The key to having success in difficult times is the ability to look at them from God's perspective. Growing up is not always easy. It's one of life's great tensions. Sometimes we just don't want to grow up. We wish to enjoy the absence of responsibility of youth, yet yearn for the privileges of adulthood. Today we begin a series on the Book of James which is about Christian maturity or growing up spiritually. James shows us that maturity is the balance between what we believe and what we do, or as we say in the church--the relationship between faith and works. One way in which we grow up spiritually is through difficult times. A mother wants to protect her child from harm but knows some lessons must be learned through pain. And so a wise mother doesn't always "rescue" her child. God, our heavenly Father, does exactly the same with us. He allows difficulty in our lives to both reveal and develop our Christian maturity.