“How are y’all?”

It has been the chorus of these last few months as our family has battled illness after illness and Davy has endured another hospital stay.

Let’s back track just a little bit…

Hospital Readmission

Davy got readmitted into the hospital on October 2nd because her g-button was leaking and was unable to heal. At first, we thought it was going to be a simple stop in the ER and we’d be back home the same day. Unfortunately, we learned that we potentially would have to stay there for a month.

Through God’s grace, your prayers, our amazing medical team at Dell Children’s and Davy’s fight we were able to be discharged to go home early on October 14th!

Home Sick Home?

Usually, when referring to the concept of “home”, the phrase is articulated as “home sweet home” and it was for about a week. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. Davy’s g-button was working properly, the throwing up has seized, and we seemed to be on the mend as a family, yet providence had other plans.

Chelsea, over the next few weeks broke out into hives, was taken to the ER and diagnosed with the trifecta – a stomach virus, kidney infection and a UTI. Davy girl also got the stomach bug and resumed her regular patterns of throwing up and hasn’t stopped since this last weekend. Lastly, despite all my valiant efforts of thoroughly washing my hands, dousing them with hand sanitizer and trying to quarantine different wings of my house as if it was an episode of The Walking Dead – I too came down with the stomach virus. The virus, while great for a quick diet, is terrible for morale. Needless to say, the last few weeks after arriving home from the hospital were not quite the welcome home party we had imagined.

As of writing this post, I have bounced back from my virus, Davy girl is still throwing up but seems to be getting better, while Chels is struggling to break fever and get her body back on track. We’re hoping that after all the antibiotics have done their job she’ll start to be feeling better, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Why God Allows Difficulty in Our Lives

This past Sunday our Founding and Preaching Pastor Matt Carter preached a sermon titled, Why God Allows Difficulty in Our Lives and it was divinely intended for my heart and soul to hear what he had to say. You can listen to the sermon here.

The crux of his sermon, the main point revolved around the truth that – at times God allows difficulty in our lives to test whether our faith in Him is genuine.

Many people are following Jesus because of the blessings he gives us. It’s easy to follow him during times of prosperity, provision and protection, but what happens when the blessing dries up? Will we choose to continue to follow him or walk away?

This is what Jesus articulates in the Parable of the Sower. “As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.” (Matthew 13:20-21). 

Or – in our case – were we following Him because we were throwing up miracle prayers of healing and trusting that this season wouldn’t be long, but the minute it went past our “timetable of suffering” we would walk away?

Now, when people usually hear that God allows difficulty to test their faith in can be a troublesome or an unsettling truth to hear, but for a true, redeemed child of God it should be one of the most comforting statements.

All the things we ever experience in life – the blessings or the afflictions, the abundance or the scarcity, the health or the sickness – are all purposeful.

As Matt articulated:

• It’s not God punishing you.
• It’s not God sitting on the sidelines with his hands tied why Satan attacks you.
• It’s not God being unfaithful to you.

What the Scripture claims is that these trials are happening to create an eternal weight of glory beyond all finite comprehension (2 Cor. 4:17), a spirit of perseverance (James 1:3) and one of the most beautiful truths found in 1 Peter chapter one.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:6-7).

What Peter is proclaiming is that we can rejoice in our suffering because the genuineness of our faith, which is being tested, is more precious than gold. Then on the day of glory, our faith will produce praise, glory and honor. This is the great joy of a Christian.

Our great hope in the midst of difficulty is not that the suffering will stop, even though we are promised that one day all suffering will cease, but our great hope is that in the midst of suffering we get more of our great Savior.

In this season of life we have tasted the bitterness of sin, have been grieved by various trials and have been tested by fire, but it will not stop our voices from rejoicing. We rejoice because we know the Savior who tasted the fullness of sin, was grieved by the ultimate trial, and endured the scorching flames of God’s wrath, so that we might have access to the One who carries us through it all.

Hallelujah, what a Savior.

Amen and amen.

Prayer Requests

• Health – Pray for health over our household. We are tired and weary of being sick. Ask for God to bring full and complete healing to all of us.
• Davy – we are specifically asking that her throwing up would stop by Christmas. Would you join us in praying for that as well?
• Chelsea – Pray for Chels specifically. She has had a tough few months physically and we’re praying that she would be brought back to full health soon.