Hope in Chaos

In our journey through James, we’ve seen how trials test our faith (1:2-4), how we need God’s wisdom to navigate them (1:5-8), and how we must resist blaming God for our temptations (1:13-16).

Now James reminds his readers of the true nature of God in verse 17:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

If you go on Etsy, you can find thousands of sellers offering this verse for sale in the form of wall art, key chains, pregnancy announcements, onesies, and coloring books. (The onesies are particularly cute if you are in the market for that kind of thing).

But if we go back to the mindset of the ancient world in which James wrote, this wasn’t a sentimental verse. It was a provocative theological claim that directly challenged the prevailing mindset. As Craig Keener notes, most people in the ancient world “believed in astrology and feared the powers of the stars.”

In contrast, James is making a revolutionary claim: God isn’t just one power among many—He’s the Creator and Ruler of all cosmic powers, including the sun, moon, and stars (the “lights” of Genesis 1).

Unlike the shifting celestial bodies that cast moving shadows (or cause trouble), James has the audacity to claim that God never changes, and only shines light. This directly counters another common idea, addressed in verses James 1:13-15, that God might somehow be responsible for our temptations and sin. Instead, James insists, only good gifts come from our unchangingly good Father.

Once we understand the cultural context, it might be tempting to see this as merely addressing ancient fears. Someone might think, "Oh, ok. If you were worried about the stars causing famines, then I can see how this message comforted his prescientific, superstitious congregation."

But in a week where the headlines read “Brutal Week for Stocks…more than $6 trillion erased from market in two days” and “Storm to bring ‘generational’ flooding, tornadoes”, we’re reminded that we are all subjected to surprising, damaging forces that are outside of our control.

Today, instead of the stars, we blame politicians, climate change, social media, and other global factors for our troubles. Some of these critiques are reasonable, but others are more like ancient astrological theories. Whether you blame (or praise) any given political leader for your troubles (or your good fortune), functionally, does it matter much if we attribute the change to the stars, lucky timing, or random chance?

The explanations change from generation to generation, but the human condition remains the same. No matter what the reigning worldview looks like, our financial security, our safety from natural disasters, and our health depend on factors that will always feel erratic and unpredictable.

And when we experience disruptive change, it’s entirely normal to feel anxious, afraid, and even angry. How else should we feel when a tornado, whether literal or metaphorical, rips the roof off our houses? James doesn’t minimize suffering—he acknowledges it as real testing. As Keener points out, “Famines, poverty and oppression were among events viewed as testings.”

But my inner skeptic immediately raises a further question: Does God’s unchanging goodness really matter when my circumstances are falling apart? Let's have the courage to ask the hard questions. How does believing "God is good" make a difference when your child dies in a car accident?

When tragedy strikes, everyone will have to answer that question for themselves, at their own pacing, and in their own way. I am not proposing a spiritual bandaid for a gaping wound.

What I can share is three ways that trusting in God's goodness has helped me through the crises I've faced.

First, it gives me confidence to know who is in charge. Is it the blind laws of physics, the unequal influence of the global elite, a powerful bully, or the uncontrollable forces of nature? No. My life is ultimately in the hands of a loving Father who oversees it all.

Second, it means our suffering isn’t meaningless, even when we can’t understand it. Nothing in the Bible promises a quick fix. But we can trust that the God who demonstrated His goodness in the cross and the resurrection will do the same for us. He has promised to eventually turn our trials around for our ultimate good!

Third, building our lives upon the goodness of God, and not any shifting sand, gives us a stable foundation for hope. It's not wishful thinking that problems will magically disappear, but the deep confidence that comes from trusting a God who has proven His faithfulness throughout history—and so we know that God can be trusted with whatever lies ahead.

When we’re desperate for good news, it’s easy to escape into distractions—games, funny videos, or anything that helps us forget for a while (and there's nothing wrong with watching a TV show). But as disciples of Jesus, we can anchor ourselves to a reality beyond the stars. As James tells us, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” Whatever powers there may be, God is the greater power behind all of them. He’s constant, faithful, and always, always good.

Also, remember that James is not writing to an individual friend, but to an entire congregation, his "dear brothers and sisters" (verse 16). When we face difficult trials, we are all tempted to doubt God's goodness. That's when we need each other to show us God's goodness, to remind us of God's goodness, and to pray for God's goodness.

Toward the end of the long Boston winters, my friends and I would start to remind each other: spring is coming! We'd help each other pull through the late spring snow storms. Sometimes that looked like shoveling someone's car out. Other times it was a hug. Or gathering to worship God, defying the bad weather to sing songs of joy. James provides a message for both our everyday struggles and the unexpected, life-altering tragedies.

As I see it, here are our choices. On the one hand, we can go through suffering without hope, with no comfort that it makes any sense at all, and with frustration and anger at all the powers that caused us pain. We can even rage against God for what we’ve had to experience.

Or, alternatively, we can gain faith that the Father of lights is not at all like the shifting shadows of our broken world. Every good gift in our lives comes from his hands. And every shifting shadow is, in the long run, no more significant than a cloud that temporarily obscures our view of the sun.

So how do we live in light of this truth? Here are three ideas to get us started:

• Take inventory of the good gifts in your life today—both the obvious ones and those that are easy to overlook. Thank the Father of lights for each one.

• When you encounter “shifting shadows”—circumstances that feel threatening or chaotic—ask God to help you see them as opportunities to trust God’s unchanging character.

• Share your struggles with at least one other believer. We're all feeling unsettled—reach out and remind someone that you're praying for them.

Every day, the shadows are shifting—and the Father of lights remains steadfast in his love. That’s not just a nice sentiment for a onesie—it’s the unshakable truth that can anchor your soul in the stormiest weather.