There Must Be More

Children

I spent some time with two of my youngest nephews today.  One nephew was about nine months old (my brother's youngest son).  I held him for a while and let him rest on my belly as he fell asleep.  The other nephew was my great nephew (my niece's baby).  He was a little over one year old.  I stroked his forehead and brushed his hair with my fingers as I said my goodbyes.  He passed away early this morning. 

Children are God's blessings to parents.  They are our gifts from God.  I have three of them myself.  I hurt for my niece, her family, and mine.  It's okay to mourn.  It's good to mourn.  We need to mourn...I think about Jesus weeping after Lazarus died...and yet I find hope and comfort in the Love that has been made perfect in Diego because he now finds himself resting in the Father's bosom as his forehead is stroked and his hair brushed just so by my Savior's fingers awaking him from his sleep and welcoming him into a new morning and a new life.

God's love endures forever.

Jesse

Learning to Swim

My daughter, Natasha, loves to swim.  She loves the water.  She's very comfortable and confident in her ability to stay above water, go under water, and swim around the deep end of the pool.  As a result, swimming brings her joy, peace, and laughter.  My son, Nathanael, on the other hand, fears the water.  He lacks confidence in his ability to swim.  He'll only get into the pool on his own terms.  He will stay in the shallow end and hold on to the sides careful not to wade into the deep end.  Swimming makes him anxious, scared, and distrusting even though he's had swimming lessons.

Nathanael used to be carefree and bold in the water until the day he jumped into a pool without proper supervision (before the swim lessons).  He became afraid of going underwater.  Then when he took swimming lessons he had to learn to get over his fear of going underwater (which was pretty trying in itself).  He did well during his week of swim lessons, but that summer past and a new summer came around.  He found his fear of water waiting for him at the pool again.  He's faced the same fear for the past three years.  This year is no different.

Things happen in our lives that steal our joy, peace, and laughter.  They are replaced with anxiety, fear, and distrust.  We think we overcome them, only to find the truth of the matter was that the season had just past.  When we find ourself in that season again, we find ourselves facing the same fears again.  What we have to remember is that we will always have that season present itself in our lives.  So the real issue is not the season but are we prepared to enter our season.

Every summer I encourage Nathanael to enter the pool.  He doesn't want anyone touching him when he does.  This week I asked him if he would get in the pool with me and I told him I would stay a good distance away from him (building trust).  He agreed.  I asked him to practice swimming underwater in the shallow end as he kicked his feet.  He agreed.  He did a great job.  I challenged him to increase his distance.  He did.  Today, I got to our hotel after my meeting at the Ministry Center and found Nathanael had swam in the deep end.  He trusted Mom to swim him to the deep end, and then trusted himself to swim alone.  I see him enjoying the pool.  I see him smiling and laughing in the pool.  This season too will pass, and I'm confident that as Nathanael exercises what he has learned in the pool this year, he will welcome the swimming seasons to come.  After all, there is more to swimming than overcoming your fear of the water...embracing the love of swimming!

Perfect love casts out fear!

Jesse

Issues

Tonight's California/Nevada Camp Meeting message in a nutshell was about issues.  The church has a lot of issues...the organization has a lot of issues...Christians have a lot of issues...the church needs healing before God will allow it to minister to its youth.  The church needs to deal with its issues today in order for the youth to move with passion in the church tomorrow.

I appreciated the speaker addressing real issues that the organization and church is facing.  It was good direction for the body.  What about at a personal level?

Do we have issues we're not addressing?  Have the issues of yesterday changed or remained the same in our lives?  Chances are we have new issues to address in our lives today that differ from yesterday.  I'll try to get some blogging in concerning the camp meeting services.

One thing I can say about issues...if we don't address them and deal with them, then that in itself is the bigger issue!

Jesse

Storage Areas

I sold my boat yesterday!!  It had been sitting in my garage for almost two years taking up precious space.  When we first organized our garage we had to work around the boat.  It was pretty much a dead area.  It got in the way of parking both cars in the garage.  The boat even ended up becoming a storage area for junk and clutter.  I knew I needed to get rid of it because I no longer used it and it was in the way.  The only problem was that it took almost two years to do it!

Why does it take us so long to get rid of things in our lives that have become storage area for junk and clutter?  I'm using my boat as an example, but what about those things that bring emotional clutter, mental clutter, or dead spiritual areas in our lives?

What was meant to bring more to our lives ends up taking away areas of our lives that were once open to the abundant life but unknowingly become storage for unwanted things, nonspiritual things, dead things.

Jesse

Sunday Morning Breakfast

Last Sunday we canceled service.  Actually, I didn't get the rental paper work in on time and we didn't get the building.  We would have moved it to our house, but our one family had fallen sick...so we did something some might find unexpected...my family and I had breakfast TOGETHER in OUR HOUSE on a SUNDAY MORNING!!  You may be thinking, "What's the big deal?"  Well, it's been over a year since that's happened.  I'm always out of the house by 6:45 a.m. on Sundays, and the rest of the family joins me around 8:45 (and I usually don't have breakfast...let alone with my family). 

It was a great morning!  After praying, I took Scar for a walk to the park.  A dog came running from out of nowhere.  I set Scar lose to ATTACK and PROTECT...not really...I let him lose to play with his new found friend.  Shortly after, the owner came calling his dog (who was really enjoying Scar's company).  I started talking to the dog owner (building relationships).  Turned out he was the father of one of Natasha's best friends.  We hung out for about 45 minutes at the park as Scar and Amy frolicked to and fro.  I would never have met Reddy had my family not had a day at home to ourselves.  It felt pretty good not having to get up early and set up service.  It felt pretty good eating breakfast with my family.  It felt pretty good walking my dog on a Sunday morning.  It felt pretty good building a new relationship in a community Kelly and I are trying to figure out how to bring Jesus to the people.

It was a good Sunday living life to the fullest.  Just because we didn't meet in our building didn't mean we couldn't make new relationships outside of it.  As a matter of fact, Reddy, his dog Amy, Scar, and I took a drive down to the river today.  The dogs had a blast and Reddy and I enjoyed hanging out.

And guess what?  I'm looking forward to Sunday morning's worship service!

"Not forsaking the assembly of ourselves as the manner of some is, but exhorting each other much the more as we see the Day approaching."- Hebrews 10:25

Jesse