Imagine the testing of the body in such a sport as football. To be on
your feet and seconds later brought to the ground hard and fast. Then
to get up and do it again, and again, and again, but constantly moving
forward. All of that falling is not what wins the game, but whether or
not you win depends a great deal on how you fall. In fact, it has been
pointed out that when the coaches begin to train their teams the first
lesson they teach is not how to make a touchdown, but how to fall. For
days they learn to fall limp and to roll so as not to be injured. There is
nothing good about a fall. It is only a hindrance to reaching the goal,
but if you don't learn how to fall successfully it is not likely you will
ever get a chance to reach the goal. All the training is not to cross the
goal line, but to survive until you get there.
What is true in football is likewise true in life in general. If we
hope to make life a successful experience, and reach some worthy
goals, the first thing we need to learn is how to fall. Life is always
filled with obstacles to overcome. Scripture says, "Man is born to
trouble as the sparks fly upward." And, "Man that is born of a
woman is a few days, and full of troubles," says the book of Job. The
Bible from Genesis to Revelation gives a realistic picture of life, and
that picture looks more like a washboard than a slide. We must face
the facts of Scripture and history and realize that the future holds
trials, troubles, and for some even tragedy. This realism in the Bible,
however, is combined with an optimism because it reveals to us the
way to triumph through our trials.
The Bible is very practical and one of the books most noted for
being practical is the book of James. It was written by James, not the
Apostle, but James the brother of our Lord. It was written by a man
who grew up with Jesus in the same family, and who knew his
teachings very well. There are more references to the Sermon on the
Mount in James than in all the other Epistles put together. It also has
the distinction of being one of the first books of the New Testament to
be written. It was written about 45A.D.; less than 20 years after the
death of Jesus. The very first lesson that James teaches, like that of
the football coach, is the lesson on how to fall, or if we were to give it a
title we might call it, The Secret Of Successful Suffering. In these first
few verses James tells us of three requirements necessary for the
successful suffering of trials. The first is
I. A POSITIVE RESPONSE OF THE WILL TO TRIALS. verse2.
The difference between tragedy and triumph is all in how you count
your trials. James says by an act of the will count it all joy when tried.
Don't let circumstances take you captive and control your life, but
compel them to yield the fruit of joy by a choice of the will. The
Christian is never to be under the circumstances, always on top of
them. Faith does not change what life brings to you, but it is to change
what you bring to life. Every trial calls for a choice that involves the
will. It is not what happens that determines a person attitude, but how
they chose to count what happens. One man can get a flat on the way
to work and count it a blast from the hand of fate, and be upset all day
because he lost an hour of work. Another can have the same
experience and count it as the providential protection of God that may
have saved his life, and he rejoices all day in thanksgiving to God. The
difference between the scowling crab and a smiling Christian is all in
how you count your trials. The scowler counts them a jinx; the smiler
counts them a joy.
The Bible has a high view of man's will power, especially after he
has been delivered from being dominated by the forces of evil. For
James to say, count it all joy, it is assumed that if they will so choose
they have the will power to do so, and only if they do can they be
successful in their suffering. James can urge them, warn them, and
counsel them, but only they can make the choice, but they can if they
will.
When those two planes crashed in mid air some years ago killing all
aboard there were three men who watched it on the radar screen.
They saw the two planes on a collision course and they shouted and
shouted until they saw them hit. One of them became violently ill, the
second passed out, and the third had a nervous breakdown and was
institutionalized. They saw the danger but did not have control of the
plane, and so all their efforts were in vain. So it is in our experiences
of falling into trials. James can shout, count it all joy; preachers down
through history can shout it; your friends can shout it, but then all
they can do is stand and watch you go down unless your will responds
in a positive manner and counts it all joy. In other words, your will is
the pilot in your life. If it gives up all is lost, but if it refuses to be
defeated you can never fail. Your plans may fail, and the plane may
go down, but the positive will, even then, land you safely with the
parachute of joy. As long as the will responds positively there is no
such thing as defeat.
When Dr. Maxwell from Prairie Bible Institute was in the Twin
Cities, he told the story of the first man to bring a plane out of a tail
spin. His name was Stinson, I believe. He was flying one day doing
some fancy tricks when suddenly he went into a tail spin. No one had
ever come out of a tail spin before. He tried everything he could think
of. He pushed and pulled, turned and twisted, and nothing happened.
It looked hopeless and time was short as he plunged toward the earth.
He finally decided to give it everything and get it over, and to his
amazement, as he gave it the gas he pulled out of the tail spin. He
wondered, could it be he discovered the way to come out of a tail spin?
The only way to know was to try again, so he climbed up high and
purposely went into another tail spin, and came out of it by the same
method. By an act of the will he turned a trial that had always
brought tragedy into triumph.
Scripture tells us that God works in all things for good to those who
love Him and are called according to His purpose, but nothing works
for good to those who will not count it good. If we refuse to consider a
thing good even when it is, it will not be good for us. Like the woman
who always complained about so many bad potatoes in her field. One
year almost all of them were good, and then she complained because
she had no bad ones to feed the pigs. Even blessings are not good to
the person with a negative will, but to the person with a positive will
even trials can bring joy. But James makes it clear that this positive
response of the will to trials must be based on the second requirement
which is
II. A POSITIVE RECOGNITION OF THE WORTH OF TRIALS. verses 3 and 4.
The Scriptures tell us that no chastening for the present seems to
be joyous. James does not expect us to be joyful because we are
suffering, or even while we are suffering, though that is not impossible,
but the joy comes in reflection and by our recognizing how even trials
can help us attain the spiritual goals of our life. If we allow them, they
can teach us patience, which is an essential virtue in becoming all that
God wants us to be. The joy we can have in trials is in recognizing
that Christlike character is our goal, and if trials can help us to be
more like Him, then we can rejoice and suffer successfully.
Virtues grow out of the possibility of vices. Who has ever been
brave who did not have a chance to be a coward? How can one have
courage who has never faced danger? Who can know what patience is
who has never been tried by impatience? Trials are opportunities to
develop virtues. It is not the trial that brings joy, but the knowledge
that the trial can teach us things that are never learned by a life of
ease. Nobody would ever bother to watch football if there were no
obstacles to overcome. Take away the opposition and the game loses
all meaning.
A young Italian working in an American stone quarry had both
eyes blinded, and he lost one arm by careless handling of dynamite by
others. He was helpless and the future looked dark, but a woman who
lived near the hospital where he was, and who knew Italian, had
compassion on him, and she helped him get into a school for the blind.
He was grateful for the fact that someone cared, and he became an
eager student. He went on to become one of the most popular
teachers in that school. If he had never had his tragic experience he
likely would have remained an illiterate the rest of his life. The loss of
his sight lead to him seeing more than he ever did before. He once
said, "The day of my accident was the birthday of my mind." He
counted his trial all joy.
Archidimus in Thucydides, the famous Greek historian, said, "We
should remember that man differs little from man except that he turns
out best who is trained in the sharpest school." Henry Howard has
pointed out that this is true in nature as well. The Australian
black-butt is a tree that grows in rich soil where there is a great deal
of rain, and they grow so close together they are sheltered from the
wind and storm. It becomes huge in its life of luxury and ease, and it
grows to a height of 300 feet, but in its sheltered life it develops no
toughness of fiber, and, therefore, is practically worthless for any
purpose where endurance is required.
In contrast with this tree is the English oak which battles the
storms from its birth until it is strong and mature. It grows slow but
solid. The Australian-butt will rot under ground in 6 months, but
English oak is used in England for underground wooden pipes, and
after 300 years they were dug up and found to be as good as when they
were laid. The proof that it is the trials endured that gives it the
strength is that if the English oak is planted in Australia with its less
vigorous climate, it grows twice as fast and is much feebler.
Therefore, even nature teaches that trials are of great worth in
producing quality.
Who can find a greater quality of music than that of Handel's
Messiah? It did not come out of a life of ease, but one of great trial.
In his biography we read, "His health and his fortune had reached the
lowest ebb. His right side had become paralyzed, and his money was
all gone. His creditors seized him and threatened him with
imprisonment. For a brief time he was tempted to give up the fight,
but then he rebounded again to compose the greatest of his
inspirations, the epic Messiah." If all had been going great for him, he
may never have created his greatest work.
The greatest trial in all of history led to the greatest triumph in all
of history. When Jesus in the agony of Gethsemane recognized the
worth of what He was to suffer for, responded with His will saying,
"Not my will but thine be done." He counted it all joy to go to the
cross. Scripture says, "Who for the joy that was set before Him
endured the cross." Never has there been such successful suffering,
and James urges us to follow that same pattern that Jesus followed by
making a positive response of the will to trials, based on a positive
recognition of the worth of trials. The particular value which James
stresses is patience, which we will not deal with now, for now we want
to look at the third requirement which is-
III. A POSITIVE REQUEST FOR WISDOM IN TRIALS. verses 5-8.
In a sense, we are ending with the beginning. We are covering last
that which comes first. Just as the response of the will is based on our
recognition of the worth of trials, so our recognition of the worth of
trials is based on our request for wisdom to be able to see it. In other
words, learning how to triumph in trials, and to suffer successfully,
begins with prayer for the wisdom needed to guide our will to the
proper choices. Success in anything for the Christian comes down to
the simple phrase, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness."
Like the football player, we do not wait until the tackler is upon us
before we learn how to fall. We learn this before the trial comes. A
Japanese proverb says, "Dig the well before you are thirsty."
Another says, "Shingle the roof before the storm." The football
player prepares through practice; the Christian prepares through
prayer. James is saying, if you don't have the will power to count it all
joy when trials come; if you are not convinced that trials can be of
great value, then you lack the wisdom which only God can give.
Therefore, you had better make a positive request for such wisdom,
for without it you can never suffer successfully.
Notice, he does not say we are to ask to be delivered from trials,
but ask for the wisdom necessary to make them work for good in your
life. Alexander Maclaren said that the lack of wisdom is the chief
defect in the average Christian. It comes only by persevering in
prayer. Paul was constantly praying for the Christians of his day that
they might have the wisdom of God. In Col. 1:9 we read, "We do not
cease to pray for you that you might be filled with the knowledge of
His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." We have not
because we ask not James says. Here is a clear statement that to ask
for wisdom is always in the will of God, and God delights to grant it.
James himself was known to be a man of prayer, and that explains his
practical wisdom. Tradition says he has knees like a camel because he
spent so much time on them.
Donald M. Baillie relates of how in the 17th century the
Westminister Assembly met to draw up a Protestant Confession of
Faith. At that assembly was Dr. John Selden, one of the greatest
scholars of the day, but who was a defender of the Erastian heresy.
He gave such a brilliant argument for the heresy that the good
Presbyterians there were at a loss as how to defend the truth. Then,
unexpectedly,
George Gillespie, a young Scotsman, rose in the meeting and spoke
against the heresy in an amazingly effective way which swept away
years of labor on the part of Dr. Selden. When his speech was over his
friends got a hold of the notebook that had lain in front of him hoping
to find the outline of his argument, but on the page they found nothing
but a single sentence penciled over and over again as he sat there
waiting to speak. There were just three Latin words, "Da lucem,
Domine," which means "Give light, O Lord." He lacked wisdom but
he asked of God.
Wisdom includes knowledge, but is more, for it is the ability to use
knowledge to arrive at the best ends by the best means. Wisdom
directs the use of knowledge. Many people have the knowledge of
how to drive a car, but they lack the wisdom which is necessary to
drive it properly. When a drunken man wants to drive a car, it is not
knowledge he lacks, but wisdom. Wisdom is the capacity to use
knowledge effectively for good purposes. Everyone suffers, but only
the wise makes a success of it, for only the wise recognize that trials
can be of profit if they are wisely used.
Disraeli said, "The fool wonders but the wise man asks." But
notice that our asking must be positive. It must be in faith without
doubt. God is ever ready to grant the request for wisdom, but He
cannot answer the prayer of the double minded. This is one who is
not sure he wants God's will, and so he would not be able to receive
the wisdom of God anyway. He is like Augustine who in his early
prayers before he came all out for Christ use to pray, "O God, make
me pure, but not now." He was double minded. He wanted to follow
two paths at the same time. Jesus said you cannot serve two masters,
for you will love the one and hate the other. The double minded man
literally does not have a prayer. God refuses to grant any request
from such a person. They are like people who are "Trying to serve the
Lord in such a way as not to offend the devil." They think they can be
a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and get by with it. God demands a simple
and single minded faith.
The lesson on how to suffer successfully involves the whole of one's
spiritual life and relationship to God. In learning this lesson we will
learn that which is necessary to be a complete and entire Christian.
We will learn to fall in such a way that we are brought closer to our
goal of Christlikeness for having fallen. We will do this by a positive
response of the will to trials; by a positive recognition of the worth of
trials, and by a positive request for wisdom in our trial. The most
important thing to remember is that we must be asking God for
wisdom if we are going to suffer successfully.
