Two Thousand Eighteen:
A Series of Unfortunate and, sometimes, Heart Rending Events
#Life #Fighting for JOY
Let’s see, 2018…
A drunk driver sped down my controlled access cul de sac and crashed in my front yard, effectively taking out our two cars at once; no injuries.
Later, a deer took out our replacement car; no injuries.
June brought the unexpected death of my oldest cousin, stopping me in my tracks.
My dog, then, licked a poison frog and spent a week on death’s door. Just as he was on the mend, our baseball team of close knit families fell disastrously apart, distressing many a heart in the process.
August brought a season of new beginnings as my youngest began both Middle School and a new baseball team. It has been a volatile transition of angst and fury.
In September, our car was totalled; no injuries, a bittersweet connection of difficulty with gratitude.
In October, Philp and I, on our Harley, were stopped at a crosswalk when a texting driver plowed into us sending me aloft and breaking my clavicle and 5 ribs…
As I survey the state of my year from my perch here in November, I am amazed.
When I was well enough to go back to church, I found that my Pastor had begun a new series: Fighting for Joy, and it summed up my year nicely. It has been a year of an ever progressing volley of breakage: material, physical, emotional and spiritual, if you will. And with each crisis, it has become ever more evident that Joy is not only worth fighting for, but it is essential.
Joy is, afterall, not a result of circumstances, but rather the result of being held during them by my faithful God. He welcomes me at the very point of my need and tells me that fighting for Joy simply proves this truth and it propels me as effectively up off the pavement as the driver propelled me onto it. He tells me that it is time to take back our joy. It is time to rejoice in His coming and the hopeful message He brings with Him: We are stronger when we find our strength, not in our circumstances, but in our strengthening connection to God through joy.
May this New Year bring you victory after victory
as you fight for joy in your circumstances.
DO NOT fear!
He has overcome the world
so that we need not be overcomed by it.
Loving you,
Anne and boys
November, 2018
“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.”
John 16:33
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