Counting It Differently

James asks something that sounds nearly offensive to a struggling man. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

He does not say feel joy, as though you could manufacture a good mood in the middle of a hard week. He says count it joy, which is a decision about how you add up what is happening to you. The trial is real. The testing is real. What James wants you to know is what the testing is producing, so that you stop reading it purely as loss.

Steadfastness is the word, the quality of a man who stays when everything in him wants to leave. That is being built in you every time you face the same temptation again and do not give up on God, even the times you also do not win. James wants that steadfastness to have its full effect, which means he expects it to take time and does not want you cutting the process short by walking away.

Lacking in nothing, he says at the end. That is where this is headed, and it is worth staying for.

Lord, I cannot summon joy for these trials, but I can trust what you are making through them. Give me the steadfastness to stay in it, and let it finish its work.