J-O-Y, the new way to spell "trouble"

James, the brother of Jesus was a straightforward tell-it-like-it-is kind of guy. He never leaves you wondering what he meant to say. It appears that, along with the rest of his siblings, he didn’t believe that his older brother, Jesus, was a divine being. Later, however, he did and became one of the more influential leaders of first century Christian church. James identifies himself as a “servant of God” and sometime in the following twenty years wrote we now call the book of James. He refers to his readers as the “twelve tribes scattered among the nations” (1:1).
       So what is the first thing he wrote to his Jewish friends who now considered Jesus to be the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy? It was, “Consider it an occasion for joy when trouble of any kind comes your way” (v. 2). That sure tells us something about brother James! I wonder if he was that way growing up or was it something that developed once he had experienced the transforming love of God?
       It is important that we understand the difference between joy and happiness. I would define happiness as an emotional reaction to something pleasant that happens. On the other hand, joy is a deep contentment that wells up from within. The former depends on some stimulus from without, the latter from something within. And that is exactly why James can tell his readers to “consider it pure joy” (NIV) when they find themselves facing trouble from without. Joy doesn’t depend on what is happening out there, but what has happened within. There is little room for gloom in the sinner who has been saved by grace and given the gift of life eternal!
       I believe it important that we get over our inclination to follow the lead of well-intentioned promoters of confident living. What they say sounds hopeful, but it rarely lasts. One such wrote in words quite impressive, “If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy” (JK, not John Kennedy). That may cover the scratch for a while but won’t take care of the deep wound left when we walked away from God. We were created for fellowship with him and joy is ours only when we are back in fellowship with him. Joy is a state of the soul and keeps rising as a flood of pure delight. What James is telling us is that when troubles come, and they will, consider each one as an occasion for pure joy since God himself is there with us all the way through.