Enduring Pain

 

I used to play a lot of basketball, like seven days a week. I was always on teams or just playing in the driveway. I have always loved the sport. One of the downsides of playing a contact sport, however, is that it leads to injuries. I always had jammed fingers or sprained ankles, not to mention broken bones. If left untreated, these small injuries can turn into long lasting ailments. 

 

Do you know what the best treatment is for a sprained ankle? The answer is an ice bath for your foot. If you fill a bucket with ice and submerge your ankle into the icy depths, you can greatly reduce your recovery time. The only problem is that keeping your foot under ice is excruciatingly painful. If you can keep your foot in the ice for two solid minutes you will cut your recovery time in half. Leave it there an additional minute and you will be walking the next day. It’s a great remedy, but leaving your foot in ice for three minutes brings a level of pain most people are not willing to endure. Instead, they will hobble around for days or weeks, when all they needed was three minutes of pain. 

 

James 1:2-3 holds the title of MVP of the “easier said than done” verses in the Bible. James wrote, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” That word patience, translated as steadfastness in newer versions, comes from a combination of two Greek words, meaning “to remain under.” James encourages us to count our trials as pure joy because the hardships we face produce within us the ability to remain under for a longer period of time. If we have come to recognize that many of our trials have been allowed by God in order to refine us, we can think of our trials as that bucket of ice; it isn’t pleasant, but it will bring about some good. 

 

When most people give up on the ice after a minute, they shortchange themselves and miss out of their healing. In a similar way, when we beg God to end our trials, that is like taking our foot out of the ice before it is time. We end up aggravating the injury, so to speak, going through more and more trials because we haven’t learned the lesson God is trying to teach us. Our trials build up our endurance and make us able to “remain under” the ice until the full and proper time. 

 

In his book When Life is Hard, pastor James MacDonald asks, “Why remain [under]? Because the nail that doesn’t remain under the hammer will never reach the goal; because the rough diamond that doesn’t remain under the chisel will never become a precious jewel; because the gold that doesn’t remain under the fire will never be a thing of beauty; because the Christian that doesn’t remain under the hand of God will never see His purpose for trail accomplished and will never experience the blessings on the other side.” 

 

Let me encourage you to remain under when you go through trials. They are a guarantee, so we might as well learn the lesson we are meant to learn. Instead of begging God to end the storm, ask Him what He is trying to teach you.