I confess, the unique title was just to catch your eye and get you to keep reading. So far it's working! Haha, it's still working! Ok, down to business though, I seriously do have something excellent to share, and the title does have a point and a purpose beyond just getting your attention.
This week was the first week of TLC at BBC and I attended most of the evening sessions. Thursday night's lesson hit me right in my area of need and the speaker, Tony Tice, did a fantastic job of giving his audience a way to take the text with them. I know I won't be forgetting his point anytime in the near future.
As soon as he began, I settled in, expecting to hear the usual things all over again, but quite willing to listen just the same. Some of the things he said I had heard before, but that night a lot of what he shared really struck a chord with me. Perhaps it is just where I am at in life right now, and perhaps it is the way he communicated, but in any case I wanted to share a few of the things he had to say.
First, Tice called these verses the most insensitive passage in the Bible. I laughed when he said it because I know exactly what he means by that.
"Consider it all joy." Who in the midst of trials wants to hear that anyway? The people who cheerfully remind us to
"Consider it all joy" when we're facing trials, and who wear plastic smiles in the midst of hardships of their own are the kind of people we want to punch just to make ourselves feel better. But, Tice continued, this passage really isn't insensitive when we understand it in context. James isn't calling us to rejoice because we are facing a trial, but to rejoice because of the ultimate result that the trial will bring in our lives:
"that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
He continued with his message and brought up the Greek word for
"endurance" in this passage. Immediately I perked up, eager to hear what he would say about one of my passions, the original Biblical language. "Hupomeno," he explained, is the Greek word for
"endurance" here. For all you language and grammar nerds out there, this is a compound word. When you break it down into its two original root words you get the Greek "hupo," meaning "under," and the Greek "meno," meaning "to abide" or "to remain." Thus, the concept of enduring is "to abide, or to remain under" a situation or a trial. Tice challenged his audience with the question, "What is it that God is calling you to remain under right now?" He went on to say that choosing to remain under a trial gives God the opportunity to make something of us, something
"perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." It loses its affect in the retelling, but his message made a powerful point here as he stood up, threw his arms in the air in a gesture of victorious submission, and yelled "I will hupomeno!" Unforgettable!
So now that half the title to this post makes sense, I will share my final point from his message which explains the other half. From his "hupomeno" point he transitioned to the result that trials bring, and referenced
1 Peter 1:6-7, part of which talks of
"the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold . . . tested by fire." Tice explained the process of refining gold, where the metal is heated and the impurities burnt off so eventually only the purest gold is left. That, he said, is the purpose of the trials we face. Though it's tough going through the fire, and impurities being burnt away can be a painful process, the end result is the perfection of our faith. Spiritual bling - my words, not his.
His message was a poignant reminder to me at this point in my life. There are many transitions that I am facing, many challenges - mostly mental and emotional, not really having to do with physical needs or situations. But each one is a spiritual trial, a testing of my faith, and God is using each one to draw me closer to Him and perfect in me the faith that He has given. That, my friends, is a beautiful thing. Let's "hupomeno" and get us some spiritual bling!
Labels: Bible/theology, reflections