The Joy We Find in Pain

To me, one of the strangest things written in Scripture is found in the first chapter of James. “Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials”(James 1:2, CSB). Consider it joy if what, brother James? If we suffer? Cool, cool, cool. No problem. Sounds like loads of fun, honestly.

I’m joking, but Christians often use this quote to try to comfort themselves or to correct someone’s emotional response to what they’re going through. “This is difficult, but consider it joy!” The misrepresentation of that verse is one of those flippant, dismissive things people say without really considering the impact of what they’re saying.

Verses like that provide a framework for suffering in a believer’s life, but instead, they’re often turned into something that heaps guilt and shame onto someone who’s hurting.

Before we tell someone to think of the crushing pain in their life as joy, we should define what joy actually is. The kind of joy we can have when we’re suffering isn’t a joy that bypasses our emotions. True joy is an inward gladness that doesn’t depend on circumstances. It isn’t so much something we feel as something we’re postured toward. It’s a unilateral gladness that’s given to everyone who belongs to God.

It’s crucial to separate true joy from an emotion so we don’t use the call to be joyful as an excuse to ignore what we’re actually feeling or to elevate our suffering as something to be happy about. When James said to “consider it joy,” he wasn’t saying that we should get excited about suffering.

Believing that pain has a greater spiritual purpose makes it easier for us to digest. But pain isn’t meant to be digested. It isn’t something we’re supposed to consume. God has not called us to be spiritual masochists, celebrating our suffering or trying to prove the strength of our faith through our pain.

When your theology justifies suffering instead of offering a solution for it, it’s simply bad theology. God’s Word shows us the story of a God who rescues His people from their calamity over and over again. There is no story of suffering without a redemptive arc.

Sometimes things happen that completely alter our lives, and there’s nothing we can do to change our circumstances. But if we believe that the Gospel is true, that means hope, joy, and peace are accessible to every one of us. If Christ is the Messiah and the Son of God, then He has provided a way out for every kind of suffering we go through.

The joy in the heart of a believer isn’t being excited about suffering because it proves our good standing with God. It’s a supernatural gladness that locks hands with our grief.