trials

i've been thinking a lot lately about trials.

friends in a courtroom hoping for justice for the murder of their disabled son at the hands of his night nurse.

relatives fighting for their lives against a cancer that has no known cause.

friends welcoming a child into the world with a known genetic disorder that has already claimed the life of her sibling.

a sister losing her vision yet suffering with joy.

and i got to thinking, as i watch my kids wrestle and come and go with friends, that many of us have a very limited view of what a trial is.

we think it's a rough day.
or a situation that we don't know how to handle on our own (that we will have forgotten about by next tuesday).

but no--a trial in a court of law (certainly james knew his stuff) can go on indefinitely.
i guess that's why he continued:

and let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be
perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
james 1:4

what a promise! we think.
if we just endure, we'll be perfect and want nothing.
the problem is, we cannot do that on our own.
we... don't have the wisdom.
we... don't know where to begin.
we... don't have the capacity for that kind of knowledge.

fortunately, he doesn't stop there. he tells us exactly what to do:

but if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God,
who gives to all men generously and without reproach,
and it will be given to him.
james 1:5

what's the catch, we ask?

but let him ask in faith without any doubting,
for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea
driven and tossed by the wind.

for let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
james 1:6-7

thank you, Father of wisdom, that You are The Way. The Truth. The Life.
we would be shipwrecked without you.