Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
James 1:9-10
Life Is Motion
Life can be difficult. Problems in life are guaranteed. Some trials are easy to bear, but some push a person nearly to their breaking point. And some of us break. Adversity can compel someone to quit—to stop moving forward. Such a conclusion is fatal.
Life is motion. A glimpse into the atomic realm reveals that living things and even inorganic matter are continually in flux. But basic skills of observation are enough for the average individual to recognize that movement, upon which growth depends, is present in all living things. And as it is in our bodies, so is it in our spirits.
One who loses heart—their passion and purpose—will become as a dead person moving in body but lifeless within. This kind of living dead existence is no life worth having.
Life Is Transfer
Even in the emptiness of the cosmos, something exists. It is no secret to the scientific community that space contains energy. I would not be surprised if we one day discovered that the value in that vacuum is exponentially greater than what any theoretical astrophysicist had before considered.
While popular science might suggest that light is unlike the mechanical waves of a ripple in a pond and requires no medium through which to travel, I propose otherwise. It could be that light is very much like the tiny waves created by a pebble dropped into a pond, but we have not yet fully recognized light’s pond. Maybe, the medium light requires to travel, without which we could never see, is the fabric of space and time; and I find such a hypothesis extremely plausible. Perhaps, however, there is another material, substance, structure, or energy existing within space-time that we have yet to discover that is the conduit through which light moves.
Theorizing about the motion of light and its possible displacement of some yet-to-be-understood framework stretches the mind; but without question, sound requires a medium through which to travel. We are most familiar with the movement of sound through our atmosphere. Indeed, sound does move as waves through the air like ripples in a pond. A sound is not a thing that moves from point A to point B; rather, the sound’s source pushes molecules in the air which are in turn pushed into other molecules. A chain reaction ensues of molecules pushing molecules pushing molecules causing waves of compression and expansion in the atmosphere. These sound waves disturb the delicate facilities of our ears allowing us to hear the sound that was made. I imagine that sound is an invisible and complex cooperation of many members to send an audible imprint from its source to one or more destination.
Light and sound are motion; they are transferences of energy. Such is true for both, even if light truly requires no medium. In fact, it appears to me that all motion is transfer. Something moves from one point to another. And it seems that most everything that moves influences something else to move; it transfers energy to something else.
We do not feel the temperature of an object when we touch it with our hand; rather, we feel the transfer of heat between our hand and the object. If the object we touch is a good conductor of heat, it will probably feel colder to us than its actual temperature would cause us to expect because we will feel the transfer of heat from our hand to the object.
The natural parallels the spiritual and provides examples to illuminate our minds to understand deeper things, and I believe natural movement and energy-transfer can teach us something about life. Life is transfer. In everything you do or think or experience, you are giving, receiving, or both. You are influencing and being influenced. You are in a transfer.
Rejoice
James wrote of the person of “low degree.” This state is one of humiliation or depression. It may be a chronic condition that has come to define the individual, or it could be a dark valley one reluctantly hazards. It is a place of want or suffering. To be low is generally considered undesirable. Perhaps you’ve been there and experienced a testing of your faith.
The valley is not the only place your faith is tested; it’s also tried on the mountain. God is concerned with how your faith weathers the sunshine, as well as the storm. Do you grow in the good times, as well as the bad? Do you continue to pray when life’s pressure releases for a season? Do you practice holiness on vacation?
In James 1:9-10, I see transfer. Some are moving from blight to blessing while others are falling from pinnacle to pit. Are you watching the sunset as a heartless night looms, or do you see a silver lining brightening with a ray of sunlight breaking the previously thunderous and dark clouds? You’re experiencing a transfer; rejoice in your transfer.
You’re moving ahead. It may be up or down; but either way, it’s forward. Rejoice in the movement. Your transfer may be supplying something sustaining to someone or some situation; you’re feeling the coldness of loss while life flows from you to another. Your transfer could be feeding you the strength you need to recover from a trial you’re surpassing. Whatever it is, rejoice in it.
God is in control. He’s helping you or using you or both. But the transfer is evidence of life. The transfer is evidence of God. Rejoice in the transfer.