March 12, 2010

James 1

[Wow, we dodged a bit of a bullet there - nearly had a Friday 13th, which is the only thing that could have made performing a series of Witches Conjuring Scene presentations in the former headquarters of the Masons on a stormy morning more creepy. Or this day longer. Anyway...]

I'm going to break up these chapters a bit because they're very dense and this is another short book, so here goes the first installment on this chapter.

We've been dealing with Paul a lot, and James is very different. Not as much to be gleaned from his salutation "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings." Although - could someone riddle that out for me? What does the Dispersion mean? Is this after the razing of Jerusalem?

There's a lot of advice, but I think right off the bat we get some of the best. "whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing." Why do good people suffer? So that they can grow. So that they can become more good, more beautiful, more compassionate and caring and loving. If we could see our cross as the chance to grow stronger and closer to God, we could bear them with more grace.

The doubter comments are a fitting pair with this injunction, because we doubt most in hardship in general. That wasn't my experience necessarily, however. When my family bore its heaviest load, I felt closest to God. Of course, in the year following my father's death I had more of a breakdown in my relationship with God. If we let these terrible things which happen burn away all of the things in our life that don't work, that hold us back, then they can make us better rather than weaken us. It's not "why they happen" because that hardly seems worth a great man's life - the fact that his daughter feels closer to God and his children stop fighting as much. But if that was to happen, we should approach it in order to grow to greater understanding and faith through it.

How though? I suggest that it is, in fact, a matter of remembering His love, our faith, and the fact that we are not alone in any of it. If we give in to doubt - He could make this all go away in a flash if He is what we believe - or turn away from that trust in His care of us, then we can turn down a bad path. But God is the anchor of our souls, He can hold us steady through the most terrible of times. It's all He wants to do when they come. He can't force us to take the gifts He gives so freely, we have to reach out to take them.

If we remember how He loved us to His death, if we still celebrate how He is with us here, then we can hold fast to our love and our God in the darkest of times.

Blessed are those who mourn.