The Goodness of God when your team loses the Superbowl or you don’t like the halftime show.

Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance (James 1:2–4).

Every year two American football teams vie for the prestige of being the best of the season. The game usually garners more television viewers than any other program and commercial time sells for about $8 MILLION for a 30-second spot. At halftime, there’s a show with music, dancers, and special effects instead of the usual commentary. The commercials compete for attention by being heartwarming or weird. The day after the big game is the biggest “sick day” of the year and social media features complaints about the game, the half-time show, and the commercials. It’s tradition to suffer after the Super Bowl.

What we call suffering in the West (especially in the US) may be better explained as uncomfortable, inconvenient, or disappointing. (I may be biased about the amount of post-season suffering; my team hasn’t been to a Superbowl since 2002, where they lost. They haven’t won a Superbowl since 1983.) However, even if my favourite teams were in the big games, suffering that kind of loss isn’t the kind of suffering that produces endurance.