“In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little
while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,” (1 Peter 1:6,
NASB95)
Robin and I moved with our kids to Oregon on October 1, 1994
following nine months of trying to endure in the San Fernando Valley after the
Northridge earthquake. It was a difficult season leading up to our move, but
after a great deal of searching and waiting we agreed together to do so. I contacted
a large nationally known mortgage company and made arrangements to come up and
work with them. Leaving our home church was difficult, but they sent us with a
wonderful letter of transfer. After a bit I was asked by our new home church if
I would like to help teach the adult Sunday School class. At first I resisted,
but then agreed to do so. Next came the question of what to teach. I looked
through what I had taught previously, and was led to something that I had not.
I decided to teach through the book of James.
On the first Sunday of June in 1995 I taught the first verse
and gave a brief overview. Then I began the work of preparing to teach the next
three verses. During that week, we were notified that there was a mandatory
Thursday office meeting at the mortgage company. At the meeting, we were told
that their small market offices were being closed as of the end of work that
day. The verses I was working on were James 1:2-4 which read, “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, NASB)
The tough season was going to continue, and not only had I
read that I was to actively consider this ongoing season of trial joy, but that
I was also expected to teach it to others. To this day, with some who are close
to me, we speak of these times as James moments. But James was not alone in
associating trials with joy. Here Peter wrote saying, “In this you greatly
rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been
distressed by various trials,” What a combination of words we find in this
passage! In the same verse, we read “rejoice” and “distressed.” These two
emotions in normal terms could not be further apart from each other. We are
accustomed to rejoicing in that which gives us joy and becoming distressed over
that which gives us sorrow. Joy and sorrow are seemingly incompatible. How do
we reconcile the two into one situation, and especially to the level described
here where we “greatly rejoice”?
Rejoice here is the Greek word “agallio,” and it means to be
exceedingly glad or to leap for joy. The roots of the word literally mean much
leaping or springing up. It has the meaning of responding to trial reflexively
with joy. Our response to trials is to bounce to joy. Sure, it may not be
automatic, but it can be as we grow in our understanding of our reason for joy
which is our certain hope because of the unfailing promises of our unlimited and
infinitely faithful God.
We are not immune to trials because we have a God who separates us from trials.
Rather, we have a God who brings us through those trials. The Lion King movie may have planted into our minds the words, “Hakuna Matata! What a
wonderful phrase. Hakuna Matata! Ain't no passing craze. It means no worries
for the rest of your days. It's our problem-free philosophy. Hakuna Matata!”
It’s a great song, but how true are its words? What is meant by its words? Have
you really thought about them? Is there any such thing as a care-free
existence? The Bible seems to say otherwise. We read that we are not as much to
be care-free as we are to be joy-filled. We are not to be problem-free but to
have hope in our problems, including those that might cause us to become
greatly distressed.
Distress is something that may come upon us unsuspected like
a wave on the beach. Our response to that wave determines how we stand as it
crashes in. To become overwhelmed and panic is to see the wave as that which is
most fully in control. To quickly recognize that we have a God who enables us
to stand firm enables us to see that wave in perspective and to find our great
hope in our God who even holds that wave in His hands and limits its power and
even its duration.
What might seem like an enduringly long period of time to
us, we are reminded in this verse, is momentary in the eternal scheme of
things. Peter, in talking about rejoicing, in distress tells us that whatever
it is, it is only going to push in on us “now for a little while.” It will come
and then it will be gone, but the faithfulness of our God will never fade. This
is the truth of Scripture, and it is because of these truths—these things we
know of Him, His promises to us, and that powerful hand of His Spirit on our
lives that we are sealed for the great hope that awaits us on the other side
whether that other side is later today or in His eternal presence. Whatever it
is, it will pass and God is firmly in control. We are to rejoice in the
certainty of His hand on us and His sovereign power at work on our behalf.
James tells us that it is through these very trials that we
see the faithfulness of God demonstrated and that we grow in our faith and our
ability to endure the next ones. What seems like big potatoes now, may seem
like small potatoes later as we are prepared to experience possibly even bigger
ones in the future or maybe even to help others through their trails because of
how God has helped us.
I wish the Northridge earthquake was the biggest trial we
would have ever had to experience. At the time, it was big enough. But the
reality is that we have experienced others since, and we are even experiencing
them now. Sometimes I do not respond as well as I do at others. Sometimes my
faith is weak as I look to the size or the pressing nature of the problem, and
in them I feel the meaning of what it is to be distressed. It is then that I am
looking at the situation without the great hope I have in Christ and getting
things outside of their proper perspective. But when I step back, turn my eyes
to God, and I take times even as right now to focus on His truth and let them
soak into my heart and mind, I find that His Spirit does that incredible work
of quieting the storm and increasing my joy. What makes the difference from my
side of things is not that the problems go away, but that I make a purposeful
choice to look to God and rejoice in who He is, what He has promised, and trust
even for the moment in His promise to bring me through to the other side.
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