Count it all bliss – NOT

Yesterday I got up early to deliver my testimony at a local business about 45 minutes from my home at Honey Lake Plantation. The roads were dark and it was kind of rainy and I could barely discern where I was supposed to turn to enter the business parking lot. I was running a little late with the bad weather and dark night and to make matters worse, as luck would have it, I entered the wrong business and turned into a nursing home’s parking lot.

I circled the parking lot and went back out onto the dark road and continued on for about a mile and I saw the business where I was scheduled to speak and I pulled into their parking lot. The lights were on but only one car was in the parking lot.

Huh?

One car? Only one person came to hear me speak?

I entered the building and an elderly African American man was cleaning the building. He asked who I was and I told him my name and that I was there to speak to the employees. He smilingly told me that my talk wasn’t scheduled until tomorrow, on Wednesday. I had my days mixed up. He asked me if I wanted him to call the owner. I cringed and said in a strained weak voice, “No there is no need to bother him, that’s all right I’ll just head on home”.

I was hoping that we might just keep it between me and the janitor, but the wide grin on his face indicated that he couldn’t wait to begin telling anyone who would listen about what I had done. I quickly beat it out of there with my tail tucked between my legs before anyone else came in and saw me.


Okay so I’m driving home and I pass the nursing home and the thought briefly enters my mind that perhaps I should just go ahead and check on in. I resisted that notion, but little did I know that before the day was over I would be wishing that I would have just gone ahead and done it.

The rest of my day didn’t do much better. When I got home and looked at my calendar I discovered that my appointment was recorded properly, but I didn’t look at it opting to go from memory. Then I looked at the rest of my day and I made a gruesome discovery. I had two important dinners scheduled for tonight. Again that stupid memory thing; I forgot to record one of them properly.

Yikes!

Then I had to call some dear friends and reschedule dinner with them and look like a blubbering idiot in the process. This I did with my wife standing there with her hands on her hips looking at me like I was a… well a blubbering idiot..

If that wasn’t enough shortly thereafter I was preparing to wash my hands and placed my car keys on the sink. As I reached for the bar of soap I accidentally knocked my keys right into the toilet. Have you ever fished something out of a toilet?

Not good…

I will not bore you with the details of the rest of my day, but suffice it to say that it consisted of one disaster after another.

The Bible states in the book of James that we should count it all joy when we face trials of various kinds. I had various kinds of trials and

I did not see nor experience the joy mentioned by James.

Sometimes I suppose for those of us who are not Apostles that it is difficult to understand this logic. James addressed this point by stating that if we lack wisdom in this matter then we should ask God who gives generously to all who ask in faith not doubting that He will deliver. I asked God to enlighten me.

Oh the joy…

ARGHHHH! I cannot lie. I thought I was steadfast in my faith, but I’m still not joyful, which means I am neither perfect nor complete.

Do you think that God is saving perfection and completeness for heaven?

I do.

When you hit your thumb with a hammer, logically you know the pain will eventually subside, but when you hit it — It hurts! We are only fallen humans striving for perfection, but not becoming complete until fully becoming Christ-like which happens when we enter heaven.

We cannot always live up to Godly advice such as being happy when we are sad, or turning the other cheek when someone slaps the snot out of us.

Jesus could do it and we should strive to be just like Him, but in reality we will not see that day until we enter those pearly gates. In the meantime we should just do the best we know how and Jesus who faced those trials and withstood them perfectly understands our plight perfectly. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

Amen?

Selah….

James 1:2
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. …