Dear
Family & Friends, December 2017
Well, 2017
is winding down, and I struggle a bit to write this letter this year. Why?
Because I have nothing profound to share, to announce, or bemoan. 2017 has been
a hard year and a good year. The Lord has shown up in so many highs and lows
and plateaus with one consistent message, “Endure AND Enjoy!”
This year
held travels to Death Valley, Mexico, the Grand Canyon, Ormond Beach, and
several camping weekends as our family was blessed with the purchase of a camping
trailer. One of our biggest blessings this year has been camping with our
California people. The friendships that have deepened and grown here in this
past year have been a true gift for which we are deeply grateful.
Savannah
turned ten in October, and to say she’s blooming into a beautiful young girl is
an understatement. She’s continued in her gymnastics this year, but also played
soccer and water polo. She constantly amazes me with her natural abilities and
the ease and flexibility with which she tackles life. As always, she loves
every moment of everything, spreading joy and fun and light to anyone she
manages to corral. I think I’m most proud of how she consistently reads her
devotions in the morning. Both children continue to grow in their love and
knowledge of Jesus, and it’s really of their own choosing which is both
encouraging and challenging since consistency in my own time with the Lord is
still an area I seem to constantly be seeking improvement!
Joey celebrated
40 this year and continues to love his job as a financial consultant for
Chick-fil-A. I’m grateful for a husband whose integrity, perseverance, and
commitment to his job translates equally to how he leads our home—constantly
looking to improve, open to feedback, and never backing down from a hard
conversation. I’ve watched the Lord use these skills along with many others as
Joey felt led to join the school board of the new classical school God started
in September of this year for our kids and 38 others. Choosing to invest in the
founding of The Geneva School has been a true walk of faith and continues to
be, but Joey has been a rock for me and our children in the process, and his
willingness to serve and sacrifice time and energy to do what God has called us
to do is admirable.
As for me,
this year has been a test of endurance in so many areas of life. I trained for
and completed three sprint triathlons, was blessed to lead a ministry team of
high schoolers on a mission trip to Mexico, and I continue to be challenged and
blessed through service in both the high school and women’s ministries at our
church. When God opened our school in September, I also felt led to serve two
days a week as a classroom aide, so to say the speed of life and the fullness
of my days has increased would be an understatement.
But amid
the busyness, I have also been deeply in tune with how the Lord is working in these
areas of my life, calling me, preparing me to dig in, root deep, and endure.
I’ve learned that endurance doesn’t necessarily produce growth or forward
progression of any kind, but it does build strength of character because
endurance is the ability and determination to stay, to stick-with-it, to be
present and steadfast. Endurance holds you steady; it’s the quality that
requires you stay the course. We live in a culture and a world where so many
are constantly looking for the next challenge, the next high, the next
accomplishment, the next opportunity, the next goal to attain, the next thing
to check off their bucket list because there is a natural rush in attaining these
good things. Aiming toward these things gives a sense of meaning and purpose,
so when I found myself in a season where there was no five-year-plan or
dream-big goal, I floundered for a bit.
Until I
started recognizing the lesson in the floundering was that when I focused on
being present today, in this moment, with this person, or this child, I wasn’t
actually floundering anymore, I was living the biggest, most audacious dream of
them all—to love others as Jesus loves me. To live this way doesn’t require a
five-year plan, but it does require endurance to keep the faith and walk the
path God has placed you on; it requires a commitment to staying with Jesus and
in His Word and choosing to be in His presence no matter how hard or nonchalant
or fulfilling a day may turn out to be. To endure is to stay.
Which
doesn’t sound very fun or impressive, but about mid-year God pointed out that
it’s not just about enduring, it’s also about enjoying. Enjoying the blessings
of friendships and belly laughs and cooking club antics. Enjoying the gift of
small hands holding mine and saying ‘yes’ to throwing the football and playing
a board game and waking up together in our camper on a cool California morning.
Enjoying the sunshine, crashing waves, and the blessing of good health.
Enjoying even the tears shared with friends and the comfort only God can wrap
you with in hard times. Enjoying long soccer practices, never-ending laundry,
super-chill date nights, and spontaneous lunches with friends.
Be present
as you endure, but be present to enjoy—this has been 2017.
Colossians 1:10-14 “[T]hat you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in
every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according
to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the
Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of
His holy people in the kingdom of light. For
He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the
kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom
we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
And Amen
to that! Because therein lies the greatest Christmas Gift of all in the
beginning of our redemption and rescue by the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ!
May 2018 be a year filled with possibilities and joy for you and yours. May
endurance hold you steady and enjoyment sprinkle the seconds of your days.
Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year from our home to yours!
Joey, Jennifer, Savannah & Weston Durham
Joey, Jennifer, Savannah & Weston Durham
