August 3rd

Spiritual Composting

            My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.  But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

James 1:2-8

             

            I love several things about the book of James.  The letter is full of wisdom and amazing imagery.  I love that I can take credit for writing it and my youth group wonders if I really am that old.  But mostly, I love how practical the teaching is.  The author is not writing about great unseen mysteries and the unsolved questions of the Faith.  He writes about everyday issues that impact everyone every single day.  He gives practical advice on how to control what you say and how to endure temptation and what tangible actions make up true religion…and that is just from the first chapter.

            But before we get to all those pearls of wisdom, James writes this passage and the practicality of his book flies out the window for me.  I cannot tell you the last time I looked at challenges or trials and considered it “all joy.”  I’ve always seen trials as obstacles to overcome, not reasons to celebrate.  And, to be fair, it is not the trials that James is so excited about…it is what grows in us when we endure those trials.  Those late nights in the living room with a child who will not sleep…those terrifying emergency room visits…those IEPs where you wondered if anyone wanted to help your child…you made it through all of those.  You endured.  When we endure, there is an internal richness that can develop if we allow it to.

            Consider composting.  The trials of our lives are like our table scraps and garbage.  It accumulates over time.  If we do nothing with it, the garbage rots and makes our homes smelly and disgusting.  If we simply throw it away, our house is clean but there was no benefit.  If we take that garbage out to our garden and mix it into the soil, eventually it nourishes the earth and the garden becomes richer and yields better produce.  Similarly, consider the trials that we go through.  If we do not deal with the hurt and the pain and the stress of our lives, it will fester and rot and leave us bitter and broken, unable to offer a kind word, much less pour ourselves into the care of our children.  We could look to just deal with our hurts and move past them; we could seek therapy or medication or talk with our community so that the hurt is gone and we are ready to face another day.  Or…

            We can allow God to bring the work to completion.  We can look at the lessons that He is speaking to us through our trials.  We can choose to learn more about love and compassion and service and hope and joy in the midst of suffering.  We can learn to hold joy and pain together.  We can learn to be thankful even when healing has not come.  We can learn to have one eye fixed on the trials of this life and one eye fixed on the joyful promise of Eternity.  We can allow the struggles of this life to transform out hearts and our minds and our character to produce a rich and vibrant internal life that yields words of wisdom and acts of love.  That is the choice that we have in front of us as we collide with obstacle after obstacle after obstacle.

            If you don’t know how to do this spiritual composting, that’s okay.  Ask God for wisdom.  James says that He loves to give freely and ungrudgingly.  He longs to see us stand in the midst of the trials of our lives…to thrive and grow, not just survive.  There are riches available to us.  We only need to ask how to find them.

  

A moment to reflect:

How have your struggles with your child led to a deeper and richer spiritual life for you?