15.11 | It's You or the Mountain
James 1
'Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.’
James 1:2-4
Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to summit Mount Everest.
And yet, as the story goes, he didn’t manage it at the first attempt. Or the second. He kept on trying at it, until, finally, in 1953, he made it to the summit. News reached the United Kingdom on the day of Elizabeth II’s coronation.
After one of these failed efforts, Hillary is said to have stood at the base of the mountain, looking up at it, shaking his fist in defiance:
“I’ll defeat you yet,” he said. “Because you’re as big as you’re going to get—but I’m still growing.”
When we face a challenge that we are not yet able to summit, there are really only two options:
It shrinks.
Or we grow.
We’re starting the letter of James today, who describes himself primarily not as Jesus’ brother (which he biologically was), but as his servant. He’s writing to Jewish followers of Jesus, dispersed across the world. And he wants to draw them back to some essentials about apprenticeship to Jesus of Nazareth. It’s fast-paced and challenging, punctuated with rapid-fire commands, and covering a huge amount of material. James is passionate for a lived faith, an active faith, a kind of faith that manifests in daily decisions and a radical reorientation of perspective in all matters.
And he begins with the topic that is often on our hearts too:
Suffering.
Hardship, trials, struggle, temptation, pain. Challenge.
He goes right in here, to this universal experience, from which many of our most pressing questions come.
And yet, James comes with an angle that we don’t immediately want. Because most of our quick prayers, when we’re finding things hard, are directed towards changing the circumstances that are difficult. For that relationship to be reconciled, or that work situation to be transformed, or for financial provision or healing of our bodies. We pray for our challenges to shrink.
There’s nothing wrong with this. It is consistent with the Psalms, the Lord’s prayer, and the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane. Lead us not into tempation, but deliver us from evil is a mighty good prayer to pray.
And yet, James offers us a different angle:
Consider it pure joy.
Pure joy when we suffer? Pure joy in obstacles? Pure joy in pain?
How can this be?
I wonder that it is because James is looking to a deeper reality. For he knows that the comfort that we seek changes something external to us, and yet steadfastness grows something internal. He knows that comfort brings the change to the world around us, and yet steadfastness changes us. He knows that the prayer for comfort is the request that the suffering may become smaller, whereas the possibility of this moment is that we may become larger. He knows that there is something so beautiful in steadfastness, so powerful, so distinct, so heavenly, that the steadfast person is able to look any measure of challenge and suffering and struggle directly in the eye, and continue with hope uninterrupted and joy unrestrained.
For when the mountain before us is high, my friends, we have but two options:
The mountain shrinks.
Or we grow.
A word of caution with this teaching. James is quick to note that our hard circumstances do not come from God. All you receive from Him is goodness. All is light. All comes from heaven, where there is no suffering or lack or pain or shame. He may allow this suffering for a moment, and yet it does not find its origin in Him.
And so, my friends, pray for a change in circumstances without shame or fear. It is good to do so.
And yet, when the struggle remains, hear the upward call of James. Your simple act of standing, of continuance, of raising a sound of praise in the midst of a battlefield, is crafting something of such heavenly distinction in your way, that it is the very road to perfection itself.
Consider it pure joy.
For the mountain may be big.
But you are still growing.
Reflect:
What mountain am I facing right now? Ask God to grow steadfastness in you in this situation today.
Pray:
Father,
I’m happy to ask you
To move this mountain.
I don’t want it, I don’t like it,
And I know that it is not what I receive from Your hand.
And yet, Father,
These words today give me another possibility—
That in this struggle
You are making me
Greater.
And that in this call to stand with you right here, upon this battleground,
You are crafting something purer and more powerful,
More whole, more complete, more holy—
That you are doing a work in me that lifts my fears and dependency upon comfort,
And prepares me for the defiance of glory—
Wherein I no longer fear the darkness,
For the darkness I face has learned to fear me.
Father, build me in steadfastness,
Unto maturity, unto completion,
And unto joy untouchable.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Ezekiel 30:20-32:32 | Proverbs 28:1-7