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 in anything. James 1:2-4
When I was a young girl, I was an innocent bystander to the guilt and shame church people misconstrued from scripture. My eyes were wide open to anything stated within the spiritual/church world therefore I will never forget the twist of this verse that caused tremendous shame in me.
This verse was pushed, coerced, guilted that we needed to be happy and joyous in all circumstances. I remember a church member who lost her husband and the only words that she expressed was, “Praise the Lord.” This caused confusion in me as I thought we should be sad when someone died. There was no room for sadness and even anger when life went south. I am convinced that this mentality pushed me even further into silence of the abuse within my home.
If times were tough, we were taught to smile and say “Praise the Lord” leaving anyone who was hurting feeling the weight of their “godly” shame. Hurt was hurt and there was nothing joyous about it. But no one cared about that.
Interestingly, though, it has become noticeably clear to me that our fake attempt at joy totally misses what this verse is honestly saying.
There is NO guilt push of joy in this verse, but instead, there is a strong attempt communicating perseverance. Perseverance has a name that is much more important than Joy. Our joy comes as a byproduct of the perseverance we are GROWING into.
Webster defines it as a “continued effort.” Joy is simply an emotion the writer of James was communicating we will have when we learn to persevere. Perseverance is to take center stage, not joy! God did not call me to joy…He called me to perseverance!
I love what it says in verse four…
Let perseverance finish its work…
Joy cannot finish the work, but perseverance can. If we allow the trials in our lives to run its course while we persevere and seek God, we will become mature and complete. We will lack NOTHING making joy a part of the final equation, not the full equation.
Remember…Perseverance has a name!
THE WALK 