Happy Trials!

“Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” (Jas 5:11 AV)

Doesn’t that first part puzzle you?  When we think of endurance, we think of agonizing persistence.  We don’t think of happiness.  The example James gives is Job.  Job didn’t sound a bit happy.  You might be thinking that Job was happy once his endurance was complete.  But that is not the tense of the phrase.  Happy is the person who is in the process of enduring.  We have to remember that even when God spoke to Job, there were still many months which lay ahead of recovery and restitution.  He didn’t have ten more children right away.  All the thieves took required a lengthy process to restore.  His flocks did not come back overnight.  He had to purchase more animals.  He had to breed those animals.  He had to plant and reap.  He had to build back up that which was lost.  This took time.  The endurance extended beyond the time Satan attacked.  Endurance continued all along the restoration process.  This is why Job was happy.  He put his shoulder to the plow and reconstructed what was lost.  Had he endured only through the time of testing, he would have perished a miserable man.

When trials come, we give up way too easily.  The trial does not end until we come out of the other end stronger than when we entered.  A few decades ago, the LORD gave me the opportunity to use a gym free.  I served as a volunteer hospital chaplain and one perk was the heart rehab gym was open to us whenever we wanted to use it.  Along with the use of the gym, we had a healthcare professional who oversaw our workout.  My trainer kept me safe and gave me realistic goals.  He split my time between endurance training and resistance training.  I still remember the day he started me out on resistance training.  He did a brief test to see where I was.  Then he sat me down and we lifted some weights.  What I remember the most is he started out with the minimal weight possible on each machine I tried.  I felt foolish.  Ten pounds?  Who can’t lift ten pounds?  However, my trainer didn’t keep me there for long.  He soon added more weight.  What was foolish became work.  What was work was not fun.  Off to the treadmills, stationary cycles, and rowing machines.  Same thing there.  He started me out small.  He built up the time and distance.  What we easy became work.  But a funny thing happened.  The body adjusts to adversity.  It just takes time to do so.  I knew all the work was worth it when I had to drag a dead deer out of the woods for five miles.  Not a simple task.  I could do so without stopping for breath.  One step in front of the other; plodding along through the snow, over trees and through the brush; we got out of there with no problem.

Initially, I was not happy while lifting weights, running miles, or rowing for an hour.  But when the time came and the practical application of all that hardship came to light, I was happy I could endure.  Hardship is difficult.  It was never meant to be.  The trials of life are meant to be hard.  The trouble we endure is meant to make us stronger.  As it does, our demeanor can change.  It can change from resentment, weariness, or avoidance to happily enduring the trial before us.  If we are not happy while we endure, then our eyes are too shortsighted.  We do not have our eyes on the right things.  Had Job remembered that God was merciful and that no trial lasts forever, perhaps he would have fared a little better.  If he had remembered that God has a purpose for everything even though it is difficult to see, perhaps he could have trusted the LORD a bit stronger.  If Job told himself he was not entitled to any answer and would have allowed God to be God, then maybe he could have been a blessing to his friends.  Yet, from the passage above, we learn that Job did turn his adversity into happiness.  We do not know the details.  We are never told.  But James, but the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, knew that Job was a happy man while facing a time of significant loss.  If Job could be happy despite his horrible situation, then we can too.  If we bear under the load and endure, then maybe happiness will result.