Overcoming – Page 23

Count It All Joy!

”Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” James 1:2 ESV
This is one of those verses that for most people is easier said than done. For one thing trials are not normally things we associate with joy, or with delight and gladness – all of which the Greek word “charan” in the original text can be translated. After the fact we may have occasion to laugh about our trials, but when we are in them it is not a laughing matter. Why should a person consider trials an opportunity for joy? And how can we possibly do it with any consistency?
The writer who assumes we can do this has impeccable credentials. He is James, the surviving brother of Jesus and the leader of the early Christian church. If anyone knew something about trials he did, both personally and as a first hand observer of the various kinds of trials suffered by all believers in the first century.
The main thing James says as an explanation for his “count it all joy” challenge is “for you know (emphasis mine) that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” (vs. 3) His claim is a reasonable one. In essence he is saying that trials test our faith and a tested faith produces in us steadfastness or endurance. Since in the long run having endurance is a good thing, that puts its cause, which is trials, in a positive and redemptive light and therefore something worth counting as joy. Knowing all that should make a difference.
While it sounds logical, more often than I would like to admit, knowing the noble purpose of trials, at least in my personal experience and in my attempts to give others that perspective in their trials, hasn’t been enough to turn the joy switch on. What then is the key to counting it all joy?

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Just Passing Through

Growth & Development, Overcoming / Tom Stuart

”Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.” Psalm 84:5-7 NIV
These verses describe the spiritual journey each person who longs to wholeheartedly seek after God must take. They embody the essential elements of every epic tale or narrative.
The Bible, mythology, literature and cinematic productions all enthrall us with the story of the hero or heroine venturing forth on a quest to fully apprehend that for which they have been destined. Whether it is Abraham and Sarah, Bilbo Baggins, Indiana Jones or Dorothy, the script follows the same story line.
1. There is an inward beckoning or outward call to leave the security of home for a stouthearted journey into the unknown. (“set their hearts on pilgrimage”)
2. There is the fated passage through one or more deep valleys and trials. (“they pass through the Valley of Baca”)

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When the plowman overtakes the reaper

35 Comments / Check this out!, Holy Spirit Aha's, Overcoming / Tom Stuart

At first reading, this verse is hard to comprehend and even a bit confusing. It is like a brain teaser. It compares two different metaphors for fruitfulness, growing grain and growing grapes, while at the same time intermixing references to all four of the agricultural seasons: plowing, planting, reaping and treading/threshing.

Right away it is puzzling to consider the picture of a plowman overtaking a reaper. One tends to think it would be the other way around since the normal sequence of events has the reaper following the plowman.

The second analogy of the grape treader overtaking the planter seems more sequentially reasonable but one cannot help but wonder how that can be and what it could mean? Pause and think about it. And then to add even more confusion, the prophet Amos throws in one last sentence that seems to bypass the agricultural seasons altogether by stating simply that wine is going to flow directly from the hills. Are you confused yet? Good, now let’s look at this promise more carefully.

To begin with it needs to be said that this is one of the most remarkable promises ever given regarding God’s ability to release blessing and abundance. It forecasts an era of fruitfulness that can only be explained as miraculous because it overrides the natural law. If there is one promise to claim in the Bible and pray that it will come to pass in your lifetime this is it.

This amazing promise of fruitfulness has two aspects.

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Ready for something new?

2 Comments / Overcoming, Relationship with God / Tom Stuart

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” Isaiah 43:18-19

There is nothing worse than being in a rut – stuck in a pattern of life that keeps taking you places you don’t want to go. It may be a negative attitude, a destructive habit pattern, a toxic relationship, a dead end job, you name it. Bottom line, you know what a rut is? It is a grave with the ends kicked out. Or at least that is how it can feel.

The promise of a “new thing” quoted above is one of the greatest rutbuster verses in the Bible. Originally it was spoken by God to a sinful and rut-bound Israel promising their deliverance through the coming of the Messiah. But it continues to shine forth as a beacon of hope to all those whose lives are rut bound. And the promised deliverer is still that self-same Messiah, Jesus Christ.

The challenge is that those to whom God seeks to reveal His “new thing” often fail to recognize it. Sadly it is no different today than when God first sent His son Jesus to earth. We read of Jesus that “He came to His own, but His own people did not receive Him.” (John 1:11) Is that perplexing and frustrating or what? There was God, His new thing springing up right under their noses and yet they failed to recognize it. Has that ever happened to you? Maybe, just maybe, it is happening to you right now.

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Contentment is a matter of perspective

Growth & Development, Life Balance, Overcoming / Tom Stuart

There is a classic Yiddish folktale of a poor man living in a crowded one room hut with his wife and five children. Against his will his mother-in-law comes to live with them. He tries to cope but the noise and cramped conditions wear him down to the point where he goes to the local rabbi seeking counsel. The rabbi, upon listening intently and pausing to reflect for a moment asks “Do you have a rooster?” “Yes,” replies man. “Then bring the rooster into the hut with you and come and see me in a week.”

A week later after enduring even worse conditions, the man returns complaining to the rabbi. “Do you have a cow?” the rabbi asks.”Yes” the man replies hesitantly. “Then take your cow into the hut as well, and come see me in a week.”

Over the next several weeks, the man, on the discomfiting advice of the rabbi, adds into his increasingly chaotic little hut his goat, pig, two dogs and his brother’s children. Finally, at wits end, when he can take it no longer, he goes to the rabbi. “This is crazy! It’s not working, things are only getting worse!” “Good then,” said the rabbi. “Now kick all the animals out and send the guests home – come back and see me in a week.”

Upon doing this the man reported back to the rabbi. “It’s wonderful, Rabbi, my home is so spacious and quiet – why I don’t even mind having my mother-in-law live with us now. I can’t believe it.”

I was first introduced to this delightful story as retold by Margot Zemach in her beautifully illustrated children’s book entitled “It Could Always Be Worse” when my children were little. It became one of my favorite books and I loved reading it over and over to them. The tale’s message about contentment is so simple and yet so profound.

Contentment is basically a matter of perspective and therefore something that can be learned.

Not surprisingly this is exactly what the Apostle Paul says about his quest for contentment in the midst of difficult circumstances in his own life. “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content” he says. (Philippians 4:11)

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