Thriving...in Spite of It

Perhaps one of the most misunderstood verses in the New Testament is found at the beginning of the book of James. I love how this leader of the early church, who was also the half-brother of Jesus himself, dives right into one of the most baffling ideas about faith -- the hardest thing to understand, and also the hardest thing to do: to walk through the darkest of times with your joy intact. Like most profound truths, this is, to use one of my husband’s favorite terms, “better felt than telt.” In fact, it seems almost heartless to say it to someone who is going through a crisis--it’s hard to even read it for ourselves. Faith exists in a realm that is completely opposite of what we call reality. All our lives, we learn to trust the tangible, to rely on the factual. We cling to the lifeboat we can recognize and touch, rather than leaning on God, whom we cannot see or feel. But when our hearts are breaking, when our world is shattered by death, betrayal, or distress, when the storms come