She Reads Truth: JamesSample

Get Well Soon

Isn’t it funny how we, in times of pain or trial, comfort our friends, loved ones and even ourselves with words like:

“Tomorrow will be better.”
“You’re going to make it through this.”
“What can I do to ease your pain?”

Our endgame is an end to suffering, often even in our longing for Heaven. We want to feel better as quickly as possible. We want the pain to stop! A whole industry of mylar balloons and teddy bears exists bearing the sentiment, “Get Well Soon!”

We pray the bad times away. We beg that they would never come at all. We ask The Lord to remove our thorns, to help us to endure our hardship, and to bring us through them as unscathed as possible. Lord, help us get well soon!

But James has an entirely different take on trials.

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.”

Don’t get over them. Don’t rush through them or past them. Rejoice --> IN <-- them.

James tells us not to be too hasty to escape the faith-testing valleys, because it is those valleys which contain the fertile soil needed to produce steadfastness. And steadfastness - being immovable, unable to be shaken, deeply rooted  - is perhaps the true “wellness” we should be seeking. “Lacking in nothing,” as James says.

As Christians, we eagerly say we want to be like Christ. (The term “Christian”, after all, means “little Christ” or “Christ’s crowd.”) But many of us are only actually asking for the good stuff. “Lord, make us loving and patient and joyful!” we sing in chorus and with enthusiasm. But while Jesus was indeed all of those things, He was also described by the prophet Isaiah as “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). Christ himself learned obedience through His suffering (Hebrews 5:8). And friends, from those dark-yet-fertile valleys sprout forth steadfastness, which indeed buds into love and flowers into patience and joy!

Sisters, can I encourage you today or tomorrow or whenever you find yourself in a place of trial: do not minimize it or rush through it. And most of all, do not waste it! Instead, do it well. Let it have its full effect. This - as backwards as it may feel - THIS is the time to thank The Lord. This is a time to rejoice! Not because bad things happen. Not because this poor, fallen world is full of death and injustice and sorrow. Rejoice because the sovereign Lord calls you His own, and He loves you enough to descend with you into the dark-yet-mysteriously-fertile valleys (where even Christ Himself descended), to produce in you a steadfastness which cannot be shaken.

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