Perseverance Through Trials #2

So I want to persevere through my little daily trials….But what does “persevering” really mean? I mean, I kind of get it if I happen to be thrown into a lion’s den or am told I must renounce my faith or go to prison. But what does it mean when all I am really dealing with is kids who got up on the wrong side of the bed, too much to do at the office, too much to do at home and a checkbook that won’t balance?

I think James gives us a clue in chapter 1 after he talks about the various kinds of trials we may face. James 1:21-22 says, “Therefore get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you….Do what it says.” James puts the same thought in even more practical terms a few verses later in James 1:27: look after widows and orphans and keep yourself from being polluted by the world.

This is essentially the way a dedicated athlete perseveres, right? He or she gets rid of lazy habits, accepts coaching and keeps on practicing. This is what dieters do too. They stop eating junk food, get on a diet plan and start eating right and exercising. In fact, we really do know what perseverance is all about and most of us have done it many times over in various contexts. As students we turned off the TV, listened to the teacher and hit the books in time for exams. When we became parents, we gave up certain freedoms, read childcare books, asked everyone and anyone for advice and started slogging through the days and nights with our kids. When I discovered I had inherited monstrously high cholesterol I read everything I could and then followed the advice I had read--which of course said to get rid of some old habits and start doing some other better things. I persevered and my cholesterol began to improve.

Perseverance is the same in our spiritual lives as well: to keep on getting rid of junk that we shouldn’t be doing, to absorb all the information we can about what we should be doing, and then to do it. And to keep on doing it no matter what the circumstances that arise that day: whether we feel uncertain about how to face a particular situation (James 1:5), whether we feel rich or poor (James 1:9-10); whether we feel tempted to sin (James 1:13-14), whether we feel angry or annoyed (James 1:19), or any of the other myriad feelings and situations that distract us from the goal of getting rid of the bad stuff in our lives and doing the good stuff.

I can actually move through a typical day in suburbia keeping these two goals in mind: getting rid of the bad stuff and doing the good stuff that I have learned I should do. And I have a feeling it will be good practice for the future and the “larger” trials that also strike typical suburban households: lay-offs and financial set backs, rebellious children, the almost inevitable crises that will come with aging, etc…..