The Green ~ Joy in Trials

While i was living in Oxford, i travelled to Ireland to learn more about my family’s history.  As i was back-packing through the country, guided by old maps my grandfather drew, i was struck by the sheer greenness of that place.  i kept thinking, "How on earth is it so green?"  Ireland gets up to 80 inches of rainfall per year, and that certainly helps.  My home-state Colorado averages only 17 inches of rainfall per year.  i love Colorado because of the sunshine, “300 days of sunshine” as we say.  But the sun does not make a land turn green.

One of my favorite songs is “I Have Made Mistakes” by the Oh Hello’s.  The refrain says: 
“The sun does not cause us to grow.
It is the rain that will strengthen your soul.”

Count it all joy, writes James, when you meet trials.  The testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  Steadfastness will have its full effect, completing you into what you are meant to be...Perfect and lacking nothing.

Aside from being an apologist, i’m also a nanny from time to time.  We learn so much from children.  When one of the little ones was learning to walk, he hated it.  It took so much encouragement from me just to get him to stand up.  But the more he stood on his own, the more he could walk.  The more he walked, the stronger his legs became.  The less he fell, the more he wanted to walk on his own.

Trials force us to stand on our own two legs, to listen to the voice of God who calls out to us through the buffeting winds: “Stand up, my child!”  The testing of our faith produces strong legs, and when our legs are strong we can discover what it means to run the race of perseverance set out for us!


The greenest places on earth are the places that have know the most rainy days.   A soul that has experienced many storms also gains wisdom.  A steady house is not easily shaken.  “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” (Mt 7v25)


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