"A dear friend of ours found herself in a sea of troubles. Her husband had gone blind, and then had come down with an incurable disease. She had a slight stroke herself that forced her to retire from her secretarial job and become a full-time 'seeing eye wife.' Although they had many friends, they had no children. Attempting to encourage her one day, I said, 'I want you to know that we're praying for you.' 'I appreciate that' she replied, 'What are you praying for God to do?' As she waited for my reply, I found myself struggling for a mature answer. I had never really been confronted with that question before! After all, when people are suffering, you pray for healing (if it is God's will), for strength, for special mercy in pain, and so on; and that is what I told her. 'Thank you.' she said, 'but please pray for one more request. Pray that I won't waste all this suffering.'"1
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A request like that can only result from a profound understanding of affliction. When compared with prevailing attitudes on the subject of suffering it is even more remarkable. It is unforgivable in our culture to speak positively of suffering. For most, especially American Christians, even the remotest suggestion that there could be value in our suffering is viewed as uncaring and insensitive. We have been conditioned by our culture to believe the opposite. A collective attitude that exalts comfort and views personal happiness as the end of all things has blurred our perspective. There is no place for pain in American Christianity.
Because of this distorted perception, we rarely stop to search for the "hand of God" in the midst of our trouble. Seeking to understand God's purposes in our pain is all but foreign. As a result, embracing pain's role in our sanctification is usually the farthest thing from our minds. As one so aptly put it, "Most people count it all joy when they escape trials. James said to count it all joy in the midst of trials." We need to come to grips with a significant truth: God's will is not our happiness, but His Glory. The two may, or may not, be directly related.
Clearly, the lady in this episode had incorporated suffering into her theology. She understood that pain and suffering are a part of God's plan for His children. Furthermore, her understanding of the place of suffering enabled her to face the trial with a divine outlook. I applaud and admire the fact that her request was not for God to remove the trouble, but that she would not waste it. God give us the strength to make the same request!
Getting his readers to share this remarkable attitude is the express purpose of James' opening words in his epistle. He wastes little time with introductory formulas (
1:1) and gets right to the issue bearing down on his heart. James is not going to allow them to waste one moment of their suffering. Right out of the gate he tells them how they can get the most out of their trials (
vv. 2-8).