We live in a culture that doesn’t like persevering; we live in a culture that likes escaping. People escaping to amusement, fathers escaping responsibility, mothers escaping boredom, employees escaping the daily grind—it’s a culture bent on escape.

A select few Christian virtues seem to get all the press. Love, joy, hope, faith—we often talk about these characteristics that should pervade the Christian life, and we should. But there are other characteristics, too, that are also important, but ones that don’t seem to get nearly as much play time.

By way of example, think about perseverance. We don’t talk about that one nearly as much, and no wonder—if we want to talk about perseverance, then by necessity we must also talk about difficulty. That is, after all, what perseverance is—it’s continuing on in the face of struggle. Pain. Anxiety. Depression. And it’s continuing on, oftentimes, in a none too exciting way. Rather, it’s just putting one foot in front of the other.

Perseverance is plodding forward through difficulty. That’s the picture you get from James 1:

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 its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (James 1:2-4).

The context of the verse is hardship. In this case, the hardship is persecution. These Christians were facing trials like this, and James wrote telling them that even if they don’t feel it, they can “consider” or “count” the facing of those trials as joy. And why?

It’s because the field of difficulty is where perseverance most readily grows. Or, you could say it the opposite way—no difficulty, no perseverance.

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