Living a Redemptive Story

Hello faithful family, friends, and followers and welcome to the latest installment of The Life With Joy! This past week saw not only multiple daily walks, but some very special time with family and friends, and the continued blossoming of Joy’s creative talents through multiple items produced for Bundles of Love. In just the past week Joy completed, 2 quilts, 1 crocheted blanket, 21 burp cloths, and 1 knitted sweater.

Even with this amazing burst of productivity we still had time for a special lunch with special friends, as well as time with Joy’s sister Grace who arrived from Washington state Tuesday afternoon. After picking Grace up from the airport, we showed her our new home and then took her to her daughter’s in Apple Valley where we had a lovely visit with our niece and her family. Then the next day, we picked Grace up and traveled to Northeastern Iowa for a memory making day with Joy’s 97 year old mother Ruth, brother Dan, and sister-in-law Valeria. Joy did an amazing job engaging and conversing in each of the social situations and I am so touched, proud, and thankful for the amazing progress in her interpersonal interactions and in her creative pursuits.

When Joy left the hospital at the end of April last year, while having made amazing macro level physical gains, the thought of re-engaging creative talents like knitting, crocheting, embroidery, and sewing seemed a bit like a bridge too far. Early on though Joy quickly took up knitting and crocheting again, but as I wrote previously, Joy seemed fearful and resistant to believing that her sewing talent could be re-learned just has the knitting and crocheting had been. But as the first picture above proves, Joy has more than risen to the challenge and continues to thrill and amaze those of us who watch our Joy in the joys of her exceptional pursuits.

Watching Joy embrace and thrive in her creative endeavors, despite the devastated pain and trauma of the accident that forever changed our lives, brought to my mind related thoughts from writers Donald Miller and Frederick Buechner which I see lived out in and by Joy each day.

Miller writes -

“If we choose a project to work on; if we open ourselves up to the beauty of art, nature, and even other people; and then if we can find a redemptive perspective for our inevitable pain, we will experience a deep sense of meaning. When I experience meaning, my life feels as though it is playing an important role in an important story. I have never been able to prove that sense of purpose is justified, but it hardly matters. When I am experiencing meaning, it feels as though my life is a story that is interesting to myself and also good for the world.”

And from Buechner -

“What can we do that makes us gladdest, what can we do that leaves us with the strongest sense of sailing true north and of peace, which is much of what gladness is? Is it making things with our hands out of wood or stone or paint on canvas? Or is it making something we hope like truth out of words? Or is it making people laugh or weep in a way that cleanses their spirit? I believe that if it is a thing that makes us truly glad, then it is a good thing and it is our thing and it is the calling voice that we were made to answer with our lives."

Thank you all again for your faithful partnership on this journey - our thoughts and prayers are with each of you, our faithful family, friends, and followers. And, we hope and pray that you will join us this week in encouraging and supporting each other in living out our redemptive stories of gladness and meaning that are interesting to ourselves and to the good of the world. 🙏🏻