“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor the sinners in the congregation of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”
– Psalm 1

We all want to be a fertile tree, a tree rooted deep in the living water. A tree so saturated with Jesus that we are alive and producing fruit, the fruit of righteousness. We don’t know how to be that tree whose leaves don’t wither and whose fruit doesn’t rot. But Jesus. He infiltrates us and produces the yield. He keeps the roots wet when the soil dries up around us, when from the outside looking in, we appear to be dying. But in our brokenness, we have never been more fully alive. He is breathing a life into us, a life impossible in our own strength, our own merit, our own sticktoitiveness. Isn’t He grand, the Life giver.

We can surrender. Or, we can keep fighting.
And usually fighting for the wrong things, believing some other way is going to be easier. To find out, it’s not. We are all guilty. Maybe our fight is hidden, in our hearts, or it may be exposed for the whole world to see. But none of us are exempt. We all need the safety of surrender. And for that we need a love from Jesus so compelling, so free, so rich and so uncomprehending that we can’t stop until we find it and find ourselves falling at His feet.

Love. We don’t understand what love is, but we taste it somehow. Jesus surprises us. Different for all of us, but the same attribute – LOVE. And it catches us, stopping our fight and our flight. Maybe it’s the rainbow when we scream that He doesn’t exist or the moment our kid hugs us close and we feel his breath and his heartbeat and know “we” didn’t really create that. There has to be more.

So love wrecks us. Love teaches us to put ourselves aside and see what happens when we give without expecting something in return. When we clean the toilet just because or blanch a case of green beans. It spreads like a healthy virus, if there were such a thing.

We find ourselves awake at 6:30am on a Saturday hauling boxes and distributing onions. We deliver furniture to a lady we don’t know. Something makes us turn around and walk up in a restaurant and ask them to partner with Grace Klein Community. We build a partnership with a local grocery when it’s pouring down raining outside. We show up at the office and help organize donations. We make a potato dish for prayer night. We open our home to friends in the community making our own home another Grace Klein Community gathering place. We pray for people we haven’t yet met. We text encouragement. We sign up for a mission trip, on another continent, when we have never flown. We dress up and take pictures at community events and become a regular shopper from the BeMoreRandom store. We listen and we share our own experiences to encourage others. We bring our children along. We are who we are, no need to be fake, because we will be real.

All the we’s can be replaced with the name DJ Gamble. The “we” is a little of who he is and how he contributes to our community. He may be quiet but he’s impactful. All in. Raw. Growing. Running towards us. We are better with his perspective, his learning, his honesty and his surrender. He’s not perfect, but who is? And maybe that’s what makes his contribution so valuable because he reminds us to come to Jesus as we are. Receive the love when it’s so hard. Watch for God when we can’t see. Listen for Jesus when we can’t hear. Learn to trust the unknown to our faithful Father. Let Him do the healing and stop trying to be something. Allow Jesus to live in us and to teach us how to let Him seep out of us onto our family and those we meet. To enjoy the adventure of walking with Jesus and learning to abide in Him. Not all figured out, but coming as we are. Surrender.

Grace Klein Community is better with DJ. We need real. We need growth that is not manufactured. We need Jesus. We need hope. We need healing. We need relationships. We need love. We need trust. We need family. We need DJ.

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor the sinners in the congregation of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”
– Psalm 1

We all want to be a fertile tree, a tree rooted deep in the living water. A tree so saturated with Jesus that we are alive and producing fruit, the fruit of righteousness. We don’t know how to be that tree whose leaves don’t wither and whose fruit doesn’t rot. But Jesus. He infiltrates us and produces the yield. He keeps the roots wet when the soil dries up around us, when from the outside looking in, we appear to be dying. But in our brokenness, we have never been more fully alive. He is breathing a life into us, a life impossible in our own strength, our own merit, our own sticktoitiveness. Isn’t He grand, the Life giver.

We can surrender. Or, we can keep fighting.
And usually fighting for the wrong things, believing some other way is going to be easier. To find out, it’s not. We are all guilty. Maybe our fight is hidden, in our hearts, or it may be exposed for the whole world to see. But none of us are exempt. We all need the safety of surrender. And for that we need a love from Jesus so compelling, so free, so rich and so uncomprehending that we can’t stop until we find it and find ourselves falling at His feet.

Love. We don’t understand what love is, but we taste it somehow. Jesus surprises us. Different for all of us, but the same attribute – LOVE. And it catches us, stopping our fight and our flight. Maybe it’s the rainbow when we scream that He doesn’t exist or the moment our kid hugs us close and we feel his breath and his heartbeat and know “we” didn’t really create that. There has to be more.

So love wrecks us. Love teaches us to put ourselves aside and see what happens when we give without expecting something in return. When we clean the toilet just because or blanch a case of green beans. It spreads like a healthy virus, if there were such a thing.

We find ourselves awake at 6:30am on a Saturday hauling boxes and distributing onions. We deliver furniture to a lady we don’t know. Something makes us turn around and walk up in a restaurant and ask them to partner with Grace Klein Community. We build a partnership with a local grocery when it’s pouring down raining outside. We show up at the office and help organize donations. We make a potato dish for prayer night. We open our home to friends in the community making our own home another Grace Klein Community gathering place. We pray for people we haven’t yet met. We text encouragement. We sign up for a mission trip, on another continent, when we have never flown. We dress up and take pictures at community events and become a regular shopper from the BeMoreRandom store. We listen and we share our own experiences to encourage others. We bring our children along. We are who we are, no need to be fake, because we will be real.

All the we’s can be replaced with the name DJ Gamble. The “we” is a little of who he is and how he contributes to our community. He may be quiet but he’s impactful. All in. Raw. Growing. Running towards us. We are better with his perspective, his learning, his honesty and his surrender. He’s not perfect, but who is? And maybe that’s what makes his contribution so valuable because he reminds us to come to Jesus as we are. Receive the love when it’s so hard. Watch for God when we can’t see. Listen for Jesus when we can’t hear. Learn to trust the unknown to our faithful Father. Let Him do the healing and stop trying to be something. Allow Jesus to live in us and to teach us how to let Him seep out of us onto our family and those we meet. To enjoy the adventure of walking with Jesus and learning to abide in Him. Not all figured out, but coming as we are. Surrender.

Grace Klein Community is better with DJ. We need real. We need growth that is not manufactured. We need Jesus. We need hope. We need healing. We need relationships. We need love. We need trust. We need family. We need DJ.