Scripture: James 1:2-4

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perserverance. Perserverance must finish it's work so that you may be mature, and complete, not lacking anything.

Check please!! I should have known... from the very beginning, I should have known that this passage was going to sneak up and grab me some day! But no... I just plundered through life - THINKING that I had grasped the "deeper" meaning of such things... until this last year.

But, rather than bore you with the details of the entire last year... allow me to mildly sedate you with only the events of this last week... it will serve the illustration beautifully.

It's Tuesday afternoon... I just got done with a wonderful time of fellowship and hand-shaking at a Vacation Bible School clinic, at which I presented my VBS program for several local churches, and handed out volumes of business cards, brochures, and other such things. The day was going to be a good one - I could just tell!

I head out for Michigan at 3:00 pm... an hour behind my original schedule, but not to worry, I planned in several hours for contingencies. The car is running well - and as I drive down the highway at a very respectable speed (don't ask), I allow myself to smirk just a little at the way my car runs for being as old as it is, and having almost 150,000 miles on it. Little did I know that the smirk would be replaced by tears in only a few short hours...

Des Moines, Iowa. Halfway to my destination, and I am dead tired. It's time to stop, get a motel room, and try to get as much sleep as 4 hours will allow. I dare not sleep longer than that, or my "contingency" hours would fall into jeopardy. Can't have that. So, Wednesday morning, 5:00 am, I am up and on my way again - heading toward my Wednesday evening program in Southeast Michigan. (Or so I thought)

It's 9:00 am, and the car that was once passing trucks left and right is now sputtering along at less than 30 mph. I cannot put the accelerator pedal to the floor, because it makes the engine die. I just replaced the feul filter, and so I am confused, and friends, to say I was upset would be to say the Grand Canyon is just a hole. I was seeing red - and I was making sure God knew I was hot, too!

I got out and did what most men do - I lifted the hood... touched a couple things to get my hands dirty (it makes us feel useful), and then closed the hood - having done nothing to fix anything. From there, I limped into a garage, and begged for a mechanic to help me. He sent me to the next mechanic, who sent me to the dealer, who sent me on to the next dealer. All the while, I am watching the clock, and praying fervently. Finally, I discovered that if I removed the air filter cover, I could get back up to 65 mph, and so this I did - and prayed it would get me to Michigan, where I could fix it Thursday.

Just outside Joilet, Illinois, I got stuck in what turned out to be a huge backup due to a fatality accident - and I was at mile 12 of a 27 mile back log of cars. It took an hour for me to figure that this was going nowhere, so I slid across the snow covered divider, and headed back to go up to Chicago, and back down through Gary, Indiana, and up into Michigan. NOT!

Now it's beat the clock - but at a little town called Chesterton, Indiana... my little car just gave up the ghost. It died, and it was not going anywhere. Neither was I. In a last ditch effort to salvage my evening program, I rented a car, but even then, I arrived for my 7:00 pm show at 10:30 pm. And so it began, my week of conference and performances started at almost a $1,000 deficit... and I am to do what?? Count it pure joy??? James must have been NUTS!

Wait a minute... if James was nuts, then so was Paul, because in Romans chapter 5, Paul wrote almost exactly the same thing. We are to count it joy when we go through these types of things, even when it seems like the most silly thing we have ever heard.

Notice the use of the word, "whenever"... It is not "IF" you go through trials... but "WHEN"! That should have been my first clue. I should have realized that the devil wasn't leaving me alone... he was just carving my name in the 2" x 4", and wanted to make sure he spelled it just right before he WHACKED me with it!

Now, remind me again Lord... what will happen when I count these things pure joy? Oh yes... perserverance. Some translations call it patience, and yet others say endurance. Wait a minute - endurance has the connotation that its for the long haul... you mean these trials are going to be coming for months, years, even an entire lifetime? Ah... I think I am catching on.

And remind me again - what's in it for me when I endure? Oh - right - maturity. Yeah - that's what I need... maturity. Try explaining that to the people who saw me pounding my fist against the car's steering wheel, and kicking the tires as I pitched a fit in the driving snow. Yes, Lord.... I need maturity.

So here we are... faced with trials - you with yours, and I with mine. Let us agree together to reach out to one another during difficult times, and to pray for one another - lifting each other up to the One who knows all things, and provides for all of our needs. Together, I believe that we will see the fruit of the spirit be manifest in the midst of our trials.

The end of my story is this: I was able to do very well at the conference this weekend, and 3 people gave their lives to the Lord as a result of our Sunday evening program north of Detroit. Oh, and that service I missed last Wednesday due to car trouble... well, they were good enough to reschedule me for this Wednesday - something that rarely happens, especially when on the road like I am. So you see, God WILL be glorified - even if He has to manifest that glory through my trials.... and yours.

Copyright © 1996 Eric S. Reamer, all rights reserved

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