Tag Archives: a step onward and upward

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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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The Mighty Have Fallen

tree fallen

A “big un”.  This tree next to Goodwater Church Cemetery was four feet across the trunk and pushing 100 feet tall.  This tree has been a “big ole” tree since I was a little boy (been a while now).  Well what happened?

Nature has a way of showing its strength.  First, the rain, and lots of it.  You can still see the water in the hole left from the ball of roots.  The rain soaked the soil making it mushy and unstable.  Then,……… then…….. an invisible force came along with such power that it knocked this massive tree to the ground.  This most powerful invisible force?  We call it wind.  Yep, just a movement of air caused this HUGE tree to tip over and change the coarse of this particular tree.  See, when a tree lies flat on the ground it’s no longer called a tree.  It’s now called a log and firewood.

What was amazing to me is how big the hole was where the roots had been.  It was big enough that I could fit my pickup truck in it and still have room maybe for a trailer!  It was a big HUGE shallow hole…………   Did I say shallow?  A pine tree is supposed to have what is called a “tap root”.  This central root goes straight down into the ground.  It becomes a huge root as it makes its way deeper and deeper for nourishment and also to be the anchor for the tree.  Oooops, no tap root here.  Nada, nothin’, just a ball of shallow roots.  Who knows why there was no main tap root.  Disease, wet ground, damage from pests, etc whatever the reason, the tap root was non existent.  Well no wonder it got blowed over.

Having lived just down the road, I can testify that this tree has lived through a couple of hurricanes, a tornado, many storms, and one squirrel hunt involving several .22 shots into it.  But get the ground unstable from lots of soaking rains, and send along a straight force wind.  TIMBERRRRRRRR, down she comes.

Rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.  Colossians 2:7

We talked about being rooted in the Rock of Ages a few weeks ago.  It showed a pine tree growing out of the rocks in the Colorado mountains.  Today we see a HUGE tree with lots of roots, but no “tap root”.  It wasn’t going to last.  Too shallow.

The tree was growing shallow, not deep.  Grow deep on your spiritual journey.  How? Study God’s Word.  Have times of devotions and quiet times with just you and your Lord and Saviour.  Seek Him.  Ask of Him. And grow.  Grow your roots in Jesus Christ.  Then when everything around us gets unstable we have grown a “tap root” that is deep and anchored.

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher, and needing a bigger saw!

 

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Feeding Your Soul (Stay Hungry)

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Poor little chipmunk.  He must be starving because he’s stuffin’ himself.  He’s filled his cheek pouches full.  The seeds and grain at my bird feeder have turned into the chipmunk express buffet!!  He looks full.  Well, actually he’s still eating and still stuffin’!

Looks hungry doesn’t he?  I’ve looked that way eating Cheetos as I drive down the road.  I’ve seen other folks look that way as they exit the fish house.

How do you know when your hungry?  Stomach growls? An empty feeling inside?  Maybe even when the clock hits 12:00 you feel the need to eat just because…..

What makes you hungry? The smell of food cooking?  When you pass a Taco Bell/Dairy Queen/Wendy’s?  A commercial on TV can plant a thought in our brain.  Having a bad day? Then you need a snickers.  Hey, is your friend having a bad day…..they definitely need a snickers.  Oh, having a good day!  Then you must have stopped at McDonalds.  I never have figured out my cravings for Cheetos.  It’s mainly a habit.  Every time I’m traveling and I stop for gas, then it’s automatic that I get a snack.  Peanuts, nabs, chips, Coke, … any and everything seems to reach out to help quench my hunger.  Especially Cheetos!! They’re fun for everyone!  Nothing like having Cheetos crumbs on your shirt and also the tell tale sign of fingers covered and stained from orange salty crumbs.

Sure it’s tough traveling the roads these days and eating healthy.  I guess that fruit would be better for me…..wait there’s a PayDay candy bar.  Maybe I should drink more water…….whoa there’s a Big Gulp and it’s on sale!  Too bad this convenience store doesn’t have,………… no, there they are, Cheetos!… and they are in an extra large bag!!!!…..and it’s the crunchy kind!!!!

What makes you hungry for spiritual food?…… Oops, uh oh, never have much of a craving there huh?  Well, maybe it’s not the most natural craving that we humans get.  I mean it’s tough traveling on these spiritual journeys that you and I take these days and eating healthy spiritual food.  But I also know that my spiritual life can’t be sustained very well by eatin’ “Cheetos” for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and supper.  I need some good food.  Food from Mama’s kitchen consisting of home grown vegetables.  Food made from scratch.  I can smell the rolls, the corn, peas, taters, meat……..really don’t matter, long as it’s home made.

Psalm 107:8-10 (NKJV) For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness.

God’s in the spiritual food business.  He has a buffet as long as five picnic tables.  Just like back in the day when you would eat your Mama’s cooking.  You didn’t decide what to eat.  SHE DID!  You got to eat what was there in front of you.  You just need to come hungry…. and don’t be late.

Maybe that’s a little advice I’d like to share with you.  Focus on staying hungry for God’s Will and His Word.  He’s got a big time buffet of spiritually good food for you.  You don’t even need to decide what to eat.  Just show up at His table.  Show up hungry for this spiritual food.  Don’t be late.  Whenever I was late for supper growing up, it was because I was busy doing (and or eating) something else.  More to the point, if I was late for a meal, it was because I wasn’t hungry.  I more than likely had eaten something, (probably Cheetos), and now I had no appetite.  Not even for the Lemon Icebox Pie.  My bad,…… I shouldn’t have filled up on unfulfilling foods when the nourishing home grown meal was waiting for me.

Our decisions cost us sometimes.  Convenient empty food takes the place of a nourishing healthy meal.  I’m talking about spiritual food here.  Pray to God that He will help you with your cravings, your desires, your appetites.  Pray to Him that your soul will have a longing for the right things.  Remember God fills the hungry soul with goodness.  So, pack those cheeks full of His goodness!  Stay hungry!  And keep eatin’

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher (at the all-you-can-eat-spiritual-buffet)