A new chapter in my life begins today, the anniversary of my birth. It is therefore necessary that I pause to reflect upon this past year.

For me, the intervening year between the last and this one has been a buffet of different experiences. It has consisted of both blessings and burdens, delight and depression, ecstasy and agony, healing and hurt, plenty and poverty, success and failure, triumphs and temptations. But, through it all God has been good to me.

After looking back and cataloging my cares, enumerating my difficulties, adding up my victories, listing my heavy loads, summing up my successes and tallying up my trials, it all equaled great joy. Somehow, God took my troubles and transformed them into testimonies. He took my pains and replaced it with perseverance. He took my fears and strengthened my faith. He took my tears of hurt and turned them into tears of joy. Yes, when I calculated all the good, the bad and the ugly, it still equaled great joy.

James, the brother of Jesus begins his book with a stunning command. He says: Brothers and sisters count it all joy whenever you face trials of many kinds. This is interesting because inherent in the advice in the need for us to be able to count. All Christians has to be able to count because God has incorporated counting as an integral part of His plan for the development of discipline and discipleship. So He tells us that we need to count and not only count but count it all.

It is in the all that we find deliverance. It is not counting only the blessings and victories, but we must also count the bad and the ugly; counting it all totals up to joy.

Now, here is the catch. Counting, in the context of our faith, does not start until troubles come. Actually, it can be likened to boxing. The referee does not start counting until the boxer falls. It is the fall that begins the count. This is important to understand because God's joy cannot be experienced any other way.

We may not want to acknowledge it or even desire it, but every Christian needs a trial or two. Every child of God needs sprinklings of tribulations. Every believer needs to experience the fiery furnace and the lion