By Michael Kelley

The older I get, the more convinced I become that much of life is about responding.

That’s the because the older I get, the more I see how much of life is actually out of our control. We do what we can to be proactive, prepared, and anticipatory of all different kinds of issues, but none of that preparation will ever make us completely ready for the things that happen to us every day. And every day, nearly without exception, we encounter something unanticipated. Something unexpected. And, in many cases, something troubling.

The question, then, is always how will we respond. What will we do in light of the various trials that come our way through the week? What will we do with the argument in the relationship? With the suddenly disgruntled coworker? With the distressed child or the unexpected financial downturn?

Because the trials are many and varied, it doesn’t do much good, I don’t think, to try and plan out in advance exactly how we will respond in every scenario; that’s a fool’s errand because, again, it’s impossible to know exactly what to expect. But we can make general plans. That is, we can think about the general attitude and posture we want to take whenever these trials come our way.

Now to be clear, by “trials” I do not mean the kinds of trials that truly do upend your life. I don’t mean the trials of tragedy; of life and death; of dramatic realignment. At least for the purposes of this article, I mean “trials” in a smaller sense – those unexpected irritations and interruptions that cause us a measure of grief. What will our disposition be when those inevitably come our way? To this, we look to 1 Peter for some council:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:3-9).

Before getting to the subject of trials, Peter writes in beautiful detail about the great mercy of God that has been given to us as Christians, and what has come to us as a result of that mercy. And then he leads into the reality of life, that we will all experience all kinds of trials, big and small, that will result in a measure of grief. And yet the disposition he wants for his readers is not one of self-pity.

It seems, in fact, that Peter is viewing these trials as an opportunity. That’s the disposition we are after. But an opportunity for what? At least three things:

1. Trials are an opportunity for faith refinement.

Trials give us the chance to display what we truly believe. We might say we believe that God is good; that He is powerful; that He is wise in all things, but trials show the genuineness of those statements. How we react during moments of trouble isn’t just a reflection of whether we are having a good day or not; it’s a reflection of our faith.

2. Trials are an opportunity for joy clarification.

We tend to find joy in all different kinds of things, and many of those things are good. Family, friends, food – these are all good things. And yet they cannot be the ultimate source of our joy. It must go deeper than that, and because of God’s mercy, He has given us the true reservoir or joy. It is in Him. Trials, because of their very nature, threaten our temporal sources of joy, and therefore give us an opportunity to clarify to ourselves where our ultimate joy lies.

3. Trials are an opportunity for hope sharpening. 

Similarly, we hope for many things. We hope for a job change or for an end to illness; we hope for relationships to get better or stronger; we hope that we will have enough money saved for retirement. And yet all of those things that we hope for simply might not happen. That’s one of the reasons why trials bring grief – it’s because they threaten our hope, just as they threaten our joy. But what an opportunity for the Christian to remember that we have a better hope – a living hope – that grows in our hearts and minds day by day as all living things do.

Chances are there will be some trial that enters your life today. The question, then, is less about whether it will happen, but how we will view it. Will it be a threat, or an opportunity?

Michael Kelley is a husband, father of three, author, and speaker from Nashville, TN. His latest book is a year-long family devotional guide called The Whole Story for the Whole Family. Find his personal blog at michaelkelley.co.