counting it all joy.

'Count it all joy my brothers when you go through trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your Faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full work that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing'.

By any comparison the book of James goes contrary to normal human understanding. For example, it begins by comparing the trials that we go through in life with joy. To our modern ears this appears to be insensitive and uncaring. Perhaps, you might conclude, James simply doesn't understand what I am going through.

But one valuable aspect of the scriptures is that it looks to the end product of any suffering we might go through and not just the experience itself. After all, the centrepiece of the Christian Faith is the crucifixion where Christ suffered extreme physical agony, untold emotional humiliation, (one modern chorus brings out the point that he suffered at the hands of those he had created), and, perhaps the greatest torment of the whole trial, separation from the Father which prompted the words 'my god, my god, why have you forsaken me?' But had this not happened we would all be 'children of wrath' for as it says elsewhere in scripture 'without the blood there is no remission for sins'. One encouraging scripture is Romans 8 v 28 'And we know for those that love God all things work together for good.' In other words in the Christian life there is no such thing as wasted suffering. For in common with the plant kingdom we need both sunshine and flowers to grow. So, in a nutshell, the opening comment of James is an encouraging one to look beyond immediate feelings and effects of our experience to its ultimate purpose in his unfolding plan which as always is for our blessing and his glory'!