Counting it all joy…

Down here in London, the Lord has blessed with some hot weather. With classes cancelled today due to teacher training, I thought I’d take a break from blogging and studying and go play some football. I came home around 5 to grab a drink, and noticed the DVD case for my favourite documentary, Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism was all twisted and there was no disk inside. At that point, I got worried. I asked my mum what had happened, and she said, “Ask your brother” [usually meaning bad news]. I asked, “Why’s my DVD case all mangled and where’s the DVD?”. My 13-year-old, fashion-drone brother coldly turned and said, “Remember when I asked you for a fiver?” I vaguely remembered him pestering me at 6 in the morning for it to buy credit for his phone, but I refused to give it to him [I was going to buy a new systematic theology...which I did a few days ago]. “What did I tell you about not giving me money when I need it?” [At this point, might I add my brother spends his life calling half the girls in his school...and still has the nerve to ask me to finance his lifestyle]. At this point, I was hot, thirsty and not in the mood for small talk, “Where is the DVD?” Once again, he turned round and just said, “I broke it.”

At that point, I just walked out before it seriously degenerated into a fistfight. I sat downstairs thinking, ”How can someone be so cruel?”. I mean, I did nothing to him [nothing meaningful...] and I end up with a broken DVD which cost me a lot of money. A Scripture then came to mind:

James 1:2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness

Once again, my brother is purposely intending to try my short temper, but even in the midst of this, I will still have joy - at least my new systematic survived the lunatic that is my brother, and [to my knowledge] he still didn’t get the £5. Dear brethren, whatever you go through, just it all joy

Grace and peace,

Doug

P.S. Anybody know where I can get a cheap edition of the DVD?