From The Message, here is Isaiah 5:1-2:

1 I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.

God's love for us all is immense and unending. He puts His best into each of us out of His desire to produce a good crop. Sometimes, yes, we mess up. In fact, most of us will never come anywhere close to living out the potential that God has placed within us. Yet, He still loves us and He urges us to keep going. He will continually clear out the stones and plant the choicest of vines if we ask Him, all to yield the best fruit which we will allow.

We saw a wonderful example yesterday of good fruit being cultivated. There is a couple in our church who have a long history with the Boy Scouts of America. Out of their passion, Bonnie volunteered to head up this year's Day Camp for nearly 100 Cub Scouts. Because Bonnie and Jim are a well-matched pair, Jim is heavily involved as well. There was nothing forcing them to take on this huge challenge. Their son is involved with Boy Scouts and will, I am sure, be working as a volunteer at the camp but Day Camp is for Cub Scouts -- the younger guys.

Yesterday, we visited with Bonnie and Jim a bit and saw some of the full magnitude of what has gone into planning Day Camp. Yes, they have had help and also a few miracles along the way as they say. But, fact is, preparing for Day Camp has required hours upon hours of hard work and planning from these folks. It has required their talents, their determination, and their love -- God's love continually flowing from them.

Why do they do it? Because it is using their passions and their gifts to be the good fruit God has created in them. It is believing that they can have a positive impact on the lives of nearly 100 young boys, whether those boys are inner city kids, country kids, or kids from the local Christian school.

Through Jim and Bonnie, God's thumbprint is all over this Day Camp as he has pressed out sweet and wonderful wine from the best of grapes. I am excited to see Day Camp come, to see our son be involved, to see God's masterpiece wrought by two of His most humble and hardest working servants.

I pray that I can produce good fruit and that, when I don't, I invite God back to re-plant His best inside of me, trying all over again.