Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:2-4 NIV)
I recently played in another club championship. Gross flight. 54 holes. Putt ‘em all out. Count ‘em all up.
If you’ve not played in one of these before, let me assure you the struggle is real. Putts routinely conceded in your regular game become knee-knockers. Wayward shots cause extra heartburn when you don’t have double-bogey max as a security blanket. It’s a whole different ball game when you sign up to write down every stroke on the scorecard.
When it comes to tournaments, I devise a game strategy ahead of time. I map out pars, birdies, and “others” so I can keep the big picture in mind and not check out if I open with a double bogey—which I did.
Tees moved up. It was the easiest hole on the course. “Let’s rip a drive and walk off the first 1-under,” I said to the audience in my head.
Not so much.
I pulled my drive into a bunker I had never entered, caught sand on my second, and came up woefully short. I decelerated the 40-yard chip, leaving 20 more. I thinned the fourth 20 feet by the cup and capped off the five-shot hot streak, leaving the downhill putt short. After center-cutting the tap-in for double, I departed the green with a fake smile while muttering Romans 7:15 under my breath.
My game plan for life includes scripture memorization, so I can fill my thoughts with God’s promises rather than questions like “Why me?” It would have been easy to pack it in following that disastrous start, but that’s why I have the game plan. It helps me deal with the unexpected, in golf and in life.
That’s why today’s verse is comforting to me in times of strife. I’ve heard it said there are three types of people: those who have been through a trial, those who are in a trial, and those who are about to experience a trial.
If you have not yet experienced adversity, it would be fair to question the “consider it pure joy” exhortation. But for those who have had life hit them in the face, the perseverance developed through faith equips us to endure the next struggle.
My game plan for life includes scripture memorization, so I can fill my thoughts with God’s promises rather than questions like “Why me?”
I don’t know God’s plan, but I know I’m promised that “in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).” My wife didn’t ask for cancer last year, but she endured and survived. Now, God is using her to encourage a new friend who was recently diagnosed with the same rare form and is facing the long road to recovery.
Do you ever find yourself torqued up over minor “trials” like someone flashing their high beams behind you or not getting a meal as you ordered it? “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2). In other words, don’t sweat the small stuff. “Seek first his kingdom” (Matthew 6:33), and you may find yourself considering the small stuff as “pure joy.”
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Drew Hamilton
December 14, 2021
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