Solitary Sandbar

Sometimes my emotions want to carry me out, far away from shore on a low tide of feelings. 

If we do that, then we become stranded on a sandbar all alone. Away from the shore. Away from the encouragement and wisdom of others. Isolated and turned inward, no food, no fresh water, just the gritty, irritating sand encrusting  every surface and working its way into every conceivable breach. Until we find ourselves focused only our irritation and isolation and every perception that has been rubbed raw. 

James, the brother of Christ, instructs us to “..consider it all joy… when you encounter various trials..” Personally, I find it much easier to simply endure a trial, rather than find joy in it. Amy Carmichael states that by God’s grace we can rise to endurance, but to count it all joy, “That is different.”

The truth is, those who do not belong to Christ can endure through trial. It is not our enduring through trial which sets a follower of Christ apart. It is our enduring trial while “considering it all joy” which delineates those who are in Christ from those who are not. The Lord is not after our endurance, He is after our faith. Because the “testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have itsperfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:3,4)

O Lord, keep the high tide of joy in our minds and hearts …and keep us off the sandbar. 

(Heb 6:11,12) We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. Then you will not be sluggish, but will imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

(Rom 5:2-5) And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

(Ps 42:6-8) O my God, my soul despairs within me. Therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan and the peaks of Hermon—even from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and waves have rolled over me. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.