Our Inspired Journey

In some ways I feel like we've just closed a really BIG door in the life of our family.  

A heavy door.  

A significant one.

One that will forever mark the birth of a journey for our family, and one that began when we said YES....yes, we'll go.

At the end of June, John and I took the boys to Illinois one more time.

This time, it was John's turn to defend his thesis...the culminating activity in the journey we began 4 years ago, was here.

We all went.  The day arrived and John held one little hand in each of his and marched to the room where he spend the next 90 minutes presenting his dissertation and answering the questions of those who held his degree in their hands.  His words reflected his months of research and writing...late nights that bled into early mornings typing so that he could make his deadline.  He had to finish by June or his job at the university was not secure the next year.  He worked hard, as if every word he wrote kept food on our table.  He was amazing.  It truly was the hand of God that got us through those crazy 6 months and the 3 years before it.

Though I hung on his every word as he presented, it was the presence of those who came to watch that blessed me most.  Cole's past therapists and teachers had come to support John as he talked about how his study of students with hearing loss participating in their instrumental music ensembles at school.  The support in the room that day set the scene for the beautiful culminating moment that followed.

After the questions had been discussed, we were all asked to leave the room as the committee decided his fate...we chatted with our friends outside until the door opened and the chair of John's committee extended her hand and said, "Congratulations, Dr. Burdett!"

It's hard to explain how that moment felt, but my stomach filled with butterflies and tears rose to my eyes as I tried to grasp the significance of that moment...God had brought us this far.

Everyone hugged, cried and walked away as I ran back in the room, and hurriedly snapped this picture before his committee ran off to their separate corners of the world to begin their summer...they had all postponed it, for John.  It's a terrible photo taken with an old camera I had stuffed in my purse at the last minute, but to me I don't see an unclear image, I only see the perfectly clear providence of God.  I see smiles and hearts willing to answer e-mails at all hours of the night, trying their best to honor this deadline we were under.  The grace of God is pictured here.

This moment is about much more than a degree...it's about every person sitting in the room that day and the way God chose for our paths to cross.  When we arrived in Illinois four years earlier, John had planned on researching student teachers...two months ago we sat a room of people we'd been connected to through the hearing loss of a boy I can truly say, we ALL met for the first time in Illinois...one we ALL know and love.  What a journey it has been...

I asked John if he would write about the end of this season.  Funny enough, he finished this over a month ago and I had yet to post it.  Ironically, his degree officially posted yesterday.  Even to the end, God reminds us...there is no detail too small for his providence to reach...I pray you're blessed by his perspective in it all.  Thank you JESUS!  May you lead us as we step into a new season...for Your kingdom and for Your glory!!!

***

Written by John ~ July 28th, 2012

Danice asked me to write in celebration of the completion of my dissertation, which, theoretically, means I’m done with my doctoral degree.  It’s funny because as of yesterday everything was set.  Dissertation defense was over, paperwork was in…it was only a matter of time until the degree would be conferred.  August 6^th to be exact (but who’s keeping track).

Well, I find out today that the person of record on some of my old class units, which needed to be signed off, was the wrong person.  So, today was marked with stress, petitions, and no guarantee that my degree will be conferred in August.  No big deal, right?  Except that if my degree doesn’t post in August there may be implications for employment at my university.  Bad implications. 

So here I am, partly excited that I’m ‘finished’, partly anxious that there is some chance I may not be employed in the fall, and completely reminded of a quote I’ve been hanging on to as of late.

I was watching an early stage in this year’s Tour de France (a family favorite) and the pre-race package started with a quote by theologian William Barclay.  Although the quote was presumably not intended for bike racing, it applied to the concept of a race (especially a three-week bike race) rather well.

“Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.”

I chuckled, realizing how appropriate this was to my situation for the past few months—even now! Perhaps it resonates in your life as well.  I presume we all have ‘hard things’ in life.  As a Christian, I believe the way I (and we) deal with hardship, ought to be one of the ways that being a disciple is worked out.  Where our ‘Christianness’ should be most evident. 

We see a similar idea when we read “Consider it pure joy when you experience hardship, etc., etc” although I resonate more with Barclay’s terminology---turning it into glory—rather than the ‘take joy’ I often hear.   I think its because it is less me centered, that somehow my joy level (for my sake) is an instrument in determining the quality of endurance.  Rather, I prefer that the endurance is opportunity to make Him famous… for His glory to be known through the endurance.

Perhaps what is most challenging is that we are to approach this ‘glory making’ in the midst of the hardship.  Within the hardship. During the hardship. 

For you it may be a significantly more difficult hardship, one where an end isn’t assured.  I pray that for you Christ followers reading this; that your hardship will be turned into His glory.

For me, after enduring hours and hours, pages and pages, edits and edits, there is now a chance of not meeting the deadline I have worked so hard to achieve, because of a silly technicality like a registrar’s error. 

I guess it’s an opportunity to turn this endurance race into glory. 

Blessings,