Pure joy?

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  James 1:2 Has this verse ever made sense to you?


Looking back, I can see where times of trouble and conflict have resulted in great joy. I remember one time I was traveling back to the Far North. I lived for three years at the Eagle Plains Hotel 20 miles from the Arctic Circle, located along the Dempster Highway. The last 250 miles was a stretch of gravel and shale road, which wound through a wilderness region of mountains, whitewater, bush and tundra. There are no houses here, only two highway camps, and the hotel, all the way to the Northwest Territories. 


I left Dawson City in my moss-green, half-ton pickup truck, glad to be going home. I had two spare tires as there was very little traffic on this road. My truck had unusual wheels, with only 5 lug nuts for 16 inch tires. Beyond where I lived the highway crossed two large rivers, one of which is a mile wide. In the summer vehicles cross with a barge. Now, in the Fall Season, there was too much ice for the barges. It usually takes about a month for the river surface to freeze to about six feet thick so the traffic can drive over the ice bridge.


About 20 miles into the last leg of my journey home I got a flat tire. I was not worried as I had the best Michelans money could buy. An hour later I got a second flat tire. Now I was starting to pray, but I still had four good tires, and only about 120 miles to go. With the Ogilvie River roaring by on one side of the road, and the Ogilvie Mountains rising straight up on the other side of the road, I got my third flat tire. Oh, oh. A flood of emotions and thoughts raced through my mind. I had been listening to some preaching tapes on my cassette player. I decided to pray seriously. “God, I know that You can provide help if You want. You can do this in five hours, or five days. Because time is of no consequence to You, and because I really want to go home, please send me help in the next five minutes.” I had a timer in the truck. I set it on the dash for five minutes. Then I started to worship God. I clearly remember hearing a vivid thought, “What if nothing happens?” I looked at the stop watch. Four and a half minutes. I just kept praising God and walking around the truck. Within those 30 seconds an orange pick-up truck came roaring around the corner. They also had very rare, 5 hole 16 inch tires. And they had a spare. And they were going to the hotel where I lived. It turned out that someone in helicopter had reported a herd of Dahl up on the Richardson Mountains just north of us, and these guys were going to count them. It was a government wildlife preservation project.


This happened another time when I was travelling on the Top of the World Highway, driving West from Dawson City towards Chicken, Alaska. That road is so remote there was no one at the Border. I crossed from the Yukon into Alaska without talking to anyone. In some places the road drops away on both sides as you wind along mountain tops. Suddenly my truck died. Dead. Nothing on the motor. I started praying seriously again. The first guy that drove up was a gold miner. He had a friend who had a truck like mine. It was some quirkly electrical thing. You remove this black plastic box, untape this, there you are broken wire, tape it all back up…the motor fired up. It was specialized knowledge, exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it. No charge. “I’m sure you would do the same for me.”

1. Why do we do this? 

• Suffering bring things that are hidden in our hearts to the surface. 
• Sometimes these are things we have never dealt with. 
• Sometimes these are things that have crept in over a period of prosperity.
• Suffering is like a medical or a dental check-up. No one looks forward to it. But it is very important to our long-term health. We can verify what is going on. 
• If all is well, OK. 
• If disgusting and unholy attitudes show up, this is the time to confess them and to get healing.
• Suffering is not fun or enjoyable. Neither should it be feared. God Himself is our doctor. He still does miracles. Somethings he delivers us from instantly. Other times we need to confess our sins, and to work out our salvation. The instructions are individual.
• For this reason we rejoice: We have a loving God who does not leave us to figure things out for ourselves, and to get along as best we can.

• What we do not do:
• Deny that we are suffering and hurting
• Have a pity party and draw attention to ourselves
• Give up
• Get angry at God
• We we do:
• We search our hearts to see if there is any sin to confess.
• We sing songs of praise, in spite of our difficulty. This is a sacrifice of praise.
• We look forward to our complete deliverance
• We confess our faith in God’s care along the way
• We cry and reach out to God for deliverance
• The neighbour needs bread
• The widow needs justice
• The blind man wants to see
• The woman with the issue of blood needs healing
• We hang in there, trusting that Jesus is carrying us when we can go no further
• We look for water in the desert. We look for manna. We expect our shoes will not wear out in the desert. We anticipate entering the promised land, with God fighting in front of us, and us being obedient to him.

• Suffering changes us. It is like a crucible. 
• If we suffer well, we will come out as vessels of honor for God.
• If we suffer well, we increase our capacity to enjoy God’s rich blessings in our life.
• If we suffer well, we become the kind of people other people want to be around.
• If we suffer well, God’s blessings won’t destroy us.
• We learn to understand God’s provision in all circumstances.
• We learn our life here is about us walking and talking with God, and God walking and talking with us.