Perseverence...The Story Of My Life?

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4)

Blah, blah, blah, the last thing anyone wants to hear when life sucks! Isn't that the truth?

Well this one is coming from my own personal experience. I am not going to share the situation with you, but most of you know what I am talking about anyway.

I've had this little saying the past little while. It goes like this..."drama". Oh ya, and then I would follow that statement with "the story of my life". Now I would imagine that most of the world could agree with this statement. That there is always some sort of drama going on, some sort of sucktastic junk on your mind. Some issue, or situation that weighs you down, and is heavy on your heart.

Most of you who know my story know that I have put myself in the exact same situation twice now in the past year. And I've handled it in two different ways. Now the first time I began to spend more time in the word and began growing in my spiritual life. But as my situation just seemed to grow in suckiness I didn't continue in my devotions.

Now this second time I kept going with my devotions no matter what. Hanging on, hoping that somewhere, somehow, God would come good on his promises. (Now none of this is to ring my own bell or to make me look like superchristian, because I'm not).

I have this little ritual I go through when life sucks. It usually starts with reading some of Job. Then the whole "concider it pure joy thing", and then I dabble a little Psalm 40 in there too. And I never seem to get anything out of it.

Well one day I was going through my ritual and got to this passage in James. And I was just sitting asking God why I was going through what seemed like hell...again. (I realize that I have blogged on how pointless asking "why" is). And it hit me. God was trying to teach me perseverence, He wants to know if I am in it for the long haul.

And I got looking into the verse a little more (you don't have to look very hard to find what I found). We need perseverence so that we can be mature and complete, which is something I want, maturity in my life, my spiritual life as well. Now looking at the verses before it, you see that perseverence is developed by the testing of our faith. And that is why we should concider it pure joy when we face trials, because God is going to teach us. God wants to know who is in it for the long haul.

So then the story of my life shouldn't be so much "drama", but it should be what I do with that drama, the sucktasticality. Do I sit still, or turn away? Or do I let God develope perseverence in me, and let Him teach me, and make me "mature and complete, not lacking anything".

We as humans have such a hard time seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in times of trials. Because we have finite minds, minds that can't see the big picture. I'm glad that God has control of all this mess that I put myself in, that even though I don't, God sees the big picture. He has a plan and has it all worked out!

If anyone out there reading is going through a tough time. I encourage you to hold on to God, not only will He deliver you, but He'll teach you so much if you let Him. He sees the big picture.

God is teaching me so much in my times of trial. And this trial...it sucks...a lot, but I thank Him for it. I'm holding on for the long haul. Perseverence is going to be the story of my life.