“Count it all joy when you fall into various trials.” (James 1:2-4) Such a powerful phrase, but how exactly do you count it all joy when trial after trial comes?
This has been winter. A winter to remember. A winter full of trials and struggles. And yet, there is joy. I lasted posted in January. It’s hard to believe we’re into April, and I missed posting in February and March at all. It’s been a winter.
Health Updates:
Ben:
Ben’s peripheral neuropathy continues to progress. What started out as idiopathic small fiber neuropathy is now both large and small idiopathic neuropathy. He has continued to lose feeling in his hands, and has to be careful not to grab something too hot or sharp because he can’t feel it.
He gets pain in his feet still quite frequently, despite having almost no actual feeling. As we’ve mentioned before, the nerves don’t communicate with the brain the way they should so he has pain when he shouldn’t and doesn’t feel things when he should.
Winters are always tough for Ben. We’ve talked about moving somewhere warmer, but there are a lot of logistics that goes into this, and it just hasn’t fallen into place yet.
Cindy:
Overall, I’ve been doing ok. It’s been a challenging winter. Physically, I’ve had some tough days with pain, but that’s typical with the weather changes. I’ve kept up at least some of the physical therapy exercises from over summer, and most days, I can move better than I’ve been able to in while. But the bad days still come, and you just have to learn to roll with them. I’ve come a long way from where I was though!
Wesley:
As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, Wesley has had a lot of health problems the past few years. We had to make the difficult decision to say goodbye to him in February. He fell in the deep snow we had this winter, and was no longer able to walk. He was 13 years old. We miss him so very much. Our other two dogs have had a hard time adapting to life without him, but they are slowly getting used to our “new normal.”
Winter is not Forever
Winter has been one of my favorite seasons my entire life. It’s hard for me to pick just one season because I like them all, but there’s just something about the gently falling snow that I find peaceful and calming. It’s also a time to rest and recover. The plants and trees are buried in snow, some of the animals hibernate, and everything takes time to rest.
This winter has been long and brutal. I’m not even going to go into all of the details, but we had over 240 inches of snow in our area, much of that falling between November and February. We had I think 86/94 days of snow between those months, or something like that. For a while, it seemed it snowed every day. I love the snow, but after a while, with little to no thaws in between, it start to wear on a person. It’s hard to get outside in winter, especially since the accident, and when it’s snowing that much, the roads are seldom clear for travel.
We had several things happen over winter, from the furnace breaking to losing Wesley, lots of little things breaking down and so much more, all within a few months. We had a couple of deaths in the family too and were then hit with an ice storm right about the time Spring Break started. It’s been a wild ride with a few ups and a lot of downs, but our faith has carried us through.
But slowly, there are signs that spring is coming. The little flowers popping up from the ground, birds returning, snow slowly melting even if there is more yet to come. One day soon, spring will finally come.
Count It All Joy
I’ve talked before about joy in pain and finding joy. When we think of joy, I think most people think of happiness. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines joy as:
Noun:
- a: the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires : delight
b : the expression or exhibition of such emotion : gaiety
2 : a state of happiness or felicity : bliss
3: a source or cause of delight
Verb:
: to experience great pleasure or delight : rejoice
It seems contradictory to count it joy when we fall into various trials. Yet this is a different kind of joy than what we might think of when we think of the word joy.
James 1:2-4 tells us to: (Bible Gateway, NIV)
“2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all “
We can count trials as joy because we know they are preparing us for something else. Just like winter is tough and brutal sometimes, so is life. Yet without winter, the plants, trees, and animals would not get the rest they need to be their very best.
Trials teach us. They strengthen our faith and help prepare us for what is yet to come. They help shape us into better people, into more of who we should be, if we allow them to.
There is beauty in trials, just as there is beauty in winter. It’s been a winter. But it hasn’t been all bad. We’ve seen some spectacular sunrises, squeezed in a little birdwatching, and watched the waves begin to roll again as spring tries to come. And though it’s been a tough season for Ben and I, it’s only a season. We can count this winter joy, knowing the One who holds tomorrow is allowing this season to make us stronger, more like Him as we wait for the next season to begin. After all, winter is not forever. Spring will come again.
Until next time,
Cindy
Tales From North Country 