Count it all Joy, James 1

 What I want to look at today is James 1:2.

“Count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds.  For you know the testing of your faith develops  perseverance.”

When I was a little kid, I lived in Montgomery, Alabama, and every year my dad would take us to the Thanksgiving Day parade.  Small town, small parade.  But every year we went because at the end of the parade was Santa Claus -- the sleigh, the reindeer, candy getting thrown everywhere from the elves, so we’re going, right?  So every year we would go to my dad's office where he worked, about a 4-story skyscraper, biggest building I’d ever seen, and we would stand right outside of his office and we’d watch the parade.

The problem with being a little kid is the vertically challenged part of it.  So what would happen is we would go out there, but there were adults everywhere, and we would just have to push our faces through to try to see stuff.  Mom wasn’t going to let me stand on the curb, so I am always back behind them, and I am trying to push my face but I can only see is a small area right in front of me.  This float went, another float went, and they’re always just floats like “What? It’s an old man on a convertible? Who is this person? Is he the king of the parade? Did he win a contest?” Then there’s like a really bad school band, and there’s these Shriner’s doing things with their bikes, and I would just think, “Oh, Santa Claus,” you know? And I would think if I could just get on top of my dad's building and I could see, I'd see the whole parade in one shot.  And I would know in eight more floats, BOOM, Santa Claus. Right? So I’d be fine with that, but I'm stuck here seeing one float at a time.

Man, that is a little story I’ve told a lot of teenagers who are all sitting at the very beginning that they think of everything that’s coming to them. Does that make sense? They are like, “I’ve got to decide where I’m going to school, I’ve got to decide what I’m majoring in, I’ve got to decide is this girl the one or do I need a girl?  Do I need to be married or be single.  Do I need to be here or do I need to be there?” And it's like everything is this big riddle that God has you figure out or you’re in big trouble, right?  And I’m gonna make the wrong decision and I’m gonna blow my whole life and I’m just gonna be a failure at everything, and it’s all on my shoulders, because all I can see is one float at a time.

You know, the reason James could say what he said in verse 1 “Count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” He says because you know.  What James saw and what people like Paul saw was that Jesus is already there.  He sees your whole parade.  He sees every float.  H e knows you need to go through THIS because THAT is coming later.  He’s looking at my whole life. He is standing at the end of my life right now looking back on it.  You’re sitting here wondering if you need to get married or not or if this person is the right one, when Jesus is sitting on the porch swing with you and your wife watching your grandkids right now.  He is already there.

The reason Paul said some amazing things is because Paul knew that Jesus is already there.  In Philippians, he says things like "It's really working out great that I am here in prison."

Write that down and read that a couple of times.  What would we be doing?  Man, I would be launching Twitter campaigns. I would be having people call their congressman to get me out of prison because I’m a good guy and I don't deserve it and I don't know why I’m having to go through this issue.

But Paul is saying, "No, no.  You don't understand.  It's all good because the guards here know that I'm here because of Jesus and they're hearing Jesus, and the prisoners here are all seeing it, too.  And guess what else?  Even people in church, believers, they are now having more faith because I'm going through this."

He got it.  He understood that yeah, this is today, but this isn’t life.  Jesus is already at the end of this looking back on it.  I need to rest in Him, not rest in my situation.  That’s something that I have to try to do every day, something that I’m really not the best at. I’ll be the biggest dork in Heaven. If there’s a way to mess this up, I’ve messed it up, but one of the areas that I really need to rest in is the fact that Jesus is already there.

God bless you guys.

-Mark

Check out Mark’s video series on James here.