Consider it Pure Joy

This week I went to Salem, Virginia to attend and do my aunts funeral. I had planned on going turkey hunting this week anyway, so on the way down we stopped at the farm. I got to hunt Monday morning on the way down and Wednesday morning on the way back.

It was a very interesting trip to say the least. When we left Sunday on our way down we hit a hawk with the van or a hawk hit our van depending how you want to look at it. I saw it coming, but there was nothing I could do. We were listening to the Cavs game and Eli thought I had hit the windshield in frustration. Rhonda was asleep and woke up immediately, thinking I had hit the windshield in frustration over the game. It it right in front of her, so that would have been a long reach. I kind of wish she had been awake to see her reaction.

We got to the farm and I started to open up the house after being closed down for the winter. The pipes had froze and broken. We had no water for our stay that evening. We had to use a bucket, if you know what I mean. The kids thought it was cool, but Rhonda- not so cool. I fixed the pipes after hunting Monday morning- I mean there are priorities.

We went to Salem that afternoon. We went to the calling hours that evening. We went to the funeral the next day. It was just a graveside. I said a few words about my aunt who was never married, never learned how to drive and very outspoken. But she did love her family. She never forgot a birthday or Christmas. She let me live with her for a summer. She fixed meals for my family after my mother passed away. She really was a blessing to our family, despite being so outspoken. But she was outspoken because she had our best interest in mind.

We left that evening to go back to the farm. It was going to be a cold night, upper 30's. I went to turn on the heat and learned that I did not know where the switch was to turn on the heat. The house got down to 52 degrees that night, so I built a fire in the wood burning stove about 3:30 am.

And on top of all this- it cost $161 in gas to go to Salem and back.

It was not a perfect trip by any means. But I often thought of what James wrote: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" (James 1:2-4).

Oh yeah - I didn't kill a trukey either!