The Tests of Our Time
A verse from the book of James has taken on new meaning for me, and I’m not happy about it! Since being a child in church I remember hearing sermons on James 1:2-3:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Normally, the word testing was understood metaphorically: a difficult event that challenged your trust in God. But it’s become painfully literal for most of us. I have never been more “tested” than I have in these last two years.
Working at Pepperdine University is usually a treat. The views of the Pacific and the wonderful Christians around me make it an ideal spot to raise up the next generation of Christian leaders. But when our school decided that the best way to prevent an outbreak was to have all student, staff, and faculty tested weekly for Covid, I got… well, testy!
That’s right, we were tested every week. The only good news was that it wasn’t the “up your nose with a garden hose” test that you get at the doctor’s office. We just got to spit into a tube to make sure we weren’t bringing others a gift that would keep on giving. Most of the times it was quick. But occasionally there were long lines of us, masked and mumbling that we were the most tested people on the planet outside the CDC. And then came the 24-hour wait for results. I’ve never been so happy to be told I was negative.
Now don’t get me wrong—I believe that Covid is a real health threat. Like you, I’ve had to say goodbye to too many people who died from the virus. Early on in the pandemic, the recently-retired preacher at my sister’s congregation fell ill and was gone in two weeks. Another close friend spent two months on a ventilator and is still suffering the results nearly two years later. That’s why I am grateful to God for all the efforts to slow the spread and avoid more deaths.
And, as long as I’m confessing, I wasn’t anti-vaccination either. When the vaccines were first being developed, I was thrilled and drove around with my arm hanging out of the car window just in case someone was giving one out. And the source wouldn’t even have bothered me either. At that point I would have taken a shot from China, Russia, or Mozambique. In fact, I felt so safe when I got my two Pfizer shots that spring, I went around licking doorknobs for a week! It was the same when I got my “VBS shots.” Come on, you remember: “Booster, booster, be a booster?”
So, I was stunned when all the arguments and divisions over masks and health mandates rocked and wrecked many of our congregations. It was as though we had all become Hatfield’s or McCoy’s. Yes, everyone has a right to their opinion—that was God’s doing when He gave us free will.
But as believers, we also have a right to the peace of Christ when we face tests of all kinds. That is the new message James gave me this season. Our tests and trials are meant to challenge our faith and prompt us to ask again, “Is God faithful? Is He present?” But they were not given as fodder for vitriol and disunity. However, as my grandma used to say, if Satan can’t get you through the front door, he will come in the back!
While most of us were confident that God would see us through this mess, many found ourselves drawn into bitter battles and family feuds over political positions or medical opinions. These often robbed us of our joy, marred our witness for Christ, and left us with less energy for service and instead more passion for writing something snarky on Facebook.
Again, we all have the right of free speech, but Christ has provided us with hope and confidence when he said, “I am with you always.” Could it be that we are losing focus on that? Maybe if we were more willing to see these times as trials for our faith, as The Book of James describes them, we might grow more resilient and hopeful.
Perhaps if I viewed these tests as chances to lean into the promises of God and away from the distractions and frustrations that always accompany tough times, I might fear and fuss less and pray and serve more.
At least, that’s what James has challenged me to do. Covid robbed most of us of many things: postponed weddings, missed birthday celebrations, canceled camps, and shelved family trips. But the often-overlooked result has been the debunking of our illusion of control. I never saw this thing coming because I thought we had disease whipped:
“You get sick? Take a pill and you’ll be fine.”
“You get cancer? Have the surgery, do the chemo and hopefully you’ll be ok.”
But Covid taught us that that type of confidence was just our ignorance talking. The fact is that we haven’t slain any of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. We’re not even close. Famine, War, and Disease are riding through our world this very week, and Death is never far behind them.
When we start thinking that we can conquer the problems of humanity by our smarts, our technology, or good old American grit, we have misplaced our faith. But when we allow trials and testing to drive us back to God, we return to the truly divine source of hope and confidence. We find again that the peace we are seeking is found only in Christ, and that the strength we need to keep loving and serving others resides there as well.
Oh, I wish it didn’t take this kind of testing to prompt that return, but God’s Word and the history of humanity both suggest that the chief way we build our faith is through difficulties. In fact, I find that the best way for God to turn my eyes on His promises is to be tried and tested.
So the next time someone sticks a swab up your nose or makes you spit in a cup, remember the words of James, reflect on the promises of Christ, and count it all joy!
For more than 20 years, Jeff Walling has been speaking before thousands each year in inspirational and motivational workshops and seminars across the globe. Having preached for some of the largest churches in the country, he is regularly called on to keynote for youth conferences.
Prior to joining Pepperdine, Walling served as the preaching minister of the Providence Road Church of Christ in Charlotte, North Carolina since 1997. He also served churches in Orange County, California, for over 20 years.
Jeff serves as Pepperdine’s Director of the Youth Leadership Initiative, working to raise up the next generation of young Christian leaders. Jeff and his wife Cathryn have three married sons: Taylor and Courtney, with children Finn and Imogen; Riley and Megan; Spencer and Gabby.