Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but James' use of ἡγέομαι in 1:2 is very interesting. The word can mean a governor, a ruler; it also has the meaning (as it does here) of 'to consider, deem, account, think, count, esteem, have rule over, be governor'.
Is James intimating that trials are not to be determinative for the Christian, that we have the opportunity to be 'over' them, in some sense, and not simply 'under' them? That we can properly make choices with respect to them - for example, to choose in the midst of trials to discover new joy in God?
That is never easy, of course, and sometimes simply isn't possible (for example, during clinical depression) but the possibility of it is heartening.
