Few games have been as frustrating but still addictive as Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out… and even after all these years, I still remember the exact techniques required to dodge Bald Bull’s charge attack or block Great Tiger’s punches. While I didn’t always appreciate getting stuck on a specific opponent until I memorized how to defeat them, the adversity Little Mac faced on his way to his climactic battle with Tyson was designed to ensure we had developed both the patience to endure his attacks as well as learned the skills we’d need to defeat him.

When I think of trials and tribulations, joy isn’t usually the first word that comes to my mind… but much like the specific list of opponents on the path to that Tyson showdown, each battle we face is used by the Lord to grow specific skills in us and develop the patience that we’ll need in the larger battles ahead of us. And if we both accept and embrace what He is using these moments to teach us, these lessons will become memorized patterns of behavior that we’ll never forget… so let’s find the joy in our journey today. Not because of the test itself, but because our test becomes our testimony.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:2-4

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Romans 5:3-4

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