James 5:10,11 – “Fishes”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁰Brothers, take [for] an example the suffering and the patience of the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹Look! We consider blessed ones who endure. You have heard of the endurance of Job and you have seen the outcome of the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and sympathetic.

Suffering and patience.

The Lord certainly knows what we need! As I have studied these two verses for the last several weeks, it seems like He has opened the very windows of Heaven to teach me and show me and help me. It has been very sweet to ponder suffering and patience and endurance, considering them alongside the “outcome” of the Lord, that is He is very compassionate and sympathetic.

As I embarked on these very verses my own workload went from impossible to utterly beyond impossible. My usual nature would have been to finally and completely freak out. But, as I was studying these verses, it was as if the Lord was giving me a calm in my soul. It was all so far beyond impossible, there was no point in freaking out, or anything else for that matter. There was only one possible hope and that was to simply trust Him who laid it all on me, to go and do what I could, and simply trust that somehow He would make the rest work out. And that is exactly what He has done. As I’ve (He’s) quieted my heart and I sincerely contented myself to simply do what I could, in one situation after another He’s blessed my little fishes and loaves and accomplished what I could not.

I know I’m famous for being brave when the battle is distant, that the second I get clobbered again, I’ll probably collapse in yet another fit of faithlessness; but I actually feel in my soul that He really has changed something inside me. “I used to hear Him with my ear; now I see Him with my eye.”

“Stars only shine in the night.” A diamond must be cut. Jewels must be polished. Arrows must be sharpened. To be reared in the lap of luxury only leaves us soft and weak. It takes a storm to prove a ship seaworthy. “The flames will not hurt thee, I only design, thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.” Job got to see “the end of the Lord” only because he endured. We only know his name because He suffered. “He who strikes us with one hand, supports us with the other.” The Lord is very compassionate – He cannot ever, ever, ever be cold-hearted or disinterested. He is very compassionate and sympathetic – that is His nature, that is who He is. He knows it better that we gain character than that we should be comfortable – and loves us enough to order our lives accordingly.

A couple of things the Lord has particularly used to help me – right at this moment when I was being crushed, my boss lent me a book that counseled people to take one thing at a time – no matter how much I think I have to do – to pick that which was most important and focus on it. Along with that, the book counseled people to keep only one project on their desk at once. Engineers’ desks are typically mountains of files and plans and projects and mine is no different. Only one project on my desk at once??? That would seem almost impossible except that I’ve actually seen it. My very first boss out of college was the very finest of engineers, a man named Dave Hawkins. When he would call me in to his office to review a project, it would seriously be the only file on his desk. It would be the only thing in the entire office “out of place.” I found that utterly amazing (and admirable) back then, but it was and always has been only that – something to be admired, but not something that I could ever be – for me it has only ever been something to be aspired. But somehow – and maybe because it was all so utterly and beyond impossible – the Lord helped me do just that, to very deliberately look at all the assignments, pick the most important, and then, with Him calming my soul, just to do what I could. I found it actually worked!

The other thing that really helped me was something I read, and I don’t know who the author was, but he said that Christians “ought to keep from restlessness.” He said we need to guard against “the restlessness that keeps going to the door, or looking out at the window, and so takes us off the duty of the hour. We cannot do our work well while we keep a restless state of mind. If we are expecting an arrival at our home, but are uncertain of the precise time, it altogether spoils our work for the day; it compels us to do nothing, if we allow ourselves to become restless … we shall undervalue our present work, and think lightly of our present responsibilities; and instead of spending our strength in service, we shall spend it in worrying and restless watchings … [we should be] actually found at work when the master returns.”

That really helps me too. I want to do good work. I don’t want to waste my energies “going to the door, and looking out the window.” I don’t want to be “restless” while I work.

Another quote I want to record is similar. This might have been from Spurgeon, but I’m not sure. It is from the Biblical Illustrator and is actually commenting back on verse 7 about the farmer, but is still helpful here: “He, indeed, knows not which field shall best prosper, or whether both shall be alike good; but he quietly, and without distraction, waits the arrival of spring, when the tender herb shall appear. And shall he be wiser in his worldly ways than you, who are the husbandmen of the Most High? In providential concerns you are perplexed, and your fears are many; but why be careful for the morrow? Of what avail is this tumult of mind, this agitation of spirit? Under tedious delays, does this rebellion of heart do other than increase your misery? Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord; observe how the husbandman waits, how deep is the conviction that impatience will never accelerate his harvest. Moreover, in your case, your hopes are delayed by this temper. Suffer not your fears-I had almost, but for pity, said, your follies--to triumph. You are no proper judge of the length of time you have waited: every minute has been to you as an hour, or as a year. You misjudge the motive of his delay; it is, that he may commend your patience, as well as reward your labours.”

All of this seems to have fallen together at the same time such that, again, I feel in my soul He really has helped me. Maybe I am actually a little more mature. Maybe I really can do a little better job just being confident in Him. My heart is deeply inclined to fear “what’s next?” but I hope whatever that is that maybe I really can do a better job of facing it calmly and trusting God through it. Richard Baxter is reported to have said from his deathbed, “Lord, when Thou wilt, what Thou wilt, how Thou wilt.”

“He must increase; I must decrease.”