Holding the Queen's umbrella

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds
James 1:2

James begins his letter by facing two realities – we will face trials, not ‘if’ but ‘whenever’. Secondly, those trials will take different shapes at different times for different people – ‘trials of many kinds’.

Yet his opening exhortation is to consider facing such trials as ‘pure joy’. We might be forgiven for thinking James’ pastoral skills sound a little pious and simplistic. Is this just some crass ‘cheer up, could be worse, look on the bright side’ advice to make us cringe in the presence of real suffering and desperate difficulties?

Well no – because James isn’t saying ‘enjoy’ your trials or that there is masochistic pleasure to be found in our sufferings. Rather he is encouraging us to put our afflictions in a bigger context – to see that they have a purpose and indeed their very presence is a sign of God’s favour to us.

Imagine being asked to hold the Queen’s umbrella as she does a walk-about on a wet afternoon. You patiently follow Her Majesty keeping her covered from the rain, your arm aches and you yourself are increasingly getting soaked and chilled by the weather battering your unprotected self. At the end of day you’re asked what you did today – you answer, 'I held an umbrella up for 2 hours, got soaked and have cramp in my arms and shoulders'. ‘What a rubbish job’, comes the response. ‘No’, you quickly reply, 'it was a privilege, a joy to have done it’.

The ‘joy’ was not in the umbrella holding – but in the knowledge of who you were holding it for and the effect it was having.

We face trials of many kinds not because life is just a lottery of random ups and downs – but under the sovereignty of God. He allows His people to pass through difficulties precisely because He loves them and is working out great things for them. Further to be ‘asked’ by God to bear burdens is a mark of God’s special regard for someone: ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no-one on earth like him’ (Job 1:8). Job faced his trials not because he was a guy in the wrong place at the wrong time – but because God had a purpose to be worked out through them and was able to trust Job with such a calling. And there is no greater honour that that.