There’s a passage in James that gets quoted a lot at people who are going through hard times. James 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Given the choice I think most of us would choose the lacking nothing part and skip the whole “learning to be steadfast” part. We want the glory; we just don’t want the work. We want the scars and the stories; we just don’t want it to hurt. Unfortunately, muscles don’t grow unless you work them, and this applies to physical, mental, or emotional muscles. There’s a good number of people who recently gave up on going to the gym because after a month they didn’t lose fifty pounds and have a perfectly defined six-pack.
When we face hard times, we will rarely look at our situation in the moment and say, “I’m so happy that I get to learn and grow from this important life lesson!” More often, we just hate it for a season as we weather the storm of life. It’s only when we make it through to the other side of our situation, and maybe a time of rest, that we can reflect and see how God used a hard time to make us stronger.
But this passage seems to be a strong encouragement to keep going, don’t give up. No matter what you’re facing there will be an opportunity for joy again in the future. The hard times are going to be difficult and challenging, but God wants to use them to help you grow and become more resilient. If we know that hard times can’t be avoided; we can use them to learn more about ourselves and grow. Otherwise, we will have experienced them for nothing.