My Love Is Thine

To my love, Rebecca

I am the weeping willow and thou are the stream

I drink in thy love as water that gives life to this dry and rot tree.

My love, my love, my love is thine.

You are the paint and I am the pallet

The brush in the hands of the Almighty hast truly made a masterpiece on the canvas of our lives.

My love, my love, my love is thine.

I was the branch and you were the dove so pure and white

You brought me back to Providence to show that their is hope in life.

My love, my love, my love is thine.

You are the sun so radiant and full of life

And I am the moon ever into eternity will I pursue your light.

My love, my love, my love is thine.

– Jesse

Ode to a Danish

Lovely you are glistening in the dull florescent light

My stomach cries out as I savor my first bite.

If I could but partake in your carbs ere the end of my trip

Two more danishes and surely my pants will rip.

How I love thee, let me count the pounds

As I look at the scale my eyes are as big as jumbo size fudge rounds.

O danish why doth thou loath me

Whilst mine stomach doth savor thee?

I shall put thee down, nay, I shall throw thee away

Twas just kidding danish, do not look upon me that way.

Bittersweet is the relationship between danish and man

Do not look upon mine for I will bite thine hand.

Selah

…the greatest of these is love…

Yesterday, I was talking to our church associate pastor, Rev. Leonard Backus, and something he said triggered the conviction of the Holy Spirit in me.  That is to love others not for what they do but for who they are.  That isn’t even the topic that we were talking about but for some reason God made that thought stick in my mind all day and I still can’t stop brewing over it.  I, myself, have been found guilty of basing my love and trust on what people do for me.  It is a easy mindset to grab on to especially if you have ever been hurt by people.  “I will only be friends with this guy because I know that he has a set of skills that can be real beneficial to me.”  This might not be a phrase admitted out loud but it is surely in the minds of many people.  As a parent, I can not base my love for my kids on what they do because that wouldn’t be fair to them.  Not only do I love them because they are the my children, but I love them for who I see that they will be.  I look at my kids and I know that God has a huge plan and purpose for them and I know how much God cares for them.   Andrew my musician, song writer, preacher and Addison my singer, preacher, prophetess.  I love them not just because they are my children but they are God’s children and he has chosen them before the foundations of the earth. (Ephesians 1:4,5; 2 Timothy 1:9)  

The real challenge though is applying this to other people.  Do you love and trust the people around you that God has chosen to die for based on how they will reciprocate the feeling toward you?  Do you become friends with someone because you know they got a brand new zero turn lawnmower and you know they are the type of person that will let you use it to cut your grass?  I ran into an old friend the other day and he was telling me how he is struggling with the little bit of faith that he has, and I began telling him about the call that I see on his life and how God wants to use him.  He asked me how I could see that because he definitely could not see it.  I told him because of who he is.  His first reaction was to say that all the things and money he has aren’t who he is, they are just things.  I told him I know all that but that is far from what I meant.  I had worked with him in the past, and spent a lot of time and got to know him and his heart.  I know with no doubt that God has a great plan if he will just simply believe it.  From the exterior, he may be a successful businessman, but what God could do through him would be miraculous.  I love him for he is, not for what he could do for me.

The same principle applies to God.  Do we love Him for all that He has done for us or simply for who He is?  We are to worship God for who He is.  This weekend being the weekend that Jesus died and rose from the grave is a perfect time to ask the question, “Do I love Him just for what He did this weekend or for who He is?”  What He has done for us, He did because of who He is.  My challenge to you (and me) is to examine your relationships with people and with God. Ask yourself do I put my love and trust in them because of what they can do or for who they are?  The last thing that I wanted to do was to be preachy.  I just simply wanted to make you think just as this question has made me.

Logging?

I first got into this because I was interested in logging.  Come to find out it is actually called blogging, which you can imagine was a huge shocker to me.  My original motivation for getting into logging started when I was a young boy.  Location: Doswell, Virginia Kings Dominion.  I was standing in a somewhat long line with baited breath waiting for the adventure that was about to commence.  Than out of nowhere I feel a cool splash upon my face instantly giving me a feeling of satisfaction…and wonder.  Where did this water come from and where are those screams coming from?  Yes, screams most of them were screams of enjoyment and glee, however, the other remnant were of sheer agony, terror and the fear of death.  What is this line, what are we waiting for, and what is going to happen to us at the end of the line?  If I am going to die today, I am getting a stinking funnel cake topped with sugar and strawberries first!  My knees were weak, my forehead was perspiring and I could see the end of the line where there were these strange people, that were clearly unhappy but were pretending to be as if being forced to by their master, putting people in these long cylindrical objects with three seats inside of them with no seat belts.  After the people were haphazardly put inside of the cylindrical crates they were whisked away around a corner and up this long, black conveyor belt that led to an old wooden shed and once they were in this covered bridge of sorts the people and their cylindrical death boat were gone.  Vanished, disappeared with nothing more to remember them by but the echoes of their screams and the gum that one of them stuck to the railing in the line just before her departure.  Here it was, my turn.  I found myself looking for any point of exit within sight, but I couldn’t just get out of line and let all of the last lambs led to the slaughter die in vain.  No, I kept the courage and I stepped into this cylindrically shaped boat, noting that there were not straps or safety harnesses, and then without warning the small vessel was moving.  Up the black conveyor belt of death and into the haunted wood shed where I would likely find imminent death I could see the end of the covered bridge.  Light!  Yes, we are almost through and I am not dead!  And then the unthinkable happened, at the end of the tunnel there was a rushing torrent of white water going down a hill of at least FIFTEEN FEET!  I was surrounded by the sound of splashing water and screaming and…..laughter.  I muster the courage to open my eyes, and lo and behold were floating around a calm stream of flowing white water and my clothes and face were all wet.  Disoriented, I wiped my wet face with my shirt and looked around and suddenly I was glad to be alive.  Finally, the journey had come to an end and as I climbed out of the soaking wet cylindrical vessel, battle weary and funnelcake-hungered, I look up and there standing at the exit waiting to congratulate me on journey well travelled was none other than, Yogi Bear and Boo Boo.  Elated, I ran to them with open arms and tears flowing and as I hugged them, slapped high fives, and got autographs Yogi looked at me (I think) and said, “Hello! how would you like to come to Yogi’s Bear Cave?”  A six foot bear just asked me to go to his dark and mysterious cave, what’s the danger in that?  After I defeated the Log Flume at King’s Dominion with my eyes literally shut, I realized that one day I want to be logger.  And that is the story behind why I wanted to be a logger.  Well that and I really enjoyed the show “Axemen” on Discovery Channel.  Anyway, this is a funny and mildly exaggerated story but I will be writing stuff that is funny and also stuff that is from my heart.  Writing is a passion of mine and I hope you come back and visit.