Recently, I received a daily subscription email that, to be honest, I don't always read. However, something prompted me to open it this past week, and the title of the first article brought a nudge of reminiscent grief. "
The Night that Took my Wife," sounded a lot like it could have been written by our friend Reid Karr. Come to discover, this was not Reid's first published piece. I knew he was a gifted speaker, but now I know he reaches the globe with his testimony through written words. Whenever words reach me through multiple avenues regarding the same topic, I know God is trying to get my attention. This week's neon sign read, YOU WILL HAVE TROUBLE.
With Luca fairing no better after ear tubes, his subglottic hemangioma still present, Roman's health increasingly worse after his adenoidectomy, Levi's common spills, and the standard discipline of two active big boys cooped up with two sick babies, there were moments of exhaustion that I doubled in the fetal prayer position. These moments are not rare in my life though, nor should they be expected to cease. In fact a quick read of one of my favorite books, Ecclesiastes, reminds me that this life is meant to be a toil. Bad days are not the exception. As Reid put it,
Suffering is not an exception for the believer, but the norm. The apostle Paul warns his disciple that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ will experience suffering (
2 Timothy 3:12). Trials are to be expected. The hope of the gospel, however, is that life in Christ frees us from the fear that suffering and trials produce. Whereas sin enslaves us to fear, the gospel frees us from fear and enslaves us to grace.
As a believer, I can see this world through a new lens that provides a new definition to the word, "toil" and "suffering." If you follow Christ, you don't numb the bad days or try to pursue an outlandish good day because there's a sweet goodness in the every day. Your barometer for bad increases making you like an easily pleased child satisfied in the simple. Yet, in the heat of hard, it's easy for emotions to warp truth. I understand this first hand. We want a solution when one may not exist, but Jesus reminded me in John 16:33, "I have told you these things so that in me, you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." You don't avoid or fear the suffering, you put one foot in front of the other, you watch the fun rise and fall again, and you rise from the fetal position and bask in the son who relieves us of all suffering. Your perspective changes, and you remember that Jesus already suffered greater than you or I ever have or ever will. For this my toil slowly turns to thankfulness.
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| Kids have an amazing capacity to find joy even when they're suffering from illness. |
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| Roman really wanted to "ride a train" and with all his doc appointments these past two weeks, we snagged an off afternoon on MARTA to brighten his day |
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| Memorial Day gave us a little reprieve from toil as we soaked up some refreshing sun. |
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| Roman only got a few minutes of pool time because we were on high "code brown" alert |
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| A quick Levi date to fresh market was a simple delight for us both. |
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| No code brown worries here. |
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| Thanks to Grandad for our stay-home memorial fun! |
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| Boys first slip and slide was a success! |
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| Luca's surgery went well, but he's not slept much better post operation |
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| Alone time with mama is always fun! |
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| Sadly the doc said his internal birthmark isn't gone, so we have another scope in our future. |
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| Doc offices are becoming movie dates. |
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| Not our best date, being that blood was drawn, stool was collected, and every part of him was dissected, but Roman is a trooper that I love to pieces. |
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| Currently he has another sinus infection (pretty much has had one since January), and we are waiting to hear back if there are other things he's still carrying besides trains and pretzels, but I know he'll toil through whatever comes our way. |
Please pray for Roman's test results and wisdom at our ENT visit Thursday for Ro and Luca B. We have double trouble with two sets of boys to navigate, but it's a fun toil that the boys boil and bubble.
~Trouble Buster
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