Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
"Count it all joy" is a strange thing to say about trials, and James knows it — that's not a suggestion to pretend hardship feels good. It's pointing further down the road, to what the trial is actually producing while it's happening: steadfastness, something solid that wasn't there before.
Think about the last time something difficult actually changed you for the better. It probably wasn't the ease that did it. It was the pressure — the part you would have skipped if you'd been given the choice. James is naming that pattern out loud instead of leaving it unspoken.
This isn't a call to enjoy your pain. It's an invitation to notice that the hardest stretch of your life might not be wasted — that something is being built in you, whether or not you can feel it yet.
If you're in a hard stretch right now, it might be worth asking whether something is actually being built in you, not just endured.
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.