Endure AND Enjoy: Christmas Letter 2017

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.

Weston turned eight in August. The change I’ve seen in him physically in a year makes my Mama heart cry. So many teeth lost and inches grown! He’s officially in love with soccer, and we’ve enjoyed watching his love of football increase. He’s bright and witty and all-boy. He still likes to hold my hand in public and snuggle on the couch for some TV watching, so for these small things, I’m deeply grateful. Both kids completed their first full year of piano lessons, and I continue to be blown away by how much they’ve improved and grown in a year’s time.

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.

Does this letter find you in a season of wandering, of annoying difficulties, or a string of everyday, run-of-the-mill moments? I challenge you to sit in these, to stay, to dig deep and endure all the while choosing to find the simple beauty and flashes of enjoyment that are there. We just need to learn to slow down long enough to actually acknowledge and enjoy the minutes of time, instead of spending all our energy striving to plan for the hours ahead.

This life is a marathon, my friends. We must learn to enjoy a steady pace because most of us aren’t built to sprint the entire way! Endurance isn’t a glamorous part of the journey, but it builds an unshakeable strength. Learning to enjoy, treasure, and appreciate the small things along the way is how you’re able to endure the act of enduranceJ

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