In his translation of James 1:2-4, J. B. Phillips writes, “When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence.” This is and has been (for as long as I can remember) my favorite translation of James 1:2-4.
When facing trials and tribulations, welcoming them as friends is a pretty radical attitude, would you not agree? I once did a word study on the phrase “trials and temptations” used in vs. 2. These particular words come from the Greek word, PEIRASMOS, which, in Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, is defined as such: Trials (plural); a making experience [e.g., that which creates something within you]; to receive or take; rendered “assaying” in the sense of having experience of (or of being tried). As I think upon the above, it would appear to me that the trials James writes of are those experiences that (in and of themselves) create something within us; the sense, too, is that they are special problems given to us from the very Hand and Heart of God. Not only are we to receive them, but we are to pursue (meaning, ask for) them as well. Much like friendships with others, such problems must be actively sought out (or pursued) and received (read, "welcomed!").
All of this has changed the way I think about James 1:2. The trials James writes of are those specific things created and sent by God to stretch us on a daily basis, with the ultimate objective of our becoming "...men [and women] of mature character with the right sort of independence." I liken such trials to the fundamental drills a basketball coach might give to his young players to help them not just in preparing for upcoming games but in being better prepared to practice effectively each time they come together as a whole team.
I can imagine God being very much like a really good coach and giving each of us specific and personal drills intended to transform how we approach life, how we view ourselves, how we work and play and learn and persevere, and how we relate to God and to each other. As with anything, though, “effective drilling” occurs within the context of a loving partnership. God provides us with things to work on (read, “practice”), and, in response, we choose to practice such things as God has prescribed. Can such drills become an intrusion? At times. Can they be fun and illuminating? Absolutely! Are they painful? Sometimes, but not usually.
As I think upon such things, I am reminded of three slogans I adopted into my own slogan-practice more than fifteen years ago. I am indebted to Dick Marcinko, a former Navy Seal, for opening up these truths to me. Provided below are the slogans as they were first presented in Dick Marcinko's book, Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior, which he wrote with John Weisman in 1997:
1
Sometimes, one hast not to like it, one just hast to do it.
2
The more thou sweatest in training, the less thou bleedest in battle.
3
If thou hurtist in thine efforts and thou suffer painful dings, than thou art, most likely, doing it right.
To expand slightly upon what I wrote in The Practice of Practicing Everything, your training in life should not be separated from the doings of your life. No! In fact, your training should be integral to your doings and should be just as natural as breathing in and out and just as biologically ordered as going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ-_3Ug3wqU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA
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