Considering Pure Joy...

Well, I guess that I should explain something about the title of this blog site.  So, let me tell you a story and probably the biggest thing I have been learning through this journey so far...

It was probably two days after I had gotten out of the hospital after my surgery.  I woke up that morning and had this feeling (which I believe was the Lord speaking to me) that I needed to start reading James in the Bible.  It did not take long before I discovered why I had this feeling.  James 1:2-4 says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  I had read this verse many times before all of this, but this reading was different. 

This time it seemed so much more relevant and confusing at the same time.  First, who likes to face trials, and so how can you "consider it pure joy?"  Now, it may be focusing on completion through perseverance, but that comes in the future.  I get the sense that James is telling us to "consider it pure joy" right now.  So, I had to ask, "Lord, I have read by this so many times, but now I ask how I am to live this verse out?"  Then, I believe He began to show me...

Something began to make sense to me.  It seems that it is often through our hardest moments in life that we experience 2 things (however, this list is certainly not exhaustive):

1. We possibly see God glorified in our lives in a bigger way than we saw before.
2. We possibly find ourselves drawn closer to God than we found before.

Therefore, it dawned on me that when we travel through the hardest moments and toughest trials in our lives, we have an opportunity before us...and we can take it or leave it.  It is the opportunity to glorify God and draw closer to Him than we had before.  So, if we have chosen and God has chosen us to live fully for Him, what more could we honestly want.  Isn't glorifying God and drawing closer to Him (i.e. enjoying Him) enough?  Couldn't it be possible to "consider it pure joy" that we had been given that opportunity?

To take it a little deeper, I can remember hearing a pastor who had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer call his cancer a "privilege" given by God.  This made no sense to me when I heard it.  How could you consider cancer a "privilege?"  Well, I have been able to make more sense of this now as I have experienced probably the hardest trial I have yet faced.  There are few greater privileges and blessings than to be given a greater opportunity to glorify God and enjoy Him more.

Now, please allow me to preach a little bit and offer a challenge.  The verse does not say to consider it pure joy when you get cancer, but when you face "trials of many kinds."  This means that almost all of us can find this greater opportunity in our lives right now.  You are probably going through something tough as you read this, whether it is big or small.  No matter the trial, you have an opportunity before you.  Will you choose to find a way through your trial to glorify God and enjoy Him more?  Or will you miss the opportunity?

I choose to see my Lord glorified through this mess and hopefully enjoy Him more than I ever have before!  I think that "pure joy" can certainly be found in that as He teaches me perseverance and makes me more complete.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!