Trials

You can't be brave if you've never been scared. After all, being brave is acting even though you are scared. Fright is a key component of bravery - if there's no fear, there's nothing to be brave about.

Peter makes a similar point about faith and trials (1 Peter 1:6-7). He says, "In this [our heavenly inheritance] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire –may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

Peter is simple to the point of bluntness here: you grieve and suffer trials to prove the authenticity of your faith.

After all, it's easy for me to rave about God and His providence when life is good and I have everything I want. It's easy to proclaim my faith in Jesus in church on Sunday morning. Why not? I'm happy, and I'm in sync with everyone around me. But that's not really faith.

Would I appreciate God's providence if I lost my job, burned up my savings, had to sell the house and the only work I could find was digging ditches? In those circumstances, would my faith be sufficient to recognize His goodness, and how He was by my side working all this together for my good?

Do I proclaim my savior as boldly when I'm at a convention far from home, with people who want to party? How about when it might actually cost me something? I'd like to think so; I remember in Basic Training I had the choice of going to Chapel at 4:30 on Sunday morning or getting an extra hour of sleep. I went, but was that faith or the sure knowledge that somehow my mom would know if I didn't?

My faith is proved every day in how I handle the things I don't like. That includes things as mundane as waiting in traffic, and as significant as breaking relationships. In all of those circumstances I can choose to focus on God and His goodness, and my grateful obedience, or I can become frustrated and feel sorry for myself. Ironically, I probably do better in the big things than the little ones.

And I can't overlook the last part: my genuine faith is important because it is for Jesus' glory. That means in order to glorify Him I have to have faith, and in order to have faith I have to suffer. In that context, it's embarrassing how little suffering I actually experience. If I were in the right places doing the right things, I'd probably encounter more of it.