Facing The Trials Of Life With Joy

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.” (James 1:2)

History tells us that Thomas Edison invented the microphone, the phonograph, the incandescent light, the storage battery, movies with sound, and more than 1,000 other things. The truth is the quality of our lives has been immeasurably improved by the genius of a man who overcame dyslexia and found that there was a great deal to learn from the failures and trials that life brought his way.

In 1914, the laboratory where many of Edison’s inventions were birthed caught on fire. Fire companies from eight surrounding towns responded, but inadequate water pressure and intense heat left firefighters with nothing more to do than watch two million dollars in assets that were insured for only $238,000 burn to the ground.

The inventor’s 24 year-old son, Charles, searched frantically for his father. He worried that his father might have been trapped in the structure. When he found him, he was calmly watching the fire, his face glowing in the reflection, his white hair blowing in the wind.

“My heart ached for him,” said Charles. “He was 67 – no longer a young man – and everything was going up in flames. When he saw me, he shouted, ‘Charles, where’s your mother?’” When I told him I didn’t know, he said, ‘Find her. Bring her here. She will never see anything like this as long as she lives’.”

The next morning, Edison looked at the ruins and said, “There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew.”

It is hard to face our trials with the spirit that was found in Thomas Edison, but that’s exactly what God expects us to do. God knows that real spiritual growth can only come from and through the trials that he allows to come our way. They are ultimately what form the basis for the joy that Christian maturity brings with it.

I ran across a poem recently that’s worth putting on our refrigerators and thinking about when trouble finds us. I don’t know who wrote it, but I sure know the One who inspired it:

It’s sometimes very difficult
For us to understand;
The wisdom and the love behind
The things that God has planned.

So God’s given us a balance:
Enough joys to keep us glad.