Ending Hebrews Beginning James

Today I started the book of James.

I used to hate this book.

It made me mad.

Right of the bat James is just full of fun (insert heavy sarcasm here).

He says to be joyful when you suffer...oh wait, his exact words are "consider it all a joy when you face trials of many kinds."  That's the second verse of the first chapter, so I used to pretty much stop there and think,

"James!!!!  You're crazy!!!!"

I used to get mad, because who wants to suffer?

As I grew up I realized suffering is not optional.

EVERYBODY suffers.

No one is exempt.

One must look life squarely in the eye, both feet firmly planted in reality and admit that fact.

So why should we be happy about it?

Well, James goes on to say some things that are beneficial things that happen to you when you suffer and you belong to God (go ahead and read it if you want).

And those things do not include becoming a bitter victim of life's hardships.

So here's how I see it:

A) You can suffer and think there's no real purpose, rhyme or reason to it (and you will suffer...like I said, it's guaranteed in this life).

or 

B) You can suffer and realize that God uses suffering for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose (I didn't  make that up, it's in the Bible).

That's what James is getting at really.  

When we suffer, we grow.

We grow, we listen to God, we weed out what is of no value in this life and find out what does have value.

Suffering is a non-optional, not fun, sometimes heart wrenching thing.

But if it gets you closer to God and more helpful to humanity...bring it on.

(in small doses please)

However, not my will but God's be done.