Playing Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out was both an addictive and frustrating experience due to its learning curve that required a lot of trial and error in order to advance. But it certainly stuck with me… decades later 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 that we had developed both the patience to endure his attacks as well as learned the skills that 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 list of opponents we had to conquer on our path to that Tyson showdown, each battle we face in life is used by the Lord to grow specific skills in us as well as develop the patience that we will need in the larger battles ahead of us. And if we are willing to accept and embrace these moments that He is using to teach us and help us grow, 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 these tests will become 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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