Trust God as the Source of Joy

Thinking of the emphasis on tests & trials in this week’s passage, I recalled our younger son Jacob’s spelling tests from his early years at Mission Trail Elementary school. After his 1^st “Show What You Know” spelling test, Jacob came home & excitedly said, “Dad! I got 10/20 on my spelling test & I didn’t even practice my words. Isn’t that great?” (Me: Blink.  Blink.) Needless to say, we sat down for a H.R.-esque chat about re-adjusting goals & expectations for spelling test performances. (I have to admit, I felt bad for Jacob. He reminded me of the comic of the guy excitedly telling an office colleague, “I told such a funny joke in our morning staff meeting, H.R. wants me to re-tell it to them.”)

In today’s passage, James is addressing a common theological idea: God is busily designing tests & trials for all of His children. However, this makes very little sense to me because I can’t figure out what the purpose of these tribulations would be. After all, as we practiced Jacob’s 20 spelling words each weekday morning (1 time perfect Monday through Wednesday & 3 times perfect on Thursday), no one wanted him to correctly spell the 19^th & 20^th words more than me. (“C’mon little buddy, you can do this: ‘Vacuum.’”)

I submit that James is cont ending that our trials & tribulations are NOT directed by God, but rather occur due to our broken world (bad guys doing bad things), natural cycles of life (illness & death), or bad choices we freely make of our own volition (Thinking a Quick Trip taquito after 9:00 p.m. would be a wise dietary choice).

Well, how might we go about life then?

I would point to one of my favorite pieces of family heritage: a cross-stitch sampler sewn by my Grandmother Erma. Its beauty lies in the story behind the artwork.

Erma sewed this during the summer of 1936 while living with Grandad Orville on their small farm in the suburbs of Morganville, Kansas in north central Kansas. The temperatures of 1936 would be among the hottest summers in recorded history, reaching all-time highs of 115 degrees in August. Orville & Erma had already endured 2 lean years of crop yields due to the intense drought-like conditions & this year’s production would be the worst of the decade. In the midst of this brutally hot summer where night-time temperatures remained above 90 degrees, Erma was 5-months pregnant with my Dad, Rayburn. Oh, and she simultaneously had a bad case of the chicken pox as well. (Every couple of hours during the day, Grandad Orville would come to the house & dip bed sheets in the cold well-water to hang on the windows to provide a little homemade “air conditioning” for Erma.)

Yet, amazingly, in the midst of these Grapes of Wrath-like conditions she was stitching a beautiful piece of art with the pleasant sentiment, “Home Sweet Home.” 50+ years later as she told the story of surviving that summer, she commented that life’s dry seasons don’t mean some divine challenge or test. Seasons are always going to change, but God is always faithful. (To be fair, this was with several decades of additional perspective, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that summer she shouted at Orville, “This is all your fault!” or maybe looked to God & exclaimed, “Really? Chicken pox, too? You’ve got to be kidding me!”)

So, maybe we should tweak our picture of God. He’s not spending His days cranking out tests for us with tricky words like “silhouette” or “opossum.” Rather, I would submit that God is cheering us on each day saying, “C’mon buddy, you got this,” or providing moments of awe as we look about nature or quickly coming to offer us comfort in times of sorrow. And as our life journey concludes, I picture Him patiently sitting in the stands waiting to proudly stand up & applaud as we cross the stage to accept our diploma that states, “Well done, good & faithful servant!”

We’ll wrap up with one of my Grandmother Erma’s favorite jokes: A young man enters the library & asks the librarian for a play by Shakespeare. “Which one,” she asks. The student looks at his notebook & replies, “William.”

P.S.: For the record, Jacob quickly caught on to the whole “Show What You Know” routine. He graduated 2 weeks ago with his MBA from Kansas State University &, yes, I was proud of my “little buddy.”