Rediscovering Jars of Clay in the Desert!

“GOD takes everyone HE loves through a desert. It is HIS cure for our wandering hearts, restlessly searching for a new Eden. The best gift of the desert is GOD's presence. The protective love of the SHEPHERD gives me courage to face the interior journey." — Paul E. Miller

I have been richly blessed by everyone who has ever been part of Jars of Clay, especially the original members Dan Haseltine, Charlie Lowell, Stephen Mason, & Matthew Odmark.

“Worlds Apart” has been a prayer of my heart countless times through the years & I am grateful that the CD I bought in 1995 still functions.

25+ years ago I was in training with International Teams in Prospect Heights, Illinois because I would eventually be heading to the Spanish Language Institute in San Francisco de Dos Ríos, Costa Rica & then Medellín, Colombia to work in a youth ministry. 

During that missionary training on February 18, 1996 I thoroughly enjoyed a concert at the Rosemont Horizon that included Three Crosses, Jars of Clay, & Michael W Smith.

The "Boys" from Jars of Clay have become men who are inspirational living examples of simply doing what the LORD created us to do.

"We are GOD\"s workmanship, created in JESUS CHRIST to do good works, which GOD prepared in advance for us to do." — EPHESIANS 2:10

“Discovering El Salvador!” is my story of how a 2 week mission trip to an orphanage in Santo Tomás, El Salvador in June of 1990 changed my life forever. 

Why am I sharing this with y’all?

Despite serving the LORD the majority of my adult life, I have recently begun to break free from the darkest 20 months of my existence emotionally, mentally, physically, & spiritually.

“We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from GOD & not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” — 2 CORINTHIANS 4:7-9

“Rediscovering Jars of Clay" is invigorating me as “live” versions of songs I know are filled with new meaning & songs I am hearing for the first time are ministering to me precisely where I need it.

I am embarrassed to say that I only had the first 3 records but the combination of new with old excited me so much that I now have ALL the CD’s I did not have.

"Silence” is a song that I first encountered several years ago on YouTube that included heartbreaking footage of Tsunami destruction in Thailand causing me to wonder if GOD is even listening in the midst of suffering.

“The Box Canyon Sessions” version of “Silence” has brought tears to my eyes that fueled my spirit with an intense longing for GOD to rescue me out of the darkness. 

Why?

First of all, the setting that night brings back awesome memories when my wife & I took kiddos from 3 different foster care group homes to an outdoor concert by Dominic Balli in the backyard of a home in Tucson, Arizona & his song/video "Favela" featuring Nengo Vieira in Río de Janeiro, Brazil reminded me of ministering throughout the "barrios" of Medellín, Colombia.

Secondly, I cried for 2-3 hours every night when my wife & I were houseparents in Key West, Florida & then Oro Valley, Arizona because I was so frustrated & upset with the horrific abuse, neglect, & trauma those kiddos had experienced & a system that does not help any of them break the cycle within their families.

It is as if I needed to feel their pain at night but then get it out of my system in order to provide them with a home filled with joy, love, & peace the next day.

“Experiencing terrible pain opens our hearts & minds to express compassion for other people & communion with ourselves.” — Kilroy J. Oldster

Hopefully y’all have been encouraged by my words a fraction as much as I have been encouraged by the lyrics & music of Jars of Clay.

I pray that y'all will be richly blessed emotionally, financially, mentally, physically, & spiritually.

"Now glory be to GOD who by HIS mighty power that is at work within us, is able to carry out HIS purpose & do super abundantly, far over & above all that we dare ask or think, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams." — EPHESIANS 3:20

Peace be our journeys,

BPK aka Brian Pedro Keyes aka Weasel

P.S. The following quote when understood will fuel us to work supernaturally!

"Trying to do the LORD's work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, & tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the HOLY SPIRIT, then the ministry of JESUS just flows out of you." ― Corrie ten Boom

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ABC’s of BPK

"Once we recognize the fact that every individual is a treasury of hidden & unsuspected qualities, our lives become richer, our judgment better, & our world is more right. It is not love that is blind, it is only the unnoticed eye that cannot see the real qualities of people." ― Charles H. Percy

Adventurous 

Boyish 

Charismatic 

Devoted

Emotional

Funolicious

Gentle

Humble

Inolvidable 

Joyful

Kind

Lovely 

Marvelous

Nitpicker

Opinionated 

Punctual

Quirky 

Resolute

Strong

Thoughtful 

[]_[]nique

Vexing

Weasel

X-Rayable

Youthful 

Zoetic

"The grace of GOD means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful & terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you." ― Frederick Buchner

"Trees" by Hermann Hesse

For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes & families, in forests & groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven & Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfil themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down & reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness & prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years & the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured. And every young farmboy knows that the hardest & noblest wood has the narrowest rings, that high on the mountains & in continuing danger the most indestructible, the strongest, the ideal trees grow.

Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning & precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt & the risk that the eternal FATHER took with me is unique, unique the form & veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches & the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form & reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.

A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, & I care for nothing else. I trust that GOD is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.

When we are stricken & cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let GOD speak within you, & your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from home. But every step & every day lead you back again to our FATHER. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.

A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the wind at evening. If one listens to them silently for a long time, this longing reveals its kernel, its meaning. It is not so much a matter of escaping from one's suffering, though it may seem to be so. It is a longing for home, for a memory of the family & friends, for new metaphors for life. It leads home. Every path leads homeward,

So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts: Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing & restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity & the quickness & the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home.

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