University Presbyterian Church

"Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing." (James 1:2-4, NLT)

Most of us have read those verses from James and have been both comforted and repelled by them. We delight in the idea of our faith being one that endures, yet we would rather run from than embrace the trials that can produce endurance. Instead of running, these Biblical truths have been something Jim and Jill Sigmund have found the faith to live out. Perhaps the early training ground for the trials they would later face together was the waiting they endured before meeting each other. Jim was 37 and Jill 30 before they met, marrying just 9 months later. Little did they know that an idyllic first year of marriage would be followed by two years of immense challenge.

After their first year of marriage Jim's mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Christmas Eve found them by her bedside praying. After undergoing two surgeries and two rounds of chemotherapy, today this "so, so wonderful" woman is spending time enjoying life and traveling with her husband. Jim and Jill feel blessed to have her still with them and doing well. A few months after the cancer was diagnosed, Jill unexpectedly found Jim hunched over in their living room with a rapid heartbeat. As they waited on paramedics to arrive, she prayed and asked God to take charge of his heart. God took charge by using the experience to reveal a heart condition and necessary medical procedure. Two years later, Jim is free of any heart issues. He needs that energy to keep up with their one year old son. That bundle of joy also came with unusual challenges. He was born 5 weeks early, in respiratory distress. After 13 trying days in the NICU he was able to come home, but required a helmet to address a skull deformity. He also suffered from extreme eczema which was uncomfortable and made sleeping difficult. The Sigmunds praise God that their son has graduated from his helmet and the eczema has cleared up significantly. Their newest trial is the highly unusual double diagnosis of Jill's father with two rare cancers: duodenal and bile duct. Following two surgeries, last week he started chemotherapy and radiation here in Orlando. They covet your prayers for him even as they trust God to see them through yet another testing of their faith.

As they face their newest challenge, Jim and Jill do so with prayer and with the experience that has taught them "we have a God who watches over us and is good even when we experience difficulty". Ironically, if they had not already walked through the reality of that statement they could not stand in the certainty of it now. The testing of their faith has indeed produced endurance. They eagerly await the fulfillment of that promise in James, "for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing." Praise the Lord.

Tags: all stories | fear | suffering | faith