The Importance Of Facing Obstacles

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. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. - James 1:2-4

Towards the end of our season last year, the basketball team I help coach lost a rivalry game pretty badly. There’s really no way to beat around the bush. It was the worst game we’d played all year. And because of that, it was the biggest point differential we’d lost by all year as well.

For the most part, we had a lot of success last season. We won the majority of our games, and we won most of those games by a pretty big point spread. So the competition we faced that night against our rival was something we weren’t used to. We hadn’t played teams that tough and that talented, so when you factor in that we didn’t play our best game, it was just a rough night all around.

After my dad and I debriefed the game the next morning (for the third time, because that’s just the way we are), we talked about how in future seasons we were going to plan to schedule some tougher games. Because as fun as it is to win big, playing teams that don’t challenge you isn’t the best way to set yourself for the end-of-the-year tournament.

That’s one of the biggest differences between our team and our rival who beat us that night. The other team had played a lot tougher competition that year, and so they handled the pressure, the aggression, and the speed of the game better than we did. And as I was thinking about that game the morning after, I couldn’t help but think what a great parallel that is to our lives as a whole.

If you go through life and everything goes right for you, it may seem really easy to trust God. But if you always get what you want, if you never have to wait for anything, and you don’t face any trials or struggles, your faith, in reality, remains shallow because there was never a need for it to go deeper.

However, if you’ve been through the ringer, if you’ve had to wait on God to answer prayers for a really long time, if you’ve faced a tough loss, a heartbreaking end to a friendship or relationship, or disappointment from unmet expectations, you know what it’s like to dig deeper in your relationship with the Lord. You know what it’s like to cry out in pain and frustration and ask why this had to happen to you. You know what it feels like to only have God to cling to when everything and everyone else is gone or out of reach. And you know what it takes to trust God to come through for you, even when all hope seems lost.

I’ve always been one to prefer easy basketball games. Just ask my brother. He loves a close, neck-and-neck nail-biter. He loves the intensity, the competition, and the high stakes. And he can’t fathom why I prefer to win by a big margin and not have to get stressed at the end of the game. But now I’m starting to think my brother’s had it right all this time for a lot of reasons.

Wanting life to be easy isn’t going to serve us well in the long run. Just like not playing enough challenging basketball games isn’t going to ultimately push our team to be our best. Just like James said in today’s key verse, the testing of our faith produces perseverance. And so much good comes from developing perseverance, whether that’s persevering on the basketball court, or persevering through life’s most difficult circumstances.

So, if you’re walking through a tough time right now, don’t discount what good God could be trying to do through this season of your life. Sure, this might be challenging and painful and disappointing, but it’s also going to force you to grow in your faith and your trust in your Heavenly Father. And isn’t that the whole point?