Perseverance Must Finish Its Work?

January 7, 2013

"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 NIV

I just cannot get away from this passage lately.  I keep coming back to it again and again, looking at it from different angles, fighting it, trying to come to terms with it.  I don't claim to fully understand it yet.  I am wrestling with it.  Perseverance . . . endurance must be something very important in the Christian faith, and the pathway to perseverance is (sigh) testing and trials.  It appears it is not enough to just accept those tests and trials, either.  I am supposed to consider them pure joy.  I can do it in theory, in my better moments, but in practice . . . I fail!  A major bomb!  Ka-plooey!

So I pick myself up off my hands and knees.  I take a deep breath, and try again.  What is the work of perseverance, anyway?  I can see that the result is to make me mature and complete, not lacking anything, but what, exactly does that mean?

I notice that in my Bible I have scribbled "Amos 4" next to this passage.  When I flipped over to see what it said, I found where I had jotted James 1:2-5 next to verse 6.  It says, "I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD."  Empty stomachs and lack of bread would certainly be trials, and the work of those trials is to urge me to return to the LORD . . .  Oh.

I would like to think that I am following The Lord wholeheartedly, but if I am absolutely honest with myself, my perseverance has not yet finished its work.  I follow more in spurts.  I wish it were not so, but I still have a long way to go to get to mature and complete lacking nothing.

It reminds me of the story my Mama tells about when my little sister was not finishing her math papers.  She was in second grade, I think.  The teacher would assign about 20 problems.  My sister would do the first 10 flawlessly.  Then she would doodle on or tear the paper between the problems that were left, leaving them blank.  Naturally, the teacher requested a conference with my parents.  Their creative solution was to show my sister the importance of a job well done and complete.  Their first attempt was to give her half-cooked french fries, golden brown on the outside, crunchy and raw within.  She liked them that way!  They had to make their point, so they tried serving her half-cooked pancakes, golden brown on the underside, raw on top.  That got her attention.

I guess I have been too satisfied with my half-cooked french fry faith.  I go to church regularly, have a daily quiet time, I try to walk with The Lord, but I get side-tracked when I grumble and complain, when I fail to be thankful for the many blessings He pours out on me.

Ann Voskamp, the best-selling author of One Thousand Gifts - A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are points out that we enter His gates with thanksgiving.  She suggests keeping a written list of the blessings, the gifts He gives, and practicing thanksgiving by intentionally giving thanks for at least one thousand gifts in a year.  She says that thanksgiving brings joy into a life.  I have taken her Joy Dare.  We'll see how it goes.  It seems to be such a simple adjustment to collect at least three things for which I am thankful each day.  Could it really make a change in my french fry faith?  We will see.  If you would like to read more about Ann's challenge, check out her writing and her videos at aholyexperience.com .

I probably have a much longer path to travel to get to a mature and complete faith, but for now I am looking at the uncooked pancakes on my plate and realizing that thanksgiving is lacking in my life.  I am very thankful that God leads me step by step, and that He understands my need for baby steps on His pathway.  I am thankful that He holds my hand and coaxes me along the way.  I want to be mature and complete, lacking nothing, so I suppose I had better work on my perseverance.  Here goes . . . !