Monthly Archives: May 2016

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I Got Some Sense Knocked into Me!

tools

Here’s a picture of some of the tools I’m using as I build my log home.  The blue tool with the long handle is called a peavey.  It has a metal spike at the end and also a hook.  When this is placed on the log, I now have leverage to roll a massive log wherever I want.  Power!!  I feel like a MAN because I can now move a 1500 lbs log with just my own muscles.  Be careful, I know, I know.  But it is a rush to be able to move that much weight.  I feel like a super hero.  Call me Thor, or Batman, or a Jedi,…….or LOG Man!!!! cause I got the power!  I need a theme song.

But be careful.  With the proper leverage, you can move the world.  Amazing to me how this huge log can be rolled with such little effort on my part.  With these forces of weight and movement battling with and against each other there is a high probability that things may not roll your way.  Things may not go as planned. Did I remind you and myself to be careful?  Well let me say it once again.  There is danger involved with moving and building with logs.  Be careful.  But sometimes I don’t pay attention, ……….even to myself.

While humming my “theme song” and enjoying all this power, I proceeded to roll this log into position.  It continued to roll on its own.  I ah,.. I ah,….. turned loose of the handle.  Ok, I’ll admit it.  I turned loose of the handle, it continued to roll, but then flipped back in reverse and the end of the handle caught me square on the side of the face.  (I feel like I’m giving an insurance report.)  It hit me like a ton of bricks.  I felt like Rocky Balboa himself had just given me an uppercut.  The theme song in my head suddenly changed.  I saw stars,……. my knees buckled…….and now I am down for the count.  It didn’t knock me out, just knocked me cuckoo.  Didn’t knock my brains out, just “changed the channel” I was on.  It didn’t knock me senseless………. It knocked some sense into me.

Proverbs 24:16– For a just [man] falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

It’s good to know I got up again.  But in a way it’s good to know that I got 6 more times left.  I feel like a cat with 9 lives now.  Well, down to about 4 now.  What I mean is this.  We all fall. We all fail.  At least one of us here falls while singing his own theme song!  I tell myself all the time to be safe,…. be careful.  There is not a day goes by that Staci doesn’t tell me to be careful.  She even calls me from time to time to make sure “I’m OK”.  ( I’ll have to tell ya sometime about the time I fell off the log pile cause I was trying to get to the phone.)  Be safe, Be careful.  I here it over and over.  But when it hits you up side of the head, you get a better understanding of it.

I’ve always said that God Himself will remind you of things that are needed in your life.  He will even hit you between the eyes to get your attention.  With a two by four, on in my case a peavey tool.

I bet you’ve had God “hit you” just to make you take notice of a situation in your life.  That’s what is so “good” about falling.  When you fall, He is there to pick you up.  He’ll pick you up seven times which in Bible terms means as many times as is necessary.

Be careful out there.  Stay safe.  With a very sore jaw this has taken on a newer and more important meaning in my life.

See Ya!   Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher, part time Rocky punching bag

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Growing Your Own Friends (The TomRalph Tree)

TomRalph tree

Meet two of my friends I’ve met on this journey.  Ralph, the older guy filled with wisdom and God’s love, and Tom the doesn’t look older guy who also is filled with wisdom and God’s love.  Both have been planted in my path by God himself.

I was at a men’s event where I didn’t know a soul there (including my own).  Ralph came up to me and made me feel welcome.  Nothing unusual about that is there?  What was unusual was that he asked a specific question and told me specific things that I had been asking God and expecting only God to give me the  answer.  God was “speaking” to me through some perfect stranger that was soon to become a perfect friend.

Tom came out to the cabin for a few days.  He and Ralph are writing a book about their own spiritual journey.  Many men will relate (Details when the book is published cause I want you my friends to read about their own journeys in this book).  I had never met Tom before.  But as a bunch of us guys were sitting around, I asked him a question that caught him off guard.  Just a simple question it was.  I mean Tom had traveled over a thousand miles to be with Ralph.  They would meet at my cabin to get away and focus on their book.  My question?  Tom, what are you doing here?

A simple question but usually a complicated answer.  Tom couldn’t answer.  Not right off the bat anyways.  I probably came across a little rude in the way I asked this of him.  I mean we had just met, just exchanged pleasantries.  He’s from way up north.  Told me a little about work, family, etc.  And then Boom……. I ask no, what are you really doing here in my cabin down here in little ole Mississippi.

But I felt compelled.  I felt asking to be a “God thing”.  So I asked.  He later explained what and why he was here.  This communication we had established a bond and friendship that will grow.  It will grow like the tree in the picture.

I asked Ralph and Tom to let me take a picture beside a pecan tree that I had just grafted the day before.  This tree is now the Tom/Ralph pecan tree, (or maybe the Ralph/Tom tree).  See, everyday when I hike in the early mornings, I will walk by this tree.  It reminds me of my friends.  I will pray for them when I see this reminder.

I have lots of reminders that I keep to well, remind me of my friendships.  A special knife given to me, a turkey call, a fishing lure, a fishing net, a bird house.  It’s just the way I do things.  I’m basically a loner.  Never have been a BIG social type person.  Put me somewhere in the outdoors with a couple of animals and no people and I’m perfectly happy.  A lot of you reading this now are the same way.  Not my wife Staci!  She’s a social animal.  When I take her to the Jimmy Buffet concert in a few days I’ll be thinking that I’m surrounded by a lot of noisy people.  She’ll be thinking that she’s surrounding by a lot of…..FUN!!!!!   Whoopeeeeee!!!   Everybody sing!!!!!!!!!!

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him-a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”  Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

So, maybe at times you are a loner too.  You don’t need a lot of people in your life.  People cause problems anyways right?  Well, that’s true but even the Bible is telling you (and me) that friendships are to make us stronger.  One mistake I made a lot on my journey was this.  I would ask God for something, anything,………. and I would fail to realize He was answering me through the interaction of one of my friends,……. usually one of my “it’s a God thing” friends.

Ralph is 40 miles away, Tom over a thousand.  We don’t see each other that much.  We don’t go to ballgames or play cards.  But,…… and this is important…………. we are connected.  If or When, or Because I need that other part of the rope of friendship,  I know that I can reach out to my fellow brothers.  They are only a phone call away.

In my personal life I’ve met many people on my journey.  But when it’s a “God thing”, it’s a connection that has been “grafted” into my own life and spiritual journey that grows into a lasting friendship.  Even when all alone in the wilderness, I know that there are friends that I’ve met along the way.  Some of my friends were made on a fishin trip.  Some were made with a land deal, on a movie set, a business meeting, or a chance meeting in the middle of nowhere.   Many friends have been made from the travels and writings of this wilderness preacher blog.  I’ve reached out to you, and you’ve reached out to me.  Sounds like a “budding” friendship that can only continue to grow.

Ralph, Tom, Get that book printed.  Let the readers of wilderness preacher be some of the first to get their hands on it.  But more important is that I want to thank you for including me in your spiritual journey.  I’ve seen the “horses” that you have to ride.  You’ve done well Pilgrim!!!!!!!

By the way, take a look at how the Tom/Ralph tree looks after only a couple of weeks.  This tree as well as your own lives Tom and Ralph are producing fruit in the future.

TomRalphtree2

 

 

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Too Much of a Good Thing

corn

Corn needs rain to grow.  It’s so important for my corn that I pray for this rain.  But not seven inches in two days!  Who prayed for that!

Growing up on the farm a generation ago, it always seemed to me that we were at the mercy of God and nature.  I remember many times before eating a meal we would give thanks.  Everybody always did the “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food”.  But also our family would pray for rain.  There was an elderly lady in our church who refused to pray for rain.  Never would do it. Didn’t matter how dry it was, or if the peas were dying, or the hay dryin’ up to nothing.  She wouldn’t pray for rain.  She believed that God knew what He was doing, so He would send rain and sunshine when He saw fit.

Well, when I “see fit” to wanting and needing something, I ask God for this in prayer.  I mean ask ye shall receive, right?  “Well Lord, my corn needs water.  Can you send me a rain to help me grow this crop?  Thank You.  Amen.” ……………… and then it floods seven inches.  Hhmmm.

Back at the dinner table, we also prayed for sunshine.  Then we thanked Him whether the sun shined or not.  That was the confusing part.  We asked for something and would then turn around and thank Him for what we got, or didn’t get.  Honestly we gave thanks no matter what type of weather we were going through.  Being even more honest than that,……….. when the tornado hit one of our barns and carried it away, we gave thanks.  The winds carried the barn piece by piece over several miles.  We never did find where most of the tin and boards were carried. (Probably still flying around somewhere)

Now we didn’t give thanks for the tornado.  We gave thanks that He was with us during this time.  The confusing part back then is making more sense to me nowadays.  We asked for things, stuff, rain, sunshine, and that our favorite football team would win. (they needed prayin’ for)  We prayed for little everyday things.  We prayed for great big events that were happening in our lives.  We prayed for the sick, for the military, for our leaders of the country.  No matter what the situation good or bad, we prayed.

1 Thessalonians 5: 17-18  pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

God’s will is for us to have a loving, living relationship with Him.  A great way to grow this relationship is by praying………all the time……… And giving thanks………for everything.  This Christian walk with God would make a good Western movie. The good, the bad, and the ugly…….  He’s there with me in all circumstances. He knows what’s best for me AND YOU!  He knows already what I need. But His will is for me to talk TO Him, and to listen TO Him. That’s why I pray.  So, can you pray too much hoping for too much of a blessing?  I don’t think so. Hmmm…..  I’ll talk to God about that. But I’ll also listen to Him.

Here’s a picture of my corn growing at the mercy of my Lord. Thank you Lord!

corn today