When you jump off of a mountaintop, it hurts.

I feel it now too, 

I'm in the valley, the other side of the mountain top. I've arrived. 

It's not a good feeling, looking back at the mountain top, and i feel like I simply jumped off. 

I didn't slowly walk down the mountain, the high point in life, no. I jumped. Jumped high, with only one place to go; down. 

I was warned, over and over. but then again, i asked for this. i want to be broken, i want to be refined. and refinery hurts. so now i'm in it...

God is trustworthy. 

He has my life planned out and knows exactly what he is doing. 

So as James says, "consider it pure joy..."

Joy isn't happiness and I always overlook that. Joy is only found in God, and when walking with God, happiness will not always be accompanying me. 

As the verses go on, James reminds me that testing of my faith will develop perseverance. 

The Oxford English Dictionary defines perseverance as a "constant persistance in a course of action or purpose." I love how when God needs to teach me something he always gives me the strength to endure whatever tests he wants me to complete. Jonnie Moore also talked about this in campus church yesterday. God needs to test me to make me ready for my mission, to prepare me for the ultimate task that I will complete for His glory. 

I also turn to 2 Corinthians 4:16, where Paul is telling the church not to lose heart. Basically not to give up, not to be discouraged because this time will pass. 

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

I am so encouraged by this small passage because it is so true. Although all of this does matter, it actually doesn't. Not in the big scheme of things... My seemingly "huge" problems are nothing to God, and my small problems are even less, like a tiny little ant hill on the driveway of heaven. 

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as your follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." -Romans 15:5-6