Trials and Troubles
James 1:1-4
Many of you know that I was divorced about 20 years ago after more than 20 years of marriage. Before or since, there has not been a worse trial or difficulty in my life. I honestly felt as if my life was ending and everything I had was worth nothing. I fell into a miserable state of depression and never believed I would feel love, compassion, or any real emotion again. I felt that the world was a dark and evil place where no one could be trusted.
I quit the ministry. I had a full time job at the time, and I even changed that job. I didn’t know what to do. I was angry, furious at God. I did not understand why He would allow a family to split apart and not do anything about it. I spent a lot of time yelling, crying, and begging God for an answer. I honestly felt that no one could ever feel so badly, having to endure the humiliation and pain of something so terrible.
I felt that God had deserted me. I turned my back and tried to put Him 180 degrees behind me. I firmly believed that there was never going to be any more joy or happiness in my life. Within a few weeks, I was actually OK with that. I felt that I deserved to be in this state.
During all that time, I never chose to believe that God didn’t exist. If He didn’t exist, I didn’t have anyone with whom to be angry…except everyone else. I really wanted to be angry with God.
You know what? I believe He was OK with that. Because He knew what was going to happen.
It’s a fact of life. Trials come. Troubles come. Disaster comes. Terrible, awful and tragic things happen. Does God stop them, interfere with them, turn them around? (Show PPT.)
Most of the time, He doesn’t. We don’t know why. This sermon isn’t geared to try to answer that question. It is geared to try to understand that something good can come from trials. Something worth salvaging. In fact, the end result of a trial is often more amazing and blessed than the situation before. We see it time and again in the Bible and I have seen it time and again in my life and in the lives of others.
I would like to spend some time in the book of James because of its practicality and simple outlook on the Christian life. In the Bible I carried to class in college, I have written “practical Christian living” on the first page of the book of James. The professor of that class told us to write a main topic for each book of the New Testament. I chose to write that in my Bible. It has always meant that to me. It is a basic teaching tool for the Christian life.
James, who was the half-brother of Jesus was a major church leader until his death in about 62 AD. He was recognized as the leader of the church even when there were apostles that Jesus had appointed to go into the world. He was considered a leader of the church even though he spent most of his life, until the crucifixion, not believing that his brother was the Messiah. Church tradition teaches that James was eventually killed by either stoning or being thrown off the city wall of Jerusalem. It appears that he never left Israel during his life.
So, a letter from James carried some weight in the early church and we should probably pay attention to it to.
James had some experience with trials, so when he tells us to remain strong through them, he knows what he is talking about.
When James said, “…when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy,” I have to say that it is a little perplexing. It’s perplexing because human beings don’t usually consider trouble as something about which to be joyful.
Remember being a Christian in the time that James was writing was not a preferred lifestyle. It was actually dangerous. There were few groups of people that thought Christianity wasn’t anything more than a dangerous cult that needed to be exterminated. At the time that James wrote this letter, Christianity was probably about 25 years old. It was spreading across Asia Minor, the Levant and had made some inroads into Europe. It wasn’t popular with the Jewish people, the Roman government or any of the temple priests that populated the Greek cities of the day. In short, it was probably better to be a slave in those days than a Christian.
James knew persecution. He knew trials and troubles. He understood what it really meant to be a Christian as he died at the hands of people who hated him. So, I believe when James is talking about troubles, he knows whereof he speaks.
What can we learn in this very short passage of the Bible? From it, I have found three things that we should examine and make part of our daily walk with God. Three things that should be part of our lives from this day forward.
1. Troubles tend to come your way. No matter how hard you try to avoid it, it will find you. You can’t avoid trials and troubles by hiding under a rock. You can’t avoid them by being angry. You can’t avoid them by being nice. You can’t avoid them by trying to please people. In short you can’t avoid the trials and troubles that this life brings.
James tells us that troubles should be an opportunity for joy. Remember what his brother, Jesus said? “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.” (Matthew 5:11-12)
Jesus even says to rejoice about these troubles. It seems to me that if you are doing what God wants you to do and you run into trouble, you are going to have to depend on God to find the way out of the trouble.
As human beings we have a tendency to believe we can figure anything out. We put people on the moon for goodness sakes. We have created more technology in the last 50 years than in the previous 1000 years. We think we are pretty special…except when trouble comes. Then we turn to God and to others to help.
This opportunity for joy is a strange way to look at trouble, isn’t it?
2. Trials and troubles have a tendency to test our faith. Remember that it’s not God that is testing our faith. The trouble is the test. The trouble doesn’t come from God. We usually are the source of trouble. Sometimes it’s other people or circumstances or whatever the world has to throw in our path. James is pretty clear about this. The trouble tests us, it builds our endurance to handle the next trial and so on. Our endurance, he says, has a chance to grow. Wow.
Is this James just trying to paint a rosy picture and trying to be positive? I don’t think so. If you have ever had a major trial and came out better on the other side, you know what he is talking about. Even though God is not always the source of the trials, He makes sure that there is something to learn from them. I can tell you that if you don’t learn something positive about a trial, you have wasted a great opportunity. Instead of complaining about how people are treating you or how awful your life is, look for the opportunity to learn something from it. Even if it kills you, it can be a chance to learn something about God, about others, or about yourself.
3. Troubles tend to help us grow toward perfection. Anything that is worth anything takes time and effort. Progress in life, progress in school, progress in your career takes work, effort, sweat and tears. If those things aren’t part of your process, you may not be doing it right. This perfection is perfect. This perfection means completion. The process takes your whole life.
James tells us that when this endurance is fully developed, we will be “perfect and complete, needing nothing”.
How would you like to need nothing? I mean really need nothing? Remember the shepherd from Bethlehem? He said, the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want or I lack nothing.
That Psalm talks about the darkness of trials. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me. Your rod and your staff comfort me.”
I can tell you from experience and from Scripture that when you are walking through that dark valley and God is with you, you will lack nothing. It may not feel good, it may feel like your life is ending, but I can tell you that everything you will ever need is right there for you. The rod of correction is there along with the gentle staff of the Shepherd for our comfort.
There is correction in trial and there is comfort in trouble. We can’t avoid it; we can’t stop it. But we can learn from it. We can be comforted and corrected in order to stay on the path.
James says something in this passage that is actually quite perplexing. He tells us that we should let our endurance grow. This endurance is the result of bad experiences, evil people, disease, financial ruin and the whole scope of negative things in life.
If we are to grow in Christ, we must grow in endurance. To grow in endurance, we need trials and troubles.
I can tell you something from experience…you can’t avoid trouble, but you can avoid learning something from it.
Twenty years ago, I was suffering the most horrendous trial of my life. I have been shot at, more than one person has threatened to kill me, I have lost both of my parents to death along with 4 brothers and 2 sisters. I have lost cousins, a niece and other close relatives. I have lost friends to death also. I am well-acquainted with death. It does not scare me.
When my wife left me 20 years ago, everything that was me left with her. I was bereft. I mourned the loss of that relationship more than anything else in my life. Truthfully, there is still some sadness even after all this time.
But you know what? You know what?
Even with all my yelling and complaining and turning my back on God, He was RIGHT there. All the time. Every second, every minute, every heart-wrenching hour. The whole time He was teaching me, correcting me and comforting me. I would not have endured without Him. I would have died. I was that heartsick.
The divorce had been final for a month at the end of March 1996. I had taken a new government job where I could hide from most of the people who knew me. I worked the midnight shift when everyone was asleep.
At 6 AM on March 29, 1996, I signed on to a government forum computer network. It was a Friday. I had not been on the network since I left my other job. It just so happened that on that day, someone else was on there too. She was a gorgeous telephone operator for a Veterans Clinic on the west coast of Florida. She had two beautiful little girls and within a few days, I knew God had redeemed a part of me that I though was dead forever.
Just 4 months later we were married. It wasn’t perfect. I was still in mourning, still sad. But this wise woman let me mourn and her love was added to God’s love. There was a completion that I never felt before.
The trial changed me. Changed me forever. The person you see today is, in large part, the result of that trial. For better or worse, that’s me. I am better. Not perfect, but my life is complete on this earth because God saw fit to bless me while He was correcting me.
I really appreciate that. God is a great multitasker.
