On July 3, Pastor Robert Shelby of Baton Rouge, was teaching them how to swim when he dove a little too deep and slammed his head into the bottom of the pool, breaking his C-5 vertebra. Unable to move, unable to swim, he was helpless to save himself. For a few moments he hovered between life and death until his young sons realized that something was amiss. They dragged him from the pool, performed CPR and saved his life.  in Baton Rouge, was teaching them how to swim when he dove a little too deep and slammed his head into the bottom of the pool, breaking his C-5 vertebra. Unable to move, unable to swim, he was helpless to save himself. For a few moments he hovered between life and death until his young sons realized that something was amiss. They dragged him from the pool, performed CPR and saved his life.

The Bible says we are to “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds …” (James 1:2).  Does this mean Pastor Shelby is to rejoice for His situation?  Is God masochistic? Does God want us to find fulfillment through pain?  No.  He goes on to say, “… for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”  (James 1:3-4).  We do not seek pain, but we are grateful for the fact that God uses and determines pain for our good.  Pain in life serves to bring out a stronger, more durable trust in Jesus. Therefore, because a deeper trust in Jesus is the potential result of difficulty, we are to see it through the vantage point of what it could produce in our life. No person enjoys pain, but followers of Jesus are to move beyond physical comfort to grave spiritual gain. As Paul David Tripp said in How People Change:

He (God) will do whatever he needs to produce holiness in us. He wants us to be a community of joy, but He is willing to compromise our temporal happiness in order to increase our Christlikeness.

My God grant us the ability to see difficulty as the soil of deep and abiding joy.  Remember to pray for Pastor Shelby to fight for this truth. Pray for Pastor Shelby not to rejoice for his situation but in His situation.
Listen to the interview and the rest of the story at Challies.com.