BLOGS
Jesus Loves Me... (And that's a big deal.)
She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not….If you haven’t played this little game with a daisy, consider this to be one more thing to put on your bucket list. Because here’s the thing…
We all wake up each morning longing, aching, thirsty for love, because to be loved is to not be alone, our greatest fear. All of us are on a quest to figure out these questions. Am I loved? Am I lovable? Who is it that loves me and why? They may not be the words in our head, but they are the throb of our hearts EVERYDAY.
“We are all born into this world looking for someone looking for me”, according to Dr. Curt Thompson, “and it never stops.” We seem to be on an endless quest to be known to others, because as Thompson so aptly explains, we cannot know ourselves without the help of another reflecting our identity back to us. In fact, Thompson says, we can’t really know God without knowing the person sitting three feet away from me.
Much of the new brain science that is dealing with interpersonal neurobiology is centered around this understanding of how people attach and bond to one another. Some of these attachments help us to thrive and flourish when the attachments are healthy joy bonds. While other fear bonds can create dissonance or as Thompson often puts it, “DIS – INTEGRATION” in our emotional stability and significantly affect our relational and emotional interactions.
From the time our mother first took us into her arms and drew us to herself to nurture us, comfort us, and love us, we have been on the lookout for more of that. Where else in the world is love to be found? Without it, I find myself isolated, alone, afraid, and deeply wounded, even traumatized.
Many of us have also found ourselves wounded and wondering why we are unloved. We don’t have long in that gap before evil quickly begins to build the case to convince us of whether we are even worthy of being loved. As life plays out and hurts and slights fester and inflame, we may even hide and withdraw from the engagement in relationship for fear that it will only lead to more hurt and more suffering.
But the ache for love is HUGE…bigger than the pain of rejection and the fear of isolation.
One of the first songs we learn as a kid in church or our homes that makes the poignant truth clear we are loved by Jesus, is the song “Jesus loves me, this I know.”
We see in scripture how our God is a God of unfailing, covenantal love, HESED.
Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord , until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.
Hosea 10:12 NIV
He said: “ Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth—you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way.
2 Chronicles 6:14 NIV
I can remember a time in my life, lying in bed and crying…interrupted only by singing the first line of the song, JESUS LOVES ME as the only thing that I could get my head around. I was wounded and hurt, disappointed in myself, and feeling like I was the most unlovable person I knew. I felt alone and cut off from love and relationships.
Out of those wounded places, God began to get my attention and to reiterate how much He loved me. He showed up in people that welcomed me into relationship. He confirmed that His love was bigger than all my disappointments and rejections. Until, eventually, I could sing the second line of the song, “THIS I KNOW.”
This God of love continues to expound His love to me through relationships with family, neighbors, and seven other guys that have offered me a seat at their table to know their story and let me tell them mine. Love in the form of HESED, shows up every time I see the faces of this Hesed Discipleship Network family either on a Thursday Roundtable gathering or just in the Mighty Network App chats.
God has offered me the comfort of His presence when the world seems like a war zone. Through the attachment He established by binding himself to me through the covenant love offered through Jesus, He has shown me how valuable I am to Him as an adopted son in whom He is well pleased. But even more importantly, He shows up in His people as we come together in times of celebration, contemplation, or consternation.
He shows me his kindness and tenderness in my relationship with my wife. He demonstrates his faithfulness to me in the friends that stay by my side even when I’m a hot mess. He reveals his covenant of love in my family…especially grandchildren that love me unconditionally. He extols HESED to me in the bonds of my fellow sojourners who call themselves disciples of the great teacher, Jesus.
The Hebrew word, HESED, rivals anything else I can think of when it comes to how much I feel “GLUED”, “ATTACHED”, “BONDED” to this pursuer of my love. For I really believe the greatest desire God has is for us to pursue Him with the same passion with which He has pursued us.
For God so loved the world…seems so tame compared to the actual actions He took to fix the broken relationship between us and the Father.
First Corinthians 13 has continued to capture my heart as Paul, who is trying to be sure the Greek word “AGAPE” does not get watered down in comparison to the deeper meaning of the Jewish term “HESED”, expresses a deeper understanding that God’s love never gives up and never disappoints… it never fails to deliver that for which our hearts are longing.
The one who created all things, continues to sing His song of love over us, wooing us to come to him to find the greatest desire of our hearts and thus to look us in the eye while plucking the final petal from the flower and proclaiming, HE LOVES ME.
I am so glad you are here and sharing this journey with those who are walking together as the “CALLED OUT ONES”.
If you are feeling alone right now, I would be so honored for you to reach out and connect with me or anyone on the HESED leadership team. It’s not good for man (or woman) to be alone.
Email support@heseddiscipleshipnetwork.com, or you can reach me directly at
Thanks for going with me a little further down the trail as we travel together connected to the one who loves us with HESED. Until next time…may you continue to find His HESED and SHALOM.
Jesus Loves Me... (And that's a big deal.)
She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not….If you haven’t played this little game with a daisy, consider this to be one more thing to put on your bucket list. Because here’s the thing…
We all wake up each morning longing, aching, thirsty for love, because to be loved is to not be alone, our greatest fear. All of us are on a quest to figure out these questions. Am I loved? Am I lovable? Who is it that loves me and why? They may not be the words in our head, but they are the throb of our hearts EVERYDAY.
“We are all born into this world looking for someone looking for me”, according to Dr. Curt Thompson, “and it never stops.” We seem to be on an endless quest to be known to others, because as Thompson so aptly explains, we cannot know ourselves without the help of another reflecting our identity back to us. In fact, Thompson says, we can’t really know God without knowing the person sitting three feet away from me.
Much of the new brain science that is dealing with interpersonal neurobiology is centered around this understanding of how people attach and bond to one another. Some of these attachments help us to thrive and flourish when the attachments are healthy joy bonds. While other fear bonds can create dissonance or as Thompson often puts it, “DIS – INTEGRATION” in our emotional stability and significantly affect our relational and emotional interactions.
From the time our mother first took us into her arms and drew us to herself to nurture us, comfort us, and love us, we have been on the lookout for more of that. Where else in the world is love to be found? Without it, I find myself isolated, alone, afraid, and deeply wounded, even traumatized.
Many of us have also found ourselves wounded and wondering why we are unloved. We don’t have long in that gap before evil quickly begins to build the case to convince us of whether we are even worthy of being loved. As life plays out and hurts and slights fester and inflame, we may even hide and withdraw from the engagement in relationship for fear that it will only lead to more hurt and more suffering.
But the ache for love is HUGE…bigger than the pain of rejection and the fear of isolation.
One of the first songs we learn as a kid in church or our homes that makes the poignant truth clear we are loved by Jesus, is the song “Jesus loves me, this I know.”
We see in scripture how our God is a God of unfailing, covenantal love, HESED.
Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord , until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.
Hosea 10:12 NIV
He said: “ Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth—you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way.
2 Chronicles 6:14 NIV
I can remember a time in my life, lying in bed and crying…interrupted only by singing the first line of the song, JESUS LOVES ME as the only thing that I could get my head around. I was wounded and hurt, disappointed in myself, and feeling like I was the most unlovable person I knew. I felt alone and cut off from love and relationships.
Out of those wounded places, God began to get my attention and to reiterate how much He loved me. He showed up in people that welcomed me into relationship. He confirmed that His love was bigger than all my disappointments and rejections. Until, eventually, I could sing the second line of the song, “THIS I KNOW.”
This God of love continues to expound His love to me through relationships with family, neighbors, and seven other guys that have offered me a seat at their table to know their story and let me tell them mine. Love in the form of HESED, shows up every time I see the faces of this Hesed Discipleship Network family either on a Thursday Roundtable gathering or just in the Mighty Network App chats.
God has offered me the comfort of His presence when the world seems like a war zone. Through the attachment He established by binding himself to me through the covenant love offered through Jesus, He has shown me how valuable I am to Him as an adopted son in whom He is well pleased. But even more importantly, He shows up in His people as we come together in times of celebration, contemplation, or consternation.
He shows me his kindness and tenderness in my relationship with my wife. He demonstrates his faithfulness to me in the friends that stay by my side even when I’m a hot mess. He reveals his covenant of love in my family…especially grandchildren that love me unconditionally. He extols HESED to me in the bonds of my fellow sojourners who call themselves disciples of the great teacher, Jesus.
The Hebrew word, HESED, rivals anything else I can think of when it comes to how much I feel “GLUED”, “ATTACHED”, “BONDED” to this pursuer of my love. For I really believe the greatest desire God has is for us to pursue Him with the same passion with which He has pursued us.
For God so loved the world…seems so tame compared to the actual actions He took to fix the broken relationship between us and the Father.
First Corinthians 13 has continued to capture my heart as Paul, who is trying to be sure the Greek word “AGAPE” does not get watered down in comparison to the deeper meaning of the Jewish term “HESED”, expresses a deeper understanding that God’s love never gives up and never disappoints… it never fails to deliver that for which our hearts are longing.
The one who created all things, continues to sing His song of love over us, wooing us to come to him to find the greatest desire of our hearts and thus to look us in the eye while plucking the final petal from the flower and proclaiming, HE LOVES ME.
I am so glad you are here and sharing this journey with those who are walking together as the “CALLED OUT ONES”.
If you are feeling alone right now, I would be so honored for you to reach out and connect with me or anyone on the HESED leadership team. It’s not good for man (or woman) to be alone.
Email support@heseddiscipleshipnetwork.com, or you can reach me directly at
Thanks for going with me a little further down the trail as we travel together connected to the one who loves us with HESED. Until next time…may you continue to find His HESED and SHALOM.
Jesus Loves Me... (And that's a big deal.)
She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not….If you haven’t played this little game with a daisy, consider this to be one more thing to put on your bucket list. Because here’s the thing…
We all wake up each morning longing, aching, thirsty for love, because to be loved is to not be alone, our greatest fear. All of us are on a quest to figure out these questions. Am I loved? Am I lovable? Who is it that loves me and why? They may not be the words in our head, but they are the throb of our hearts EVERYDAY.
“We are all born into this world looking for someone looking for me”, according to Dr. Curt Thompson, “and it never stops.” We seem to be on an endless quest to be known to others, because as Thompson so aptly explains, we cannot know ourselves without the help of another reflecting our identity back to us. In fact, Thompson says, we can’t really know God without knowing the person sitting three feet away from me.
Much of the new brain science that is dealing with interpersonal neurobiology is centered around this understanding of how people attach and bond to one another. Some of these attachments help us to thrive and flourish when the attachments are healthy joy bonds. While other fear bonds can create dissonance or as Thompson often puts it, “DIS – INTEGRATION” in our emotional stability and significantly affect our relational and emotional interactions.
From the time our mother first took us into her arms and drew us to herself to nurture us, comfort us, and love us, we have been on the lookout for more of that. Where else in the world is love to be found? Without it, I find myself isolated, alone, afraid, and deeply wounded, even traumatized.
Many of us have also found ourselves wounded and wondering why we are unloved. We don’t have long in that gap before evil quickly begins to build the case to convince us of whether we are even worthy of being loved. As life plays out and hurts and slights fester and inflame, we may even hide and withdraw from the engagement in relationship for fear that it will only lead to more hurt and more suffering.
But the ache for love is HUGE…bigger than the pain of rejection and the fear of isolation.
One of the first songs we learn as a kid in church or our homes that makes the poignant truth clear we are loved by Jesus, is the song “Jesus loves me, this I know.”
We see in scripture how our God is a God of unfailing, covenantal love, HESED.
Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord , until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.
Hosea 10:12 NIV
He said: “ Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth—you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way.
2 Chronicles 6:14 NIV
I can remember a time in my life, lying in bed and crying…interrupted only by singing the first line of the song, JESUS LOVES ME as the only thing that I could get my head around. I was wounded and hurt, disappointed in myself, and feeling like I was the most unlovable person I knew. I felt alone and cut off from love and relationships.
Out of those wounded places, God began to get my attention and to reiterate how much He loved me. He showed up in people that welcomed me into relationship. He confirmed that His love was bigger than all my disappointments and rejections. Until, eventually, I could sing the second line of the song, “THIS I KNOW.”
This God of love continues to expound His love to me through relationships with family, neighbors, and seven other guys that have offered me a seat at their table to know their story and let me tell them mine. Love in the form of HESED, shows up every time I see the faces of this Hesed Discipleship Network family either on a Thursday Roundtable gathering or just in the Mighty Network App chats.
God has offered me the comfort of His presence when the world seems like a war zone. Through the attachment He established by binding himself to me through the covenant love offered through Jesus, He has shown me how valuable I am to Him as an adopted son in whom He is well pleased. But even more importantly, He shows up in His people as we come together in times of celebration, contemplation, or consternation.
He shows me his kindness and tenderness in my relationship with my wife. He demonstrates his faithfulness to me in the friends that stay by my side even when I’m a hot mess. He reveals his covenant of love in my family…especially grandchildren that love me unconditionally. He extols HESED to me in the bonds of my fellow sojourners who call themselves disciples of the great teacher, Jesus.
The Hebrew word, HESED, rivals anything else I can think of when it comes to how much I feel “GLUED”, “ATTACHED”, “BONDED” to this pursuer of my love. For I really believe the greatest desire God has is for us to pursue Him with the same passion with which He has pursued us.
For God so loved the world…seems so tame compared to the actual actions He took to fix the broken relationship between us and the Father.
First Corinthians 13 has continued to capture my heart as Paul, who is trying to be sure the Greek word “AGAPE” does not get watered down in comparison to the deeper meaning of the Jewish term “HESED”, expresses a deeper understanding that God’s love never gives up and never disappoints… it never fails to deliver that for which our hearts are longing.
The one who created all things, continues to sing His song of love over us, wooing us to come to him to find the greatest desire of our hearts and thus to look us in the eye while plucking the final petal from the flower and proclaiming, HE LOVES ME.
I am so glad you are here and sharing this journey with those who are walking together as the “CALLED OUT ONES”.
If you are feeling alone right now, I would be so honored for you to reach out and connect with me or anyone on the HESED leadership team. It’s not good for man (or woman) to be alone.
Email support@heseddiscipleshipnetwork.com, or you can reach me directly at
Thanks for going with me a little further down the trail as we travel together connected to the one who loves us with HESED. Until next time…may you continue to find His HESED and SHALOM.
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