
Because clearly what we might accomplish if we do not get derailed is
something the enemy does not want to see. So James is saying to have
joy when the enemy fights us because it means we are winning and that
if we hang in there and push through his obstacles than our faith
will be strengthened and we will become more perfect, the very thing
the evil one fights to stop.