Perseverence
This week is on James 1:2-4:
Perseverance is a kind of active patience. The Greek word used in this passage refers to a kind of ability not to be thrown off the trail despite hardships and setbacks. It's a sort of cheerful endurance. Very few people have this trait naturally. I certainly wasn't born with it! Yet it's a very charismatic trait to have, and one which helps make us more useful in life.
People who know me know I'm impatient with difficult things. Whether it's a mechanical problem, or a bureaucratic process, or whatever it may be, cheerful endurance is pretty much the opposite of my natural reaction. Yet James says we should consider that sort of thing pure joy! Spending a morning fighting with opaque third world bureaucracies, random computer problems, and unforeseen interruptions is supposed to be a treat? Only if it results in a change in character.
My problems are actually pretty silly compared to what Christians in the first century had to go through. They were disowned by their families, persecuted by their friends and countrymen, and probably attacked spiritually through sickness and other torments because of the pagan environment they were in. If you're following God and suddenly your best friend won't talk to you anymore, and your father in law is plotting to have you killed, and your coworkers are spreading rumors around about you, you are definitely in a situation that builds character.
But even nowadays, what about prayer requests that don't get answered right away? Or which seem to get answered and then seem to fall apart right afterwards? Or when you've committed to funding a missionary or helping a friend and then suddenly your car breaks down to try to steal the money, or some crisis comes up to try to steal the time? Do we have cheerful endurance during those times?
I'm not really any better at enjoying exercise than I am at enjoying setbacks, but both produce a sort of resiliency in us. Having committed to regular exercise six months ago, I am now noticing that I'm stronger and have more stamina. Setbacks produce the same benefits in us, but spiritually. We just don't recognize it because nobody's come up with a gym for frustration and disappointment the way they have for physical hardship. Can you imagine paying $49.95 a month to have people follow you around and sabotage your plans, just to make you stronger spiritually? James probably would.
Someone who never has to exercise gets tired at the slightest amount of exertion. I like to hike, and it's surprising to me sometimes when someone can't keep up with me. The difference is that I've been walking long distances for years, whereas other people may consider a walk to the kitchen to get the hot pockets out of the microwave to be a long trek. In my head, I'm always like "Why are you stopping? How could you be out of breath already? We haven't even gotten to the hill yet!"
To someone accustomed to hardship, perseverance probably looks the same to them as physical stamina does to me. Someone like James would look at one of us and be like "You're giving up now? What's wrong with you?!" or "You're angry already? You've only been at it like an hour!" We live in a society of instant gratification, of lavish privilege, and where we've got robots and foreigners to do anything that requires elbow grease or an iron will. No wonder our spirits are flabby!
We're supposed to consider that sort of thing pure joy. Trying over and over again to get your tax documents together only to find out that the government has lost your employer's tax ID number weeks before the deadline? Priceless. Planning a family trip only to have the engine fall out of your car the night before? That should give you a high like crack. Trying to get home from a mission trip only to come down with malaria and have your digestive system taken over by some innovative state of the art third world parasite while being stuck overnight in a cold airport terminal because the British don't understand logistics, realizing that you're missing out on seeing your friends and family and will probably lose a day of work? Heroin probably couldn't compare to the pure joy of that experience, right?
The joy comes when you realize what happens when you finish the race. When you get the thing you were waiting for, and find it easier to wait a bit longer next time. When you complete the project you started out to complete and find that you can tackle more frustrating projects afterwards. When you've managed to help a particularly annoying coworker with a presentation and find that you guys are now the best of friends and that the other coworkers seem that much sweeter by comparison. At that point, when you get into a situation someone says "builds character" you realize you're saving the $49.95 you'd be paying to gremlins, and are getting the benefits without having to do anything but live your life the way it's been presented to you.
So if you're praying for healing and it hasn't come, or your finances aren't lining up right, or people are getting to you, or it's taking you nine hours to do twenty minutes worth of work because of all of the setbacks and interruptions, don't turn into a crazed red-eyed wall-punching monster. Just think of how chiseled your spirit is going to be for having seen things through to their conclusion! God has placed difficulties in our lives for a reason, and that reason may be to make us spiritual powerhouses for getting things done.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever 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.
Perseverance is a kind of active patience. The Greek word used in this passage refers to a kind of ability not to be thrown off the trail despite hardships and setbacks. It's a sort of cheerful endurance. Very few people have this trait naturally. I certainly wasn't born with it! Yet it's a very charismatic trait to have, and one which helps make us more useful in life.
People who know me know I'm impatient with difficult things. Whether it's a mechanical problem, or a bureaucratic process, or whatever it may be, cheerful endurance is pretty much the opposite of my natural reaction. Yet James says we should consider that sort of thing pure joy! Spending a morning fighting with opaque third world bureaucracies, random computer problems, and unforeseen interruptions is supposed to be a treat? Only if it results in a change in character.
My problems are actually pretty silly compared to what Christians in the first century had to go through. They were disowned by their families, persecuted by their friends and countrymen, and probably attacked spiritually through sickness and other torments because of the pagan environment they were in. If you're following God and suddenly your best friend won't talk to you anymore, and your father in law is plotting to have you killed, and your coworkers are spreading rumors around about you, you are definitely in a situation that builds character.
But even nowadays, what about prayer requests that don't get answered right away? Or which seem to get answered and then seem to fall apart right afterwards? Or when you've committed to funding a missionary or helping a friend and then suddenly your car breaks down to try to steal the money, or some crisis comes up to try to steal the time? Do we have cheerful endurance during those times?
I'm not really any better at enjoying exercise than I am at enjoying setbacks, but both produce a sort of resiliency in us. Having committed to regular exercise six months ago, I am now noticing that I'm stronger and have more stamina. Setbacks produce the same benefits in us, but spiritually. We just don't recognize it because nobody's come up with a gym for frustration and disappointment the way they have for physical hardship. Can you imagine paying $49.95 a month to have people follow you around and sabotage your plans, just to make you stronger spiritually? James probably would.
Someone who never has to exercise gets tired at the slightest amount of exertion. I like to hike, and it's surprising to me sometimes when someone can't keep up with me. The difference is that I've been walking long distances for years, whereas other people may consider a walk to the kitchen to get the hot pockets out of the microwave to be a long trek. In my head, I'm always like "Why are you stopping? How could you be out of breath already? We haven't even gotten to the hill yet!"
To someone accustomed to hardship, perseverance probably looks the same to them as physical stamina does to me. Someone like James would look at one of us and be like "You're giving up now? What's wrong with you?!" or "You're angry already? You've only been at it like an hour!" We live in a society of instant gratification, of lavish privilege, and where we've got robots and foreigners to do anything that requires elbow grease or an iron will. No wonder our spirits are flabby!
We're supposed to consider that sort of thing pure joy. Trying over and over again to get your tax documents together only to find out that the government has lost your employer's tax ID number weeks before the deadline? Priceless. Planning a family trip only to have the engine fall out of your car the night before? That should give you a high like crack. Trying to get home from a mission trip only to come down with malaria and have your digestive system taken over by some innovative state of the art third world parasite while being stuck overnight in a cold airport terminal because the British don't understand logistics, realizing that you're missing out on seeing your friends and family and will probably lose a day of work? Heroin probably couldn't compare to the pure joy of that experience, right?
The joy comes when you realize what happens when you finish the race. When you get the thing you were waiting for, and find it easier to wait a bit longer next time. When you complete the project you started out to complete and find that you can tackle more frustrating projects afterwards. When you've managed to help a particularly annoying coworker with a presentation and find that you guys are now the best of friends and that the other coworkers seem that much sweeter by comparison. At that point, when you get into a situation someone says "builds character" you realize you're saving the $49.95 you'd be paying to gremlins, and are getting the benefits without having to do anything but live your life the way it's been presented to you.
So if you're praying for healing and it hasn't come, or your finances aren't lining up right, or people are getting to you, or it's taking you nine hours to do twenty minutes worth of work because of all of the setbacks and interruptions, don't turn into a crazed red-eyed wall-punching monster. Just think of how chiseled your spirit is going to be for having seen things through to their conclusion! God has placed difficulties in our lives for a reason, and that reason may be to make us spiritual powerhouses for getting things done.
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