Consider it Pure Joy

An Authorial Note: I've been going back through various things I've written for other platforms over the last year. I first wrote these words in February 2020 for the Holston Conference Daily Devotional. At the time, I had no idea what the next month would hold - the Pandemic, the family crisis, the heartbreak and the loss. Frankly, I find it fascinating that this is the last thing I wrote before I experienced one of the most painful trials of my life. That's the funny thing about life and ministry and writing. Very often, the thing God leads us to share with others or spend time contemplating is the very thing we will need ourselves in the journey ahead. While the events of March 2020 and the following months were a shock to me, they weren't a shock to the Good Shepherd.

I've minimally edited this piece - updated some parts where I felt the writing was shoddy and removed time bound language. But if there's one personal note that I'd add, its this: living with joy is a choice. I know, I know...it sure doesn't feel like it. But I found this to be true. When everything in my life seemed to fall apart at once, I could look to the birds singing on a Spring afternoon; I could hear the laughter of my kids; I could smell the honeysuckle on a warm summer evening. These were small choices to find reminders of joy in the midst of struggle. James is right (as if he needed my endorsement). But looking back, I'm profoundly grateful for the trials because they really did change me for the better.

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“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2–4, NIV)

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I was looking at a book recommendation from Amazon the other day about Pastoral Leadership and the challenges of ministry (get out of my head Amazon!). I respected the author. The book looked good. I like to read. And it could be at my doorstep in two days…and I wouldn’t even have to put on pants! It was the perfect storm for an unnecessary impulse buy.

But then I read the endorsements. You know, the bit where other authors talk about how great the book is? I rarely read endorsements… but this day I did.

And I’m so glad I did. The book wasn’t new; it was about 10 years old actually. The first three endorsements were all from pastors whose respective ministries had, in the last few years, literally imploded. One of the men was apparently verbally and physically abusive (not a great trait perhaps especially in a pastor). Another had completely walked away from his faith (also, not an ideal pastoral trait). And the other had an affair and wrecked his family and church in one fell swoop.

I thought of Jesus' old adage: "You will know them by their fruit."

I didn’t buy the book.

Life is hard. Ministry is hard. And when you put those two together, it’s still really hard. Pastors, even famous or respected ones, are still flawed people capable of weak moments and bad decisions. I have a lot of compassion for people, especially people in any kind of ministry, who endure very public trials and suffering (self-inflicted or not). Speaking from personal experience on this one, it ain't easy.

The truth is that a collapse like that can happen to anyone. But I don’t want that to be my story. I don’t want my ministry to collapse. I don’t want to have a moral failure. I don’t want to leave people clinging to wreckage in the wake of my life. I want to be “mature and complete, not lacking anything.” I can't remember who said it, but someone much smarter than I came up with this line: I want the people who knew me best in life to love me the most. The point being, the crowd is fickle but my kids and my family and the people I care most about....how I am with them and too them really does matter.

I doubt those Pastors started out their careers with a goal of moral failure. I just don't believe someone was sitting around in a Seminary class dreaming of the day they'd got caught doing cocaine in a strip club. But far more bizarre things have happened to Pastors and other public Christian leaders. So, is that kind of collapse accidental? Is it avoidable?

I think James offers some important wisdom: our response to daily difficulties will shape our character. Jesus told his disciples that in this life, they would experience trials of many kinds (John 16:33). James tells us that when trials inevitably happen, we should “consider it pure joy.” But, really? You've been through trials right? Did you consider it pure joy?

Is it pure joy when money’s tight, the car won’t start, and people are cruel? What about when I can’t pray or don’t know how to pray? Should I consider it pure joy when loved ones die, people walk away from the church, and I get that diagnosis I was dreading? Is it pure joy when my family falls apart at the seams? Is it pure joy when the bank account's empty and I have no job lined up?

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters.”

When you face trials and hardship, consider that you can have a pervasive sense of well-being because God is unfathomably good and incomprehensibly powerful. There is no trial, test, or hurt that he cannot redeem for your good and his glory. Nothing in this world can separate us from the love of God revealed through Jesus our King. In this world we will have trouble, but we can take heart and have courage. Why? Because Jesus is victorious over the world!

When you face trials (and all of us face trials), if you set your mind and will on the goodness and love of God, you will begin to develop that great character trait of perseverance. And if you just won’t quit and let perseverance finish its work, you will grow to a place of greater depth and maturity than you had probably thought possible.

Trials and struggles are a given; how we respond is not. But our response determines our character, for better or worse. And for those of us in ministry, whether that’s credentialed and formal, or organic and informal, our character matters. I love the way that E.M. Bounds puts it: “God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God’s method. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.”