The apostle James tells us that we should “count it all joy” when we face many trials in life. He says this because of the good that comes out of persevering in our faith when troubles inevitably make their appearance. This is principally the good of a deepened and more Christlike character. Acquiring such a character is truly a blessing in the long run, both in this life and the next, one which outweighs the temporal pain of earthly trials.

That said, many if not most believers have a hard time figuring out how to be joyful in the midst of difficult times. This begs the question of whether a trial can only have the desired effect of improving us if we somehow are able to “feel the joy.” I would argue that this is not the case.

Let me preface my viewpoint by stating that James is not wrong in his advice to us (He cannot be if we believe the Bible to be the inerrant Word of God) but how exactly to “count it all joy” is another subject worthy of its own study, and I will not address it here.

The issue at hand is whether or not a less than optimal response to a challenge in life completely forfeits the possibility of benefitting from it. To put it simply, if this were the case, the vast majority of Christians would not be growing through trials at all. Almost no one I have ever met in the Church is perfectly happy throughout a period of rough seas in their lives. On the contrary, I have met plenty of believers who have struggled mightily to stay afloat in such seas, even to the point of sometimes feeling anger at God. Yet most still come through the storm to find safe harbor and also to find themselves better for the experience. That this happens despite their decided lack of joy in the midst of their trial, I would ascribe to the grace of God.

Perhaps part of this manifest grace can be found in the fact that these people “toughed it out” rather than doing whatever was necessary to make the problem go away at any cost. They might not have been joyful about their difficulty, but neither did they take the coward’s way out of a difficult moral situation or drug themselves into insensibility to try to escape other painful circumstances through which they needed to go. The fatal thing is to not be willing to accept a time of trouble that God may very well have ordained for them to form a part of their new character in Christ. If this is true, maybe God is more interested in our ability to persevere than He is in whether we have yet become able to become joyful in that perseverance.

Paradoxically, it may also be that as we worry less about our feelings and concentrate more on maintaining our will to endure whatever comes our way, we will then find it easier to have the right attitude encouraged by James. One of the biggest potential “joy-killers” in any particular trial is our fear that we cannot make it through. As we face, endure, and overcome a range of difficulties over time we can begin to lose that fear. When we get to this point, likely over a period of many years, then we may progress to the point of truly counting the next trial “as joy.” I would imagine that getting to that place, as James no doubt knew himself, would be a great gain in our ongoing Christian walk.

I know I would like to be able to say I’ve personally reached that point someday. I’m certainly not yet there myself.