Post from July 24, 2023

”👟 RSD 1182 ✅ Today’s Verse (excerpt from James 1:12-18): “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

The Message translation for James 1:12-18: “Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life. Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, ‘God is trying to trip me up.’ God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer. So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of Heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all His creatures.“

Do you like challenges? Some people seem to love them, thrive on them. Some of the most interesting people I know are always looking for the next goal to pull their focus—and not in an overly-competitive or obsessive way, just in a “let’s get this!” type of way. These qualities, at least the way I’ve seen my friends who are runners or cross-fitters or those who soak up new knowledge in music, languages, or even computers do, allow them to grow characteristics like tenacity, patience, strength, since of triumph even. Cause when all the hard work is over and the goal is achieved, it feels amazing. Think along the lines of graduation. Continually challenging ourselves is how we keep going further to realize our potential. Even on this run steak thing I’m doing: most of the days are “keep your head down and do it” days, but, when I hit a milestone, it really does feel good. Yeah winning medals or trophies is nice, but most of the time trophies and medals aren’t a thing for our goals, we just—I don’t know—stand there and allow ourselves to feel the triumph. You know, there’s no fanfare needed because the growth we’ve had intrinsically is the best feeling. There’s a quote that’s often attributed to Michelangelo at age 87 but was arguably first referenced by the philosopher Seneca in a letter near the end of his life—either way, it carries some weight. “I am still learning.” It’s a nice sentiment, a good way of life, but the weight behind these words comes from the fact that, regardless of who said it or who said it first, these men were nearing the end of their lives but continued to keep trying to be the best that they could be. Challenges might mean some late nights of frustration trying to make sense of that hard class, or some sore muscles trying to attain that running distance or the weight on that lift, or some blisters and bruises trying to get one more turn out of that pirouette or master that acrobatic trick, but the truth is that challenges make us better, make us stronger, help us to focus, gain perspective, and they show us that even when our hard work doesn’t seem to be getting us anywhere, all of those inches of improvement one day turn into miles of progress. Challenges are good for us, we’d all agree…except when they’re not the challenges that we choose to get into. Things like computer coding or ballet or distance running are things we seek to know, and we use those to facilitate improvement within ourselves. But, sometimes the biggest challenges we face are not the ones we seek out, but the ones that find us.

Remember yesterday I mentioned the graduation speech-turned-song “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)?” Well, there’s a line in there that seems apropos for our discussion. “The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindsides you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.” THOSE challenges. Those are the ones that, no matter how we try to avoid them, seem to find us anyway, and they seem to come in one of those Frito-Lay variety packs. Health concerns, financial concerns, crises of faith, relationship (spouse/friends/family) troubles, difficulties at work, concerns over the well-being of loved ones, having trouble in a hard class (but your future is riding on your success), grief in loss, frustration over life milestones (e.g. house hunting, perpetual car problems), losing hope amidst a waiting period…and the period keeps getting longer—one hit seems to follow another, and you think, “Where’s God? Doesn’t He care?” Yeah, those challenges—not as much fun to deal with as trying to complete the WOD at CrossFit, is it? In verse 12 of today’s passage, St. James talks about the importance “meet[ing] a testing challenge head-on and manag[ing] to stick it out” because “such persons loyally in love with God.” You know how it’s said (accurately) that people form some of the strongest of bonds alongside others in times of adversity? It’s because they have this unique shared experience between them and often had to rely on each other to help form a different kind of perseverance that fit the situation and to ultimately emerge from it. Well, it stands to reason that our bond with the Lord would deepen in the same way during these hard times. It’s an even better situation for us, though, because we get to lean on God, and He doesn’t need to lean on us; He holds us up and guides us through whatever we’re going through. It’s in these type of challenges that our faith grows the most because, in these desperate times of trust, where what we are facing is more than we can handle, we really are able to see God at work. Don’t get me wrong: it’s not a fun time. It’s hard, heartbreaking, heavy, and we feel broken under the weight of it, and we might think we don’t have much of anything left, and we feel that our faith just isn’t strong enough and just hope that things will somehow get better. Well, that hope that things will improve is our faith being strengthened. One of my favorite quotes I’ve heard in the past few years (no lie—I heard it first on an episode of “Criminal Minds”) is from George Iles: “Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark.” That’s what God does. He holds out His hand in the dark, and, we just have to keep reaching out, and He’ll find our hand to take (all we have to do is keep reaching).

Some of life’s challenges just happen. But, the ones that derive from our own actions is what the next part of today’s passage discusses. God doesn’t make bad things come our way, and God doesn’t try to “trick” us with our vices. God wants us to succeed. When we’re about to go off-script, it’s God that enables our gut to go, “Heyyy…you reallllly sure you want to do that?” This could be anything from maybe some type of addition struggle to you flying off the handle in an argument with a friend. Right—vices aren’t all “big” like drugs. In fact, the vices that seem to cause us the most conflict are the ones where our self control takes a sabbatical, and our frustrations manifest themselves in being impatient and unkind to others, or perhaps worse—indifferent to the hardships of our fellow brethren. Indifference can damage almost as much as hate because indifference hinders our ability to see the value in other people and allows us to be unkind to one another. Indifference allows use to omit our instinct to serve when we can. Indifference allows us to do say hurtful things to the people closest to us because “we can just apologize later.” Indifference causes us to betray friendships out of convenience. Indifference is the nest that hatches the eggs of selfishness and greed. See, the hardest challenges seem to find us, but sometimes: the hardest challenges are not found in the big, difficult life events—sometimes they are found in small, everyday occurrences and decisions and actions, the tiniest of chinks in the armor of our character, and, as we well know, small things turn into big things more quickly than we realize. So, when we do the things we shouldn’t when presented with the opportunity: it’s not God who provides the opportunity for us to do wrong. At that point we decide to divert from the right thing, we’re listening to somebody different.

St. James makes the point that God’s in the business of creating, to put it bluntly, things you actually want to look at, things that make life more (well..life-y?), more beautiful, more potent, more exciting, deeper, more…life-y. Yeah, I could’ve just said “make life more alive,” but this way is more fun—I’m not really into poster sayings anyway. He created us and “brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all His creatures.” We’re the “thing that you actually want to look at.” And, looking at something also, colloquially, means looking INTO something. Sorry, no italics option, so all caps will have to do. We’re the thing you want to look at, look into. Looking into ourselves and learning what our strengths are (and our weaknesses too so that we can work toward improvement in those aspects). Since “every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of Heaven,” we know that the things we do well, our gifts, are from God and that He wants us to use them to do good. We all have a lot of good qualities, but we all have areas where we excel. Are you friendly? Are you funny? Are you compassionate? Are you encouraging—do you cheer for people and help them cheer for themselves? Are you faithful—do you pray for people—even friends of friends who you don’t know? Are you brave, or are you tenacious in that you don’t think you’re brave but will do whatever you’re afraid of anyway? Are you gentle—when people just need some support, are you there? Are you smart (and I don’t jsut mean academics)—can you figure things out really well—you know, you can solve problems and work with others to further the progress? Are you joyful, especially in such a way that it’s contagious (sunshine personified)? Are you trustworthy—do you show up for people? Are you adventurous and willing to help others find it in themselves? Are you gracious—because you know that a lot of times cutting people some slack can do a lot for them? Do you serve, even when it’s not glamorous…or even noticed? Do you love—do you try your best for others?

You’re good at something (probably multiple things) on this list because you and your life God created to be…something you actually WANT to look at. Precious. Worthwhile. The kind of thing you’d be proud to stick on the fridge in 2nd grade. The light He gives us with these gifts that’s not meant to be hidden but displayed and used to light and warm the room. “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light” — Luke 8:16. Looking into ourselves is essential for this light, but you’ll also notice that these strengths also involve looking into others. Seeing people. Living our best life requires a lot of us. It’s challenging, sometimes more than one kind of challenging. But, challenges help make us into who we’re meant to be. Gold goes through fire to get all the ick off so that you just have gold. Challenges do that for us. And, yeah, when life gets to be a lot, being joyful or friendly or any of these other things (plus many more that aren’t aforementioned) gets to be a lot too. We get tired of trying when things aren’t working out; that’s human. But, when we lean on God, we can “[meet] a testing challenge head-on and [manage] to stick it out.” And, when we emerge, we’re somehow a little more golden. Gold doesn’t tarnish, but it does scratch. It shines beautifully, though, even amidst the scratches. Hey, the saying “stay golden” strikes a note of truth for a a reason, as it encourages us to stay true to ourselves and our purpose, and we can stay golden by continuing to try our best. Or, as Michelangelo might put it, “ancora imparo”: “Still, I am learning.””