Enraptured By You

Lying alone in a field with one foot in the cool river, you can watch the sky for hours and know what perfect peace is.
Lie on the edge of a fountain in a busy courtyard with one foot in the water and spend hours watching the same sky.
One man says, "he's a dreamer", or worse yet, "he's crazy", as men of the world do their best to steal the peace.
I guess one man's living water is another man's foolish wishing well.
Call me a fool, I wait for your return.

I wonder when you'll come back for me.
If we disappeared tonight, would they remember what I said?
Have I spoken enough of our love that they would know where I've gone?
Have I spoken enough of your love that they would know who took me?
Will we disappear at all and leave the world behind?
I read your letters over and over again.

Maybe you'll leave me here until the very end. Riding up at the last moment on your white stallion for all to see.
I think I hear the pounding of the hooves now, but they tell me it's just thunder.
"He's a dreamer." "He's a fool."
I show them your letters to quiet their jeers.
Some refuse to read. Some skim and scoff. Some study and find fault.
Only a few see them for the love letters that they are.
They ask for copies that they might know what true love is and find it for themselves.
So many others have found it before us.

What if we all disappeared together?
Would they remember what we said? Know where we've gone?
Would they want to read the letters then?
What if we don't disappear and we all stay waiting until the very end?
"See, they are dreamers and fools!" "The world is falling to pieces yet they wait."

Given enough time the whole world will turn against us.
Above the chaos and the jeers, the lies followed by cheers, I hear the hooves and I know it's not just thunder.
Whether we disappear and leave this world behind or remain until the end, one thing stays the same.
When, and however, you come and take me away, you'll find me here waiting.
I am enraptured by you.

A.W. Tozer's, "The Pursuit of God"

I recently finished reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. It served as a good follow-up to E.G. White's, The Great Controversy which I recently finished as well. In contrast to The Great Controversy, A.W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God is a fairly quick and easy read at just 90 pages. As the title would suggest it focuses on an individual's pursuit of God, and it stages this pursuit within a christian/biblical framework.

While I found that each of the ten chapters offered good insights and advice concerning different aspects of one's personal relationship with God, it was the provided prayer at the end of each chapter that I valued the most. I felt that each chapter was preparing me to pray in earnest the prayer at its close; deep and meaningful prayers that I wouldn't have stumbled into on my own; at least not in such a concise and focused manner. Each prayer peeled back another layer of my inner-self and consecrated another portion of my self-life to God allowing for a deeper and more pure relationship with Him. The process revealed to me that a major part of pursuing God is getting more and more of myself out of the way while simultaneously offering deeper and deeper parts of the inner self to God. The Pursuit of God takes your hand, puts it in God's and leads you through this journey.

I would say that this book is most suited for established Christians who are already walking daily with God, but hunger for a deeper intimacy and more meaningful exchange. That's not to exclude it though, from new Christians, lukewarm and cold Christians, or those Christians who have spent a better part of recent years ignoring God and His Word altogether. This book could very well inspire the hunger that is presently lacking while leading one to the nourishment so desperately needed. On that note I would address the non-Christian who feels even the slightest stirring deep within his soul concerning an Almighty God who is greater than he. This book provides a pathway that anyone can follow to get a better look at that God. He is there with open arms for anyone who would seek Him. Even those who have cursed His name. That stirring in your soul is God calling you in Love even as your actions, words, and heart nail Him to the cross.

As God continues to answer the prayers that I have offered as a result of The Pursuit of God, I add the prayer that all those called to this book would be blessed by it, as it has blessed me.

Amen and amen.

HAPPY IS THE DAY...!!!

A recent conversation with a friend concerning misremembered lyrics immediately brought to mind an old summer camp song in which the lyrics weren't so much misremembered as never actually understood in the first place by either my brother or myself. We didn't realize this until years later when somehow the revelation of our error simply "clicked" and we realized we had both made the same mistake although we were always in separate groups during song time. I guess it's just that bond that brothers share.

There was a line in a song where everyone stopped singing and yelled, "Happy is the day when the counselors go away!!!" You can see how that would be a playfully fun line for all the young campers. Well my brother and I spent three summers yelling, "Happy is the day when the cow birds go away!!!" under the assumption that everyone else was yelling the same thing. We did have cow birds in the area afterall. We didn't know why their departing was cause for such joyous rapture, but we couldn't help but join the rallying cry against them. Heck, we weren't farmers. What did we know?

Well apparently our hatred wasn't actually shared by the masses as we believed. We were an army of two. Two young, passionate brothers in a solitary quest to rid central Florida of every last cowbird under the false impression that we stood part of a giant movement against them.

I feel bad now for all those innocent birds that we killed in our free time. It suddenly becomes clear why everyone else was "all talk" while only my brother and myself were willing to be moved to action. Thank God we didn't mistake the lyrics for, "Happy is the day when the cows all go away!!!" Somehow, I think if we were out butchering the livestock it wouldn't have flown under the radar as well as several dozen wild birds did.

Those are precious memories Evan and our youthful cluelessness still cracks me up to this day.

The Day I Met Evan Brinton

I met Mr. Brinton once at a Johnny Roscoe fillin' station in Bryson City, Missouri back in the swelterin' summer of '76. I was at the counter payin' for a Peach Nehi and a small bag of beef jerky when I come to realize I was 71 cents short. That's when I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see Mr. Brinton; a vision of goodwill in a striped, light blue seersucker suit, hand extended with three quarters in it.

"Traveling in this heat without your Peach Nehi would simply be intolerable," he said, and I noticed he had one himself. I thanked him kindly, took the quarters, then continued on my way to Canton, Ohio.

You can imagine my surprise when 20-some years later our paths crossed again in Whistle Creek, North Carolina at the annual Hickory Nut Festival. As I stood at a vendor's cart in purchase of a bag of caramelized almonds I heard a thunder of voice proclaim from my rear, "I trust you have your full payment this time, Peach Nehi." I turned to behold the now, "Doctor Brinton" in that same seersucker suit accompanied by a devilish grin. After a further exchange of pleasantries we agreed to breakfast the next morning and parted ways.

We broke our fast together at the local Spit 'N Whistle by Aunt Mable's Inn. Doctor Brinton ordered for the both of us. When the plates arrived he commented in his gentile manner, "I trust you take your eggs with bourbon, Peach Nehi. Why anything else would just be intolerable!" and he pulled a flask from his breast pocket and gave us both a healthy pour.

That breakfast was the last I ever saw of Doctor Brinton, but to this day I think of him every morning as I take my eggs and bourbon. I've come to agree that anything else would just be intolerable.