Willingly Being Stretched?

Do you like being 'stretched'?  Does anyone?

I just started reading the book of James. Each day I'm focusing on just one verse at a time to journal on and pray about. Verses 2-4 of chapter 1 feels like stretching my hard to stretch spiritual glutes and piriformis. "Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds...". Say what? It may as well read: "Consider stretching your left ankle to tuck back behind your head, while smiling." How can we consider it pure joy in facing trials?  Trials are what we aim to avoid, right?  Except of course in the case of going on a helicopter tour of Kauai like Tanya and I just did Sunday, that's not a trial, right?

 

I have had a fair share of trials this year, mostly including a strained relationship due to my son's depression, sparked by moving away from Everett. After almost a year and a half of battling through trials, suffering and relational pain related to this, I clearly have been stretched. Taking this sabbatical, especially the past few weeks while in Kauai and Sisters Oregon, I am just beginning to open my heart to prepare to stretch more, like a silver medalist, Olympian, Ukrainian gymnast. 

My capacity to live through conflict and hurt have stretched beyond what I ever would have 'signed up' for. In it, my eyes have been opening to see the 'good' that God is working in me. I can handle more than before.  I can empathize much deeper with the pain that others' trials brings them. I appreciate family relationships even more. I am more willing than EVER to enter into my kids' space and interests and forsake my own. I understand God's unconditional love towards me by even attempting to stretch myself towards his downward dog-like posture.  All indications show that this family dibilitating storm, 'Hurricane Huber,' has passed.  Another may come, but in the post-storm recovery, how could God stretch my willing heart?

James 1:2 says "Don't resent (trials) as intruders, but welcome them as friends." (JB Phillips.)  

James 1:3 says "Realize that trials come to test your faith and produce in you the quality of endurance."

I don't know about you, but I LOVE the idea of me possessing the results of strong faith, endurance through all kinds of trials, and "mature character...with no weak spots." (James 1:3, JBP.) However, I don't love the idea of willingly putting myself in stretching positions that align with welcoming trials.  But I conclude that the outcomes are worth it.  It takes a willingness to be a 'stretcher', and not just when I 'have to,' but consistently.

The past week in Kauai, and in entering my 6th week of sabbatical, I'm hardly facing a trial. Yet I am reading, journaling, praying, and seeking out wisdom for stretching myself in leadership, parenting, and everyday life ahead.  I read "Leading Change" by John Kotter, taking voracious notes of how to lead change in spite of certain resistance, reading "Habit" to build inside me healthy habits, and re-reading Henri Nouwen's "Life of the Beloved" to further cement inside my soul WHO I am and WHOSE I am, so that when trials come, my identity is as solid as it can possibly be.  Here's a pic of the hidden beach, Pali Ke-Kua where I re-read it and entered into a long prayer-time I'd been avoiding for some reason.  It was pure joy.

So perhaps, welcoming trials as friends is an act of hospitality. It may simply start with willingly preparing our hearts and the table for our guests (trials) to come and fellowship, rather than investing in double latches on our doors to keep them out.  Let's keep stretching, pre-season, mid-season and post-season.  What does stretching look like for you?