CONSIDER It Pure Joy

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of any kind, for you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance”  James 1:2-3

Have you ever read a verse that you’ve read for years, maybe even have it memorized for some occasions, and understood it to mean one thing, only to realize later that it has an even deeper meaning?  That verse you read or have memorized can comfort you, put a smile on your face, or pull you through a tough situation depending on your circumstances.  I’m sure you even can use it to help someone else in a similar situation.  Even after having it memorized or having recited it to others in need, you can read it and it’s like you’re reading it for the first time.  Life happens, adversity comes along and so you naturally default to the word, phrase, or verse that you go to when you need to pull through and BOOM.  It’s like your reading it for the first time. Your current set of circumstances allows you to understand this thing in an entirely new context.  That’s what happened this week with the above scripture in James.

For years, anytime something happened I wish hadn’t to me or someone close to me, I’d generally go back to this passage to help gain perspective and hopefully it would aid my getting over it.  Whether using it to get over a broken heart, missed opportunity, lost job or whatever my default mindset was to be happy, because that’s what God tells us to do.  Consider it pure joy.   Even though you don’t understand, consider it a joy because this testing of your faith will make you stronger.  Be happy because your faith is growing.  While that mindset isn’t necessarily a bad one, I was leaving out one critical detail.  There was still pain.  This verse didn’t cure the hurt that had caused me to go to this passage in the first place.  Then I read it yesterday and my mind was shattered.  My understanding of this passage of Scripture was just flipped on its head. 

Prior to yesterday, my formula for getting through tough situations using these verses was very easy.  Be happy, even in the pain, because you’ll be stronger for it and you’re faith will grow as a result.  The better front you put up, the easier it is to get over and move on, the more you’ll grow. 

Late Sunday night, our car was broken into, adding a broken window to a long list of problems we’ve had to sort out with our Jeep.  Along with some change, 3D movie glasses, and a car charger, all our paperwork for this vehicle was stolen.  This headache was compounded by the surprise visit to an Ophthalmologist on Tuesday who determined that I have ulcers on both corneas in my eyes.  After what we thought was a routine eye exam because I needed some new contacts, we were advised to rush to the specialist who had worked me in so he could get a better look at these ulcers.  The thought of ulcers like you get in our mouth and lips in your eyes is far worse that the pain is.  Although my eyesight has deteriorated a bit because of them, I should be back to 100% after 2 weeks of medicine. 

But it was in the couple of hours just after the doctor appointment that I started in my default – thinking and praying this passage.  I was saying it over and over in my head on my way home from Club when it hit me. 

Consider it pure joy my brothers.

Consider it pure joy.

CONSIDER it pure joy. 

There’s where my mind had been blown and my understanding of a verse I had often called upon during trying times had been given a deeper understanding.  Although I had already resorted to thinking about how this experience would help me later in life, God opened my eyes, quite literally, to the truth in the first word of the verse.  Consider.  Where my previous mindset told me to be happy, and smile through all this mess, this word told me that it was fine to be frustrated, confused and upset.  Through this single word, my previous mindset had been rocked with a new perspective.  I love it when God does that.