Monday Night Wrestling

James 1:2 -- "Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy." [NLT]

It's almost like listening for noises with my ear pressed up against a wood barrel -- I hear the boys, laughing, giving some strange tactical instructions to their digitally pixelated men on the TV screen, and Steven, tinkering with the pinball machine...but I don't REALLY hear them because my nose is where it is so often on quiet home-bound evenings.....it's in a book. From deep into a Harlan Coban novel, my three men sound much like the teacher [or any adult] in a Charlie Brown cartoon. I am racing through dark streets with Myron Bolitar trying to save a teen age girl from her self and an untimely brutal death. The rest of the world fades away into the background.

I'm very quickly enthralled with Harlan's female side-kick - a former female wrestler who could model for Victoria's Secret -- NOT the model part of this character, obviously - but the wrestling part. In the descriptive pages wherein lies her sordid and gritty back story this woman/hero takes on opponents twice her size and they number in the hundreds. ...and yet, she usually wins. Her strength is in her cunning, her wit, and her speed. She revels in the thrill of the fight. It is very truly JOY for this woman - stepping into the ring and getting knocked around for an hour or two.

I don't understand the joy part of being knocked around. I wouldn't want to be anywhere NEAR that circus. AND yet -- here is Paul, telling us to do just that in James, chapter 1. Consider it a joy -- when you are faced with troubles.

If you've bumped into me this week - you have noticed right off the bat - that joy is NOT in the equation. It has been a very rough week. And I haven't come out of it with any medals, championship belts -- or flowers thrown at my feet with a crowd cheering me on.  ...no...if I were to be honest, I SHOULD be walking around with a bag on my head.

But, as this - the last day of the work week - sprung into day-break this morning and the sun popped out after a few days of tropical weather I couldn't help but smile, and step into the window to peek through the blinds. I have to put this in my gratitude journal. Because....there IS joy. It might not always feel like it. Especially when, in that ring with the bouncing ropes around the sides, you are hit with a chair that shatters across your shoulders and your trouble/enemy stands there strutting like a peacock. But -- there IS joy. Much like the Harlan Coban character, we have a secret, of which our opponent is completely unaware. All we have to do, is what SHE did.  Call Him into the ring. Let Him take over.

Our female former wrestler usually waited until the end of the match to do this - for entertainment and shock value. I don't know why I waited until the end of the week to do it. I certainly didn't find the week entertaining. I get so wrapped up in solving problems that I forget to let the Lord have total control. And it's my own fault I lay there in the middle of the ring, flat on my back with a couple of black eyes and some bruises from that stupid chair.

So ... I don't always see the joy in the fight. In the trouble. But I guess I should. It brings a great amount of joy to the heart when our Secret Weapon pulls the rug out from under Trouble. Looking up into the bright lights, arms raised high in victory - we can stand over defeated Trouble. It's Trouble's turn to lay flat on his back with a couple of black eyes and some nasty bruises from a well-timed folding chair to the back of the head.

Enjoy a nice slice of THAT!