How does the faithful believer in Jesus grieve with hope? What distinctions are found in the sufferings of saints? While striving to be like Jesus do Christians move through grief differently? Should they look different?
What about joy? Joy in various trials… Remember, we’re not talking happiness, that fleeting emotion, we’re talking faith-filled, hope-instilling, Jesus-trusting – joy.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2-4, (ESV)
Before the trial comes and prior to the pain arriving we grow in knowledge. “For you know…” (verse 3). When life is normal, or as close to normal as one gets, we learn a “head knowledge” truth: the testing of our faith produces steadfastness. In other words, our trials lead to something, something powerful in the Lord’s eyes: maturity. Who doesn’t want to see their faith grow and mature in their walk with Christ? Although, it doesn’t come easy…there is a price.
God works intimately in our being. The trials we experience are evidence of His plan and purposes in our lives and the lives of those we come into contact with. His methods of involvement are surgically precise and hold a meaning far higher than we could ever imagine, especially in the dark moments of deep emotional pain. It’s at the bottom of these valleys where we tend to forget the truth behind the trial. My faith is being tested to produce endurance, or steadfastness.
Endurance is not simply bearing up and “sticking it out”. Time is not the healer in grief…it is God. Our active pursuance of Him, through faith, in every step of grief is the core of endurance. From the moment suffering begins, be it a phone call, accident, diagnosis, or loss, we are to understand, at some level, that God is near and desiring our endurance in the pain. Our dedicated mental attention to what God is trying to do in our lives will be tempered by our natural grief responses, although even in intense sorrow He desires our submission to Himself.
Can we choose to consider our trials as joy? Absolutely. Suffering is the fire with which we are refined. Our struggles with ‘why’ questions, loneliness, physical pain, and God himself leads us to deeper understandings of this life and the eternity we look forward to in hope. He is forging our character and galvanizing our faith. For this, we can be most joyous and even grateful for what He is allowing in our lives.