The Great River Road Trip

Hello faithful family, friends, and followers, we are thankful you are here. This week we took some time for one of our favorite drives, criss crossing the Mississippi River while making a trip to visit Joy’s mother in Iowa. “The Great River Road” as it is called, is somewhat of a misnomer, it should really be “The Great River Roads,” since signs displaying the Great River Road can be found on both sides of the Mississippi. We go back and forth, generally choosing the sections that stay closest to the river.

We had a wonderful time with Joy’s mother, who at 97 is doing amazingly well and for that we, and she, are truly grateful. As we’ve written about previously, neither Joy nor her mom knew if they would see each other this side of heaven after the accident happened. Joy’s near death and more than one health crisis for Joy’s mother kept that question in doubt. It was a beautifully sweet time when last June Joy and her mother were able to embrace over lunch at “The Branding Iron” in Preston, Minnesota. It was Joy’s first cross country drive since the accident, Joy’s brother Joel with his family were visiting her mother, so we leapt at the opportunity to bring mother and daughter together for a very special and unexpected reunion. Now I’ve lost count of their times together since last June. It is a testimony to God’s grace and mercy and to the tenacity and determination of both Joy and her mother to live each day God gives them for his honor and his glory.

We’ve mentioned Joy’s pursuit of reading through the Bible this year. After breakfast, Joy reads out-loud the Old Testament section for the day and after dinner, the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs sections. When she finishes her evening Bible reading, I read to her a daily devotional by Joni Eareckson Tada titled, “A Spectacle of Glory: God’s Light Shining Through Me Every Day.” If you’ve read Joy’s posts in “Joy’s Corner,” you’ll know how genuinely she see’s her surviving the accident as an opportunity for her to display God’s light shining through her every day.

For both of us, one of the Joni devotionals this week brought not only new perspective on a very familiar passage, but great encouragement as well. She offered an expanded take on the story of five loaves and two fish used for the eventual feeding of 5000 plus, with 12 basketfuls left over! While the parable certainly speaks to God’s miraculous provision, Christ’s divinity, and our encouragement to trust God for all our needs, Joni takes this a step further in a way that spoke deeply to our hearts, while validating our experience.

She writes: “We ought to remember that account when we see a Christian brother or sister enduring difficult times but hanging on to the grace of God. When we suffer, it’s as though God is breaking us, as Jesus broke those barley loaves. But out of our brokenness, He can increase courage, hope, and blessing for others—proving to them that His grace is sufficient and inspiring them to persevere. Yes, it hurts to be broken, but what a privilege to be multiplied in God’s hands!”

My sincere desire to avoid any risk of sounding cliché in the words and experiences we share in our blog and I fear that some of you may look at the above and chalk it up to Christian cliché. But I would ask that you resist the quick acceptance of the this passage as just the, “Christian thing to say,” and know that for both Joy and I, the brokenness endured only has meaning for us, only takes that accident out of the cruelly absurd and infuses it with miraculous grace, when we see it as an opportunity to use the pain endured and hope with all our hearts that it can be a blessing to others while glorifying our truly faithful Lord and Savior.

Please know that for us, our ability to live in this grace of brokenness is due in large part to your faithful and constant prayers that allow us to embrace this as our new reality. So at the risk of repeating myself, I will repeat myself and share these words again that impacted us so meaningfully this week: “When we suffer, it’s as though God is breaking us, as Jesus broke those barley loaves. But out of our brokenness, He can increase courage, hope, and blessing for others—proving to them that His grace is sufficient and inspiring them to persevere. Yes, it hurts to be broken, but what a privilege to be multiplied in God’s hands!”