This is a companion to “Where Is the Fruit of Your Peace?” That one was about the peace I didn't walk in. This one is about everything else I walked past.

There are trials I've come through where, on the other side, I thanked God that He kept me. But with hindsight, I've also had to admit something: I could have gone through that better.

Not because I shouldn't have been hurt, or tired, or distressed. But because there was grace available to me along the journey that I never fully accessed. Peter writes of those who have been begotten again unto a lively hope:

There is a keeping power that belongs to God, and I've experienced it even when my communion with Him wasn't what it should have been. God is merciful. I've come through things and been able to look back and say, “God kept me.”

You can go through. You can get through. You can come out the other side, and still never pick up the grace, strength, wisdom and perspective that were waiting along the way.

Paul asked God three times to remove his thorn. God's answer was:

God didn't remove the weakness. He gave Paul something to pick up inside it: grace. And Paul learned to live from what God supplied.

That's why Paul fascinates me. Read what that man went through: stripes, prison, beatings, stoning, shipwreck, perils, weariness, pain, hunger, thirst, and on top of all of it, the care of the churches. No human being carries that weight alone. Paul was leaning on something. When I taught on suffering, I put it this way: Paul didn't just know how to survive. He had learned how to receive what God provided for the journey.

I think we sometimes misunderstand grace because we only recognise it afterwards. We say, “God gave me grace, because I survived.” Yes. But what if there was grace available on Tuesday afternoon, when you were overwhelmed? What if there was strength waiting in prayer that morning, or a Word that would have corrected your perspective?

Not something that would have changed the trial. Something that would have changed how you went through it. James says:

We sometimes detach that verse from what James has just said:

There is wisdom available inside the trial: how to endure it, how to respond to it, and what God is producing through it. But it has to be received.

Prayer, fasting, worship, the Word and communion with God aren't just tools for persuading God to get us out. They are provisions for the journey through. And perhaps that's where some of us have been missing it. We've been asking God for an exit while walking past the provisions He placed along the road.

And God did keep us. But looking back, I've had to admit: I didn't have to go through it like that. The trial may have been unavoidable. Some of the pain may have been unavoidable. But some of my misery was not.

There was perspective I didn't access. Peace I didn't walk in. Joy I didn't receive. Wisdom I didn't ask for. Strength I didn't draw on. There was grace for the journey, and I walked past it.

But God, who is rich in mercy, has let me live through enough trials that I can recognise the provisions along the road. When I'm confused, there's wisdom available. When I'm weak, there's strength. When my perspective starts to shift, there's a presence I can run into. And when the burden is too heavy, there's a Man who carries it with me, if I let Him.

And sometimes God isn't trying to bring us out at all. He's teaching us to stay under.

The New Testament word for endurance comes from hupomenō, which literally means to remain under: to stay, to bear up under pressure rather than flee from it. Biblical endurance is more than getting through. And Scripture is clear about what makes it possible. James puts the two side by side: count it all joy, because the trying of your faith produces endurance. Without joy, we won't last.

Look at Jesus:

“Endured” is that same word. Jesus endured the cross because of joy. He could see something beyond it. The cross was still a cross. The shame was still shame. But the joy set before Him gave Him a perspective that reached past what He was enduring.

That's the endurance I want. Not “I survived,” but “I remained under it with God.” Because there are things God gives us in the fire that we can't receive by running from it. Avoid the mountain, and you miss the strength He gives for the climb. Avoid the sea, and you never see Him part it.

So yes, thank God you made it through. Thank God He kept you, and that His mercy didn't let the trial consume you. But when the next one comes, remember what He taught you in the last one. Don't just go through. Look for the grace. Ask for the wisdom. Stay in communion.