What Do You Do When Life Gets Tough?

Sometimes things don’t work out the way I expect them to. Sometimes stuff happens that really sucks.

Take my friends Clark and Kim Moran for example. I know many are invested in their current story of how they are adopting Ayo from Nigeria and have run into their worst nightmare.  (Follow it Here) 

I think it is a good thing if you are invested in their story. 

I also wonder if others are asking a question of ‘why this could be happening to them?’. And happening to us who are invested as well. While we may not be involved in all of the specifics, I know many feel the agony as if it could be happening to them.

Nothing about this saga may make any sense to us.  After all; 

1. They are trying to do a good thing
2. They are good people
3. They have followed the required protocols and procedures (if you know Kim you know this is true)
4. Canada is a great country known for its graciousness. 

And there are likely many more good reasons why this situation should have been resolved months ago. 

Jesus had a brother named James who wrote one of the books of the Bible. One filled with wisdom for the ages.  In it he says that we should; 

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. 

James 1:2 ESV 

Certainly Clark and Kim are in the midst of a significant trial. I can’t speak to how or what they are feeling but from here it doesn’t look like there could be much joy. But I see the faithfulness of their walk. 

Personally, 

I might find it difficult to find much joy when I see my friend lying in an African Hospital bed with pain and numbness in her body. 

I might find it difficult to find much joy when I consider the financial burden of unanticipated expense’s

I might find it difficult to find much joy when I consider the separation forced upon a family trying desperately to bond together.

I might find it difficult to find much joy when I consider we don’t really know how this all might end. 

But….

I do know James also says two more very important things. 

First about the trial….

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 nothing.

James 1:3 – 4 ESV

Clark and Kim, Thank you for showing us your steadfast faith. 

So where is the joy James is speaking of? 

I see the joy in a community of others coming together in support of a family who is in the midst of a trial they never expected.  (Jesus said Love one another. see the pic of a church family signed up and prepared to support in prayer or otherwise around the clock) 

I see the joy in the raising of awareness of the great need for the adoption of orphans in our country and those in other countries. 

I see the joy in the raising of awareness of MS and how a disease like this can wreak havoc on a body. 

I see the joy in the raising up of people who are calling to account our system to ensure the fair and equitable treatment for all when they see injustice. 

Then a little further along in his letter, James writes. 

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world 

James 1:27 ESV 

God’s heart is for adoption. His heart is for those who can not look after themselves. Jesus asks us to love each other as he loved us. We can do this by showing our love by supporting adoption. We can do this by extending a helping hand to those who cannot look after themselves. We can do this when we love.

So my question to myself: “What does love require of me today?”