Yesterday in class, as I watched the 1940's version of The Grapes of Wrath, I thought, "Wow! Their problems make mine look small. The Joads really had a hard go."
It got me to thinking about James, Jesus' brother, who wrote a letter in 45-50 AD. In that letter, James calls folks to persevere in the midst of trials and difficulties. He doesn't say "if you face trials." Rather, it's "whenever you face trials."
We want to believe that life should be easy and happy--and if it's not, something's wrong. But that's not always true. In life, difficulties are a given. "So," James says, "you need a different perspective." He's not asking his readers to pretend happiness (while secretly--or not-so-secretly--wallowing in their misery and pain). Instead, James is saying, "Hey, aren't you lucky! You have a chance to grow and mature as a person! Yay! You can learn perseverance--and deepen your faith in God in the process! Let's see the true depth of your character as you react under pressure. Then you'll know who you are and how much more you need to grow."
What am I picking up from the Joads? Learn from my difficulties; stop trying to squirm out of them. Persevere. Grow. Be thankful for what I have.
It got me to thinking about James, Jesus' brother, who wrote a letter in 45-50 AD. In that letter, James calls folks to persevere in the midst of trials and difficulties. He doesn't say "if you face trials." Rather, it's "whenever you face trials."
We want to believe that life should be easy and happy--and if it's not, something's wrong. But that's not always true. In life, difficulties are a given. "So," James says, "you need a different perspective." He's not asking his readers to pretend happiness (while secretly--or not-so-secretly--wallowing in their misery and pain). Instead, James is saying, "Hey, aren't you lucky! You have a chance to grow and mature as a person! Yay! You can learn perseverance--and deepen your faith in God in the process! Let's see the true depth of your character as you react under pressure. Then you'll know who you are and how much more you need to grow."
What am I picking up from the Joads? Learn from my difficulties; stop trying to squirm out of them. Persevere. Grow. Be thankful for what I have.
What about you: what kernels of truth have you picked up?
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text (c) pjfs 2009photo: matchcuts.wordpress.com
2 comments:
I found a pretty nice website with a video about the book and about how it was controversial to some societies: http://ndepth.newsok.com/grapesofwrath
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