The Sistine Chapel Ceiling
Based on James 1 (New King James Version)
"James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits. Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
Jonathan Swift said: “Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” We live in a world where we are constantly prodded to pay attention to our surroundings and our circumstances through our senses and intellect. We are continually provoked to focus on the here and now, to think about the present and maybe, the next five minutes; but rarely into the distant future. This goes hand-in-hand with the microwave generation that our society has evolved into; where waiting for 10 seconds is 9 seconds too long. We need to see results now! We need to fix our problem now! We need to have what we want now! There is no future vision. It’s not that the “now” is not important, or that your present situation(s) doesn’t matter at all. But the problem that stems with wanting things our way, and wanting them now, deters from the greater scheme. It is like telling Michelangelo that he has 30 minutes to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and if he doesn’t do it the way you want it to be within the time dictated, then you are going to cut his hands off (It took him 4 years to do it). What does this have to do with our passage today?
One of the first things that James mentioned is: that we have to count it all joy when we fall into various trials, knowing that testing of our faith produces patience. Who can be happy within trials (or hardship)? And what about this “patience” thing? I mean, who has time for patience, right? So, there are two fundamental problems here (at least with the frame of mind folks have at the moment): hardship and patience. No one wants hardship and almost everyone wants everything right away.
Even though trials and patience are difficult to deal with, it is important to understand that there is a greater purpose and end that we need to keep in mind. And here is the most important element that needs to be asked for in order understand how everything works; and this is godly wisdom. The main reason why we are encouraged to pray for wisdom is so that we can understand the “why” we may be going through trials, and the purpose for patience. Coming back to the Sistine Chapel, if Michelangelo would have rushed through it, or given up along the way because it was too hard or because it was taking too long, one of the world’s greatest pieces of art would have never been created.
Here is something that we need to keep in mind, and where wisdom gets us to (if we truly fear God—which is the beginning of wisdom, and if we truly believe in God and in what He has ready for those that follow Him faithfully). We are here on this earth for a short time. One day, we are here; and the next, we may not be. Here is the vision that wisdom helps us to focus on: there is something greater and better that is coming after this short time (as compared to eternity) of difficulty, trials, etc. And the “temptation” that James is talking about here is not necessarily related to “temptations” in general. It is related to the “temptation” of giving in, surrendering to sin, giving up on follow Christ, denying the faith, etc. And that is what Satan wants us to do by trying to force us to focus more on the “now” than on the “then”. If we give more priority to the now, than the “then” will suffer. The piece of fine art that God is trying to create out of us will never be what it needs to be here, nor in the future if we give in. After all, who wants a half painted canvas?
What wisdom dictates is for us to see this world more as a time where we are being molded and shaped into something of great importance for the future, as opposed to focusing so much on things now, and trying to hang on to the things of this world like if there was nothing else better after this all passes. Wisdom helps us to be mindful of what we do “now” and how that will affect the “future” (pure and undefiled religion). It will teach us what we need to understand about the circumstances we encounter; how to use them as opportunities for growth and transformation.
So, are you allowing for God to prepare you for something greater in the future? Lord bless! John