Consider it pure joy … whenever you face trials.
—James 1:2
On its face today’s text sounds loony. It’s a stretch to find anything joyful about trials.
James doesn’t say that you should go looking for trials—just tells you how you should respond to them when they show up, which they inevitably will.
And he tells you why: “the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” And perseverance, he says, is your finishing school, making you mature, complete, not deficient in anything.
Regarding run-ins with trials, J.B. Phillips wrote, “don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends!” That’s a tall order, but has a generous payoff if your goal is to become mature, complete, and not deficient in anything.
You don’t choose what you go through,
but you choose how you go through it.