It is a quiet time a day around here. Bellies are full, children contentedly playing for a few moments before nap time. It is the typical rhythm of our day and we fall into it so easily now. Soon there will be prayers and kisses given and heads resting on pillows. And every mommy there ever was said, “Yes, Amen!” There’s something amazingly wonderful about having a spot for your children to eat, rest, sleep, and learn who God really is…. Thanksgiving flooding the soul.

I don’t know what your life is like right now, but if it’s anything like mine…

Life is a sweet concoction of sorrows mingled with joy, trials with triumphs.

It is watching gentle flurries through glass panes up against the growing roar of an anxious soul inside. It is the sparkling laughter of children up against the threat of tempers lost because we so easily get mad at childhood. It’s this mixture, all of it a good gift. Struggles and joys all intertwined with each other.

And we forget so easily that Scripture teaches the struggles are to be counted among joy. 

Jesus words always ring true, “In this world you will have trouble…” On the earth, we will always struggle. And that fact can either bring our soul grief or place us in perfect position to experience Jesus’ glory…. As I memorized this week, “He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who calls us to His own glory and excellence.” There are callings unique and callings similar…in Jesus, we are all called to His glory to be a part of all that He is and all that He brings. Struggle positions us to see and experience God like never before.

James said after all,

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:2-4 ESV

Here is Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of these verses in The Message

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

Let’s breathe this in for a moment… The Lord tells us precisely how to struggle. The first encouragement is to count it all joy…why? Not because it’s feels great to be beset with sickness or work through relational difficulties or watch a child struggle with various issues…it doesn’t feel great…it doesn’t evoke a happy-happy feeling. No, of course not, when we struggle more than anything we want out of it! You know the feeling…we just want to squirm and wiggle out of the discomfort and pain… And Jesus understands that. Our own Savior prayed,  And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”  He asked the same thing we ask, “Deliver us!” and the request is not sin. It isn’t wrong to pray for a trial to pass quickly or to removed from the sting of pain, but the Lord is asking us to rejoice either way… Remember 1 Peter 1

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,  so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ…. (emphasis mine)

Did you see that phrase…if necessary He allows our struggles and He is allowing them for something greater we might not receive any other way, that we perhaps CANNOT receive any other way…. If we want to share in Jesus’ victorious resurrection, then we must be willing to share in the sufferings that preceded His glory…the greatest humiliation ushered in the greatest exaltation there has ever been, there will ever be (Philippians 2)….

If we are Jesus seekers indeed, we participate in His glory and in His suffering. In Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of James 1:2-4, So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely.  Prematurely…don’t try to get out of the struggle too soon, because the Lord is doing something on purpose to make you mature and complete…so you won’t lack anything!

In the same way that a little baby would be in danger if it came into the world too soon, so we will be in danger if we refuse to stay in the womb of God-ordained trial…in this case I mean in the trials/struggles He has ordained for us, not that which is a result of our own sin.

Are we willing to let steadfastness have its full effect? 

We can be certain that God is with us in all things…just as He knitted us together in our mother’s womb, so He is knitting our soul together even now to reflect the brilliant wondrous beauty of His Son in the womb of trials.

Struggle ends in success we proceed through struggle according the Word of Christ. It might not end as we hope, but that is not the point really…God’s plan is that you would grow up and if necessary He has allowed whatever the present difficulty is now to do just that.

Don’t wish time away because these days of toddler-hood are too much. Children are not trials, they are sure gifts…embrace the struggle mommyhood brings (lack of sleep, lack of time to eat, smile) and repent a lot. Don’t resent the disciplines of grace you must work so hard to attain. Don’t waste sickness living in bitterness… Don’t waste what God is giving you… In the words of John Piper Don’t waste your life!

No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. And that good thing is sometimes a mighty struggle… Struggles often surprise us with their endings…may the gift it brings be maturity and joy sealed down deep. Draw nearer to our God….