Sometimes, it’s a thin line between riding the struggle bus and feeling run over by it.
Ever been there? Me, too.
The daily news cycle reminds us that we live in troubling, uncertain times. Pandemics, disease, scandals, abuse, earthquakes, wildfires, mass shootings, wars, rumors of wars, etc.
Beyond the reports that make the news, there are the personal cycles of suffering and struggle that take place in our own lives. We presently live in a sinful, broken world (Romans 5:12). Jesus told us that in this world we will have suffering (John 16:33a). We don’t have to live very long in this life to discover that is true.
Photo by Claudia Wolff on Unsplash
I’ll never forget the first time I heard someone use the phrase “struggle bus” in a sentence.
“Struggle bus” is a metaphor that relates physically riding a bus with going through a hardship. It’s been defined as being in a situation, task, etc., that seems difficult or frustrating. Used with the same terminology of riding an actual bus: “on the struggle bus” or “riding the struggle bus.”
Someone might light-heartedly say, “I forgot to take my allergy medicine this morning, so my nose is on the struggle bus today.” Someone else might heavy-heartedly say, “Since my dad died, I can’t seem to shake this depression. Every day feels like another ride on the struggle bus.”
The letter of James in the Bible offers us a helpful perspective for surviving the struggle bus.
It doesn’t answer all our questions on the “problem of evil” (the “seeming contradiction between an all-powerful, all-loving God and the human experience of evil in the world”) but it does give us a helpful perspective for enduring the various trials of life.
Sooner or later, the struggle bus will come by once again to pick you up and take you for a ride. What then?
James 1:2-4
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. CSB
At the leading of the Holy Spirit, James commands his Christian readers to consider the trials of life as occasions for rejoicing. This is something more than grinning and bearing it. This is responding to life’s difficulties with a joyous perspective. When troubles come, we should rejoice!
Say what?!? This command is perplexing—even frustrating. I don’t know about you, but joy is not typically my first response to difficult circumstances. (Or even my second response—or third!)
Notice James says the trials of life are certain to come. It’s not “Consider it a great joy IF you experience trials” but “WHENEVER” you experience them. James says we WILL experience trials. Some Bible translations say “fall” into various trials. The difficulties of life come to us as unexpected “Pop Quizzes.” They burst into our lives like Cosmo Kramer into Jerry Seinfeld’s living room.
Ready or not, trials will come. They always do.
The author James loved the wordplay available to him in the Koine Greek language of his day. The Greek word periasmos, translated as “trial” at the end of verse 2, had a range of meanings in the first-century, from external trials to internal temptations.
By “trials,” James no doubt has in mind the difficulties that come when we choose to follow Christ fully in this fallen world (Matt 5:10-12). That is what his original readers were experiencing. And yet, James makes his definition as wide as possible by defining the trials as “various.”
The trials of life are various, diverse, of different kinds. they come in all shapes and sizes.
James likely also has in mind the many other trials he addresses in his letter we now know as the book of James. This would include things such as doubt, fear, insecurity, temptation, deception, affluence, speech, relationship struggles, pride, sickness, loneliness, grief, straying from the Christian faith, attacks from Satan himself, and so on.
Photo by Ehteshamul Haque Adit on Unsplash
It’s a fact of life: In this present, sin-broken world, there are most certainly times when we will ride the struggle bus.
And we’re commanded to have joy in those circumstances.
That followers of Jesus should respond to life’s trials with great joy doesn’t mean we don’t hurt, weep, or grieve. We most certainly do. But our goal is to cultivate a joyful, abiding hope in our hearts that our circumstances cannot touch.
beyond whatever present trial a believer faces, there should remain a joyful hope within.
God, Himself, is the source of our joy. We rejoice “in the Lord” (Phil 4:4). Joy is a fruit of the Spirit of Christ’s likeness becoming a part of our everyday lives (Gal 5:22-23). Joy flows from knowing Christ and living with a continual awareness of our dependence on Him (John 15:5,11).
So, how do we keep ahold of this joy?
Yes, the Holy Spirit is the source of our joy, but we wouldn’t be commanded to choose joy in our trials if this inner sense of joy is always automatic. Right?
We ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING THE CHOICE to see our “various trials” as opportunities for “great Joy.”
Why Should we do this?
James anticipates this will be our question because he answers it in James 1:3-4.
We should count the trials of this life as joyful because we know that the “testing” of our “faith produces endurance.” The Greek word translated as “testing” means to authenticate something, test the quality of something, analyze what something is made of, and know what something is capable of.
On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright piloted the first powered airplane 20 feet above the ground. The flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. The flight was the fruit of years of work out of the Wright brother’ bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. But after all the work, talk, and theories, the test was whether the plane would actually fly.
Man’s first powered, controlled, sustained flight. Wilbur Wright had just released his hold on the wing.
In the same way, trials are the real-life tests of whether our faith is ready for flight. “Faith” here isn’t referring to the first faith that saves the believer but to the abiding faith in which believers are called to continually live. This testing of our faith isn’t to see IF we are saved but to test and further purify the faith we’ve already placed in Christ.
We know this because we’re told the testing of our faith produces endurance. Some translations render “endurance” as patience. “To stand up under.” “Hang in there.” “Staying power.”
Our spiritual maturity will always be directly proportional to our faith; they grow up together!
Our mere endurance, however, is not God’s ultimate goal.
The “full effect” of endurance is so the believer might “be mature and complete, lacking nothing.” This is the perspective that enables us to count our trials as joyful! In the trials of life, God isn’t just testing us to see if we can “handle it.” God lovingly tests our faith for a redeeming, developing purpose. He is improving us, shaping us, growing us toward the fullness of faith in Him! God won’t quit until He’s brought to completion His good work in us (Phil 1:6).
Chuck Swindoll has rightly said,
“Our heavenly Father is no mad scientist trying to torture his subjects to the breaking point. He’s more like an expert trainer who knows which muscles to develop, what diet to follow, and what schedule to keep in order to bring about the best results. The goal is not to snap our faith muscles, but to stretch and strengthen them.”
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God has not given us spiritual birth so we can stay infants in our faith. He intends for us to grow to maturity. If a human infant were born but never grew, we’d know something was amiss. If we aren’t careful, we’ll become content with thinking spiritual immaturity is normal. It is God’s loving and unending desire for every believer to grow up into spiritual maturity in Christ!
The Question Remains: How do we joyfully survive the struggle bus?
Answer: We remember that God has a perspective we don’t yet have, plans we can’t yet understand, and purposes still being accomplished.
One of the most comforting truths of Christianity is that God redeems suffering for ultimate good.
Romans 8:28: 28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
In real-time, we often don’t know why God allows us to go through certain life circumstances.
Why do some people seem to have it easy while others seem to have such a hard time?
Why does God sometimes answer our prayers for relief quickly while other times we are left confused by God’s silence?
To remain joyful in times of trial, we must hold fast to what we DO know.
We know God is good. We know He is trustworthy. We know His promises never fail. We know He never leaves His children unattended but is always present with us. When we’re on the struggle bus, God rides with us.
Not only that, but He also sees the whole bus route of what we are going through from beginning to end. Knowing God sees it all and repurposes it all allows us to ride the struggle bus with an eternal perspective of joyful optimism.
That is the Spirit’s point in James 1:2-4!
Beyond what we can fully understand from the limited perspective of our seat on the bus, our good God redeems it all toward the goal of making us more and more like Christ in our everyday lives.
While this perspective doesn’t make life easier or less painful, it does help us remain joyful knowing the trials we face are always divinely purposeful.
written by dr. patrick r. findley
Header photo by Samuel Berner on Unsplash.