My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
When you face trials of any kind, consider it joy. Hmm. If they were truly joy, I wouldn’t be considering them trials, would I? It seems contradictory, until I think about the words used. This is another example of the difference between the thing itself, and our reaction to that thing. James is saying that when a real thing is faced it can be a trial. An illness. A challenging person. A fight. It’s a real thing, and absolutely can be a trial.
But, he continues, your reaction or framing of that thing is entirely different. When that thing happens, you can choose how to consider it. James is arguing that we should frame trials as joys. He’s not saying that the thing itself isn’t hard, or didn’t happen, or isn’t a trial. In fact he’s acknowledging that these events happen, and that they can be trials. Truth.
James is not saying that trials don’t happen. But when I’m faced with trials, I have the option to narrate the story however I want. I have the power to choose to see my situation however I choose.
As Viktor Frankl, Auschwitz survivor said, “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.”
We all have trials. I have some home trials, interpersonal trials, work trials. In Frankl’s words, each of those are the stimulus. This morning, I’m thinking about that space between the thing itself – the trial, as James describes, and my response – considering it a joy. While I might not be able to consider all of my trials as joy, there is some space to decide how I respond. Again, quoting Frankl, “Everything can be taken a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances”.
Today, I want to choose joy.
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