Joy in the struggle
Is joy in trial possible?
It was supposed to be the best day of the young mother’s life, yet the hot tears that were sliding down her cheeks suggested anything but that. As she held her limp child in her arms and kissed her lifeless cheek one last time, she felt utter despair.
It is beyond the scope of humanity’s emotional capacity to expect the mother in that situation to possess a hint of happiness. Yet, it is entirely expected to label this event a trial. Encouraging her to “consider it joy …” (James 1:2) seems contemptible in this mother’s presence. Other than being downright cruel and inappropriate, it doesn’t seem plausible. How can an empathic believer look at the countenance of this young woman who is grieving the loss of her precious and most beloved child and expect her to consider joy in this suffering?
Perhaps we need to dive into the context and application before spouting trite phrases at our fellow believers in any given trial.
Understanding joy?
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, joy is defined by such words as bliss, great pleasure, happiness, or delight. Without a doubt, joy can contain elements of these emotions because we have experienced them in certain situations in varying degrees. None of these words are contrary to how the Bible would define joy; however, this seems too simplistic and temporary compared to the biblical view of joy.
A glance at two often-quoted Scripture passages where joy is mentioned alongside trials should help us wrestle with a scriptural definition. James 1:2–3 (NLT here and following), “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.” Or Romans 5:3, “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.” According to this translation, the trials will bring about endurance and that is all that matters, right? If we stop here, there is not much by way of hope or encouragement except to say that at the very least we will be able to endure hardship. Give the young mother a couple of weeks to grieve and then build her up with a healthy dose of, “at least you will be able to endure this hardship as long as you do not give up your faith.” There. Dust off hands and carry on.
But—pain persists. Addictions and mental illness persist. Aging persists. Grief persists.
Humanity experiences endless challenge in this life yet Scripture tells us to rejoice always (Philippians 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:16). How can this simplistic directive be possible if we are in constant trial? Our definition and interpretation will need to be convincing compared to Merriam-Webster’s if we have any hope of encouraging our young, Christian mother.
Biblical joy
It would be derelict of us to simply look at the biblical definition of joy in relation to trial while ignoring the multitude of other references to joy throughout Scripture. While it is impossible to parse out all the passages related to joy, let us look at a few examples.
First Samuel 4:5 describes rambunctious joy, “When all the Israelites saw the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord coming into the camp, their shout of joy was so loud it made the ground shake!” Yet, when you read this verse in context, the Israelites were being defeated by the Philistines, and they assumed the presence of the ark of the covenant would bring them victory. It did not.
Ezra 6:16 says, “The Temple of God was then dedicated with great joy by the people of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the people who had returned from exile.” God’s chosen people were exiled for 70 years and came home to a completely rebuilt temple where they could once again worship, sacrifice, and experience the presence of God. However, just over two generations of the Jewish people were hampered in their capacity to worship in their own space.
Many of the psalms also refer to rejoicing or joy. For example, in Psalm 5:11, “But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them sing joyful praises forever. Spread your protection over them, that all who love your name may be filled with joy.” At first glance, this appears to be a solidly positive declaration of pure joy but, upon closer inspection, the joy is possible because protection and refuge are available to the faithful followers of God. Refuge from what?
New Testament writers continue the teaching on joy. Paul repeatedly says that he experiences joy when he thinks about or prays for all the people who are following and worshipping God. What was Paul’s life like? Although he did experience joy, it occurred while he also endured imprisonment, exile, and persecution in a variety of ways. Philippians is often referred to as the book of joy due to the frequency with which joy is mentioned and expected as an integral part of the believer’s experience of faith. This epistle closely links the command to rejoice with life’s trials that we must cope with daily.
Obviously, these barely scratch the surface of all the references we could highlight, but it gives us a glimpse of how joy is rarely an emotion or experience that humanity has without trial as part of the story. What we know so far is that joy can and should be cultivated alongside or in spite of struggle.
What are the possible outcomes?
The reality we live in is that trial, chaos, pain, and the like are always a part of the human experience, and we are still called to choose joy in its midst. The biblical definition of joy, therefore, cannot mean that it is merely an emotional response to good. “The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving” (Psalm 28:7). “Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord” (Psalm 119:1). “Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!” (Habakkuk 3:17–18). From these few verses we can see that joy is a choice rather than just a feeling.
One could say that happiness is a temporary feeling or emotion that happens to you, and joy is a state of being or a cultivation of deep emotion over time; therefore, you are choosing a way of being.
Let us return to our original text in James where he encourages folks to consider joy as a viable response to trials. There are several translations we can look at to gain insight into what it is we are choosing. The NIV says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (1:2). We have a part to play in whether we will have joy. Again, if we just stop there, we are missing out on what the joy is connected to. Does joy come automatically from having trials? Surely not! Only a vindictive god would expect such an erroneous response to trial.
Thankfully, both Paul and James keep writing. James 1:3–4, “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.” Paul completes it in this way, “Because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3–5 NIV).
Faith produces perseverance which leads to maturity and completion by the end of the race. Life is a marathon from conception to final breath comprised of many trials and victories which are meant to build character and mature one’s mind and heart to bear the fruits of the Spirit. Faith continues to grow as we mature and apply the lessons that are consistently taught through trial. Perseverance is a muscle that is being trained. Every trial is another workout that pushes us to the limit of our strength but as we recover between workouts, the muscle strengthens and adapts to its new way of being with the anticipation of another workout. Does this analogy hold up under trials that do not appear to have an end date such as chronic pain? I would suggest that it does.
Psychology and brain science show that the human mind and body are remarkably capable of coping and adapting to pain and change. Dr. Dan Siegel, a leading thinker in psychology, suggests that mindful awareness is a key factor that promotes interconnection in brain functions, leading to psychological well-being and resilience. (See Dan J. Siegel, The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, 2020.) Mindful awareness comes from exercising our minds, enabling us to balance our emotions, strengthen our attention, feel better in our bodies and open our minds to living in more creatively and fulfilling ways. This sounds a lot like a state of being in harmony with the daily tasks of caring for one’s heart and mind. Our consistent mindfulness, especially regarding faith, affects our state of being as well as our ability to cope with the trials we face, whether they are temporary or chronic.
And we cannot ignore Paul’s assertion that hope is an equally important outcome that fuels our potential joy. Time and again, we may say to one another, “Even just a glimmer of hope is enough to keep you going” or “As long as there is breath there is hope.” There is truth in these phrases because hope is the last thing we lose. What makes hope a true motivator is what we have hope in. Believers intuitively know that in the verses above, hope refers to eternal glory. In James’s passage, he talks about completion and not lacking anything in perfection that is ours in heaven. We can have hope that all the trials we face, endure, encounter, fall into, will lead us to our eternal state of joy. As also described in Revelation 21:4 (ESV), “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Additionally, Paul states that our hope for our eternal salvation wipes the slate clean of shame because God sees fit to fill us with his presence and love. Hope exists because Jesus bore our shame on the cross and dealt with it once and for all. We are then gifted with the Holy Spirit to assist us daily in dealing with our sinful natures that desperately want to bring us back to a place of shame. Oftentimes, our trials appear to be results of our sinful choices or, at the very least, this is what Satan attempts to convince us of, but Paul tells us to take our thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:5) and live in the knowledge that we have hope.
What are we choosing?
When we consider it pure joy to face many kinds of trials, we are choosing to keep on keeping on. We are choosing to see the opportunities presented before us positively regardless of the evident negativity. We are choosing to focus on the outcome as motivation while living through the present circumstances.
The joy is not the trial; the joy is the outcome.
Photo credit: Lightstock (both photos)
Audio is generated with AI voice technology.
