Father, thank You for Your guiding hand in what I’ve been reading. I thoroughly enjoy fiction and You have open doors to things both uplifting and inspirational. My soul is fed!

********

As I think back several years, Karen and I were still in our first decade of marriage (it will be three and half decades this summer!) and Massey was just a tot. I had worked in a Christian retail environment and transitioned to a totally new job for me – I went to work for a company that warehoused freight for Sears. I actually learned to operate a forklift! I am talking washers, dryers, refrigerators…even lawn tractors! It wasn’t a difficult job but boy was it hard!

I started in the summertime and between the heat and the stress, I lost several pounds. In my first week of training, I attempted to go through one of the big openings that connected the different parts of the building. Each of those had a huge fire door that would roll down to prevent a fire from spreading into adjoining areas.

Well, the problem was, I drove through the opening with my mast still fully extended! I would probably have been fired then and there but they were so desperate for help that they kept me on (when I started, they were so far behind that for months we worked 13 ten-hour days with one day off – the overtime pay was great!)

I have all kinds of stories from my time there but for the record, the only thing I damaged for the rest of my time there was a range hood that I may have just barely scratched.

I will tell you that it had me so stressed that I prayed a lot every day! And being that running a forklift is pretty much a solo act, I sang quite a bit, too.

I remember one song in particular, My Jesus. I Love Thee. (I sang it when I first started driving a school bus, too!) It is a beautiful hymn written a century and a half ago. Interestingly enough it was written by a young man by the name of William Featherston after he came to know the Lord Jesus as his Savior – he was 16 years old at the time.

It definitely got me through a tough time in my life, and I’ve read other stories about its impact on people’s lives. Maybe it has done or could do the same for you! Here are the lyrics and a beautiful rendition sung by Casting Crowns from their Hymns of Faith release.

My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign.
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I love Thee because Thou has first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree.
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;
And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow,
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I’ll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright;
I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

Feb 24th, 2021, Wed, 7:14 pm