As it is read in a letter by one of the brothers of Yeshua Rabbeinu,Yaakov haTzaddik (James the righteous), he says ..."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 it's work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything".
Various trials are not comfortable and we really wish for smooth sailing day to day. However, as we have just read, James says we are to count it as pure joy!
One of todays contemporary sages, of great respect, R. Shalom Arush writes in his book, The Garden of Emuna, "HaShem doesn't want us to suffer: He wants us to live upright lives and to be happy. Life's difficulties are wake-up calls to initiate soul-searching on two levels, namely, to prod us to seek HaShem and to stimulate tshuva and charracter development. if we were always successful, we would most certainly become smug and arrogant, never seeking HaShem, and never correcting a single character flaw. So, if we had everything, we'd really have nothing".
Here's to having a life of pure joy, L'chaim!
