Choosing Pleasure or Pain

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

There is a purpose to your pain

For nearly two years I had a back injury. It’s a lot better now, but for a long time it kept getting worse, because I wouldn’t listen to my body. I kept playing sport.

My way of getting over the pain was anti-inflammatories. I’d take ibuprofen, it would stop the shooting sciatic pain, and off I’d go to play. It numbed me to what I was feeling. But eventually the painkillers began to wear off. They stopped working the way they used to. I only began to heal when I chose to listen to my pain and start the healing process.

I think some of us are on spiritual anti-inflammatories. We indulge in pleasures that numb us to pain.

We’re all running from pain. Some of us take pills. Some of us binge Netflix. Some of us scroll social media endlessly. Some of us reach for comfort food. We’ll do almost anything to distract ourselves from ourselves. Yet all this effort to insulate ourselves from pain only seems to have made our pain worse.

The Christian understanding of suffering is drastically different from how other worldviews interpret it.

Joy in suffering

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.

— James 1:2

The idea that there is joy in trials and joy in suffering is unique to the Bible. Look at how different worldviews see suffering:

• Hinduism: suffering is the result of actions in a previous life, something to accept as the consequence of past deeds.
• Islam: suffering is a test from Allah, meant to show your worthiness.
• Buddhism: life is suffering, but you can transcend it by letting go of attachments and desires.
• Secularism: suffering is meaningless and should be minimised as much as possible through science, medicine and escapism.
• The prosperity gospel: if you have enough faith, you won’t suffer. God will bless you with health, wealth and success.

Don’t run away from suffering

Considering it joy when we fall into trials is countercultural. Our world tells us that suffering and pain can be escaped. James says there is joy in suffering.

It helps to know the difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is usually a response to what’s happening around us. Joy is a deeper, more stable reality. Happiness depends on what happens to you. Joy depends on what you know to be true.

We live in a dopamine-saturated culture that encourages constant entertainment, distraction and easy pleasure. Dr Anna Lembke, a psychiatrist who researches dopamine, describes pleasure and pain as working like a see-saw. The see-saw wants to stay level. Whenever it tips towards pleasure, the brain’s self-regulating mechanisms automatically kick in to push it back the other way, without any conscious thought, like a reflex.

The problem is that we live in a world that overstimulates our dopamine, so we struggle to keep that balance. With long, repeated exposure to pleasurable things, our capacity to tolerate pain goes down, and the threshold we need to reach before we feel pleasure goes up. As Lembke puts it, “we now need more reward to feel pleasure, and less injury to feel pain.”

That’s why we struggle to find joy in the little things. We build a tolerance to pleasure. The more we chase it, the more our tolerance grows, until we become numb to enjoyment altogether.

If you find honey, eat just enough—too much of it, and you will vomit.

— Proverbs 25:16

This proverb names the problem of indulging in pleasure after pleasure. We’re not meant to have too much honey, or too much pleasure. If you keep living for the sweet satisfaction of the moment, you’ll end up with an addiction that breaks you down. It’s like the tolerance I built to my anti-inflammatories, until they no longer touched my pain.

So here’s the thing: there is power in choosing to enter into suffering.

Perseverance

Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

— James 1:3

James says trials test our faith, and that testing produces perseverance. Think of perseverance as your spiritual stamina: an active, resilient steadfastness. The more you see Jesus in your trials, the more your spiritual stamina grows.

Those of you who exercise will know that perseverance in faith works like physical fitness. (Ian came up on stage here to do some push-ups.) If you want your muscles to grow, the muscle fibres actually have to break down first. Then they grow back stronger than before. You have to go through pain to see gain.

God is not the one who orchestrates suffering, but he certainly uses it for good. So often we pray the pain away, rather than asking God to show us what he’s teaching us through it. We need to train our faith the way we train our muscles: to enter into pain the way we do when we work out, because that’s what produces perseverance.

The suffering you choose

There’s power in micro-sufferings: small, intentional acts of discomfort that build resilience and character. We choose to suffer a little now so that we can have a joy that lasts.

• Waking up early to pray instead of sleeping in.
• Reading Scripture instead of scrolling your phone.
• Pushing through a hard workout instead of quitting.
• Having a difficult conversation with someone.
• Saying no to temptation instead of indulging.
• Getting involved in justice work and caring for the marginalised.

Pleasure that comes after pain leads to a healthier, more sustainable dopamine response. The see-saw tips towards pain first, then rebounds towards pleasure in a way that lasts longer.

A word to Gen Z

My generation is very uncomfortable with discomfort, because we can have almost anything so quickly. Perseverance and resilience are things we really need. Gen Z tends to give up at the first sign of discomfort instead of pushing through. Ghosting was invented by us!

We live in a world of instant gratification but ongoing consequences. When something doesn’t gratify us instantly, we give up and move on to the next thing. We don’t like giving up happiness now for happiness later.

Mature and complete

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

— James 1:4

What does it mean to be mature and complete? The Greek word for mature is teleios, and some translations render it “perfect.”

Biblical perfection is about maturing in love. If you want to grow in perfection, grow in love: be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do as Jesus did. That’s what biblical perfection is, and it’s what Jesus showed with his life.

You know you’ve matured in your faith when you can thank God for your pain and suffering, because you know that’s where he is.

The gospel

Jesus is the embodiment of James 1:2–4. He was made perfect through suffering (Hebrews 2:10). He became mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Jesus’ response to suffering is drastically different from that of other gods and religious teachers. The Buddha faces suffering with a smile and says, in effect, “Embrace it, and if you embrace it enough, you might reach Nirvana.” In the view I described earlier, Allah says to those who suffer, “This is the hand you’ve been dealt. Carry it, and if you carry it well enough, you might get to heaven.” The naturalist says, “That’s just nature working itself out. There’s no meaning. Get over it. That’s life.”

But Jesus doesn’t just speak to suffering. He jumps into it, into our mess. We have a God who says to our suffering, “I know. I get it. I’ve been through it.”

Many people ask, “How can you believe in God when there’s so much suffering?” It’s a very real question, and it doesn’t have a simple answer. But I’d turn it around: how could you believe in any god other than Jesus when there’s so much suffering?

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

— Hebrews 12:1–2

For the joy set before him, Jesus endured the cross. He didn’t chase quick fixes. He embraced suffering and discomfort.

You don’t have to choose between joy and suffering. You don’t have to dodge suffering by indulging in pleasure, and suffering isn’t something you have to carry on your own shoulders until you finally earn some happiness. The truth of Jesus is that joy can be found in suffering.

Here’s how we know: Jesus suffered and found joy in the battle. And the joy he found was relationship with you.

So when trials come our way, or when we choose to enter into pain and discomfort, that’s when we become most like Jesus.

Appeal

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

So don’t avoid suffering. Don’t pretend it doesn’t exist. Don’t keep pushing through in your own strength. Know that there is joy in suffering, because Jesus is in suffering.