James 5:13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.
There is a segment of our population who have trouble expressing a full range of emotions. Most have anger hands down! But there are whole menus of emotions that they just don’t access. They end up being monochromatic emotionally.
I think I am a full box of crayons. This of course helps me tune in to other people’s emotions when they are in my office. It helps to understand them when they are doing therapy.
And there there is a group of people who seem to be run by their emotions, wherever the winds take them. They move about in the world of emotions like a balloon released from its knot, never knowing where it will travel and where it will end up. Emotions seem to be in the driver’s seat.
Our text tells us about two very different experiences, that of trouble and happiness. Notice that each has a corresponding suggested response, and those responses are different, just like the experiences are different. This might sound like a small thing, but it isn’t.
Many people who get angry are expressing a single response to multiple different experiences. They get angry over any unpleasant emotion they might feel. And this undifferentiated emotional response often drives addictions of many kinds. They know that if they ‘use’, they unpleasant emotion will subside temporarily.
The word translated trouble is a compound word in the original Greek. I could be translated “bad suffering.” My modern mind then asks the question, is there such a thing as “good suffering” in the minds of the Greek language. They have this combined word which doubles down on the ‘bad’ nature of suffering. The original word is most often used in the context of the military and the privations that they must endure as a normal part of their lives.
So what is to be our response to this suffering that has an element of evil in it? James tells us we should pray in response to this kind of suffering. Earlier in this letter, James told us to consider it pure joy when we have difficulties arise in our lives, because the LORD will work something even more important into our character as a result of our enduring the hardship. Suffering can have a purpose.
So we need to pray, to enter into the LORD’s presence and ask for wisdom, presumably about the nature of the difficulty we are experiencing. Prayer can give us clarity, strength, and a sense that we are not alone in our struggle.
And at the other end of the emotional spectrum is happiness. The response to happiness is also about entering into God’s presence, this time with songs of praise. This could be spontaneous utterances of praise, or they could be songs that form part of our personal repertoire of praise music. They are to express this end of the emotional spectrum.
You see, we can take any emotion into God’s presence and it is an appropriate response to our situation. And it is a Godly response! We don’t need to hide our emotions, no matter what they may be, from the LORD. They don’t frighten Him. They may be something we wish to avoid ourselves, but they are experiences that we can share with our Lord.
So next time you have a strong emotion, invite the LORD into your experience. Take it to the LORD in prayer, or in song, or in dance. Grab a few other people and have them join you in your expression of faith.
The Arnold Journey 