The other day we found a cache of my great-grandparents journals. Had you been there, you would have thought we struck gold—and you would be right. The several medium sized notebooks were bound up in a rugged leather wrap cover with a wrap around string holding it all together. They were like treasure buried in a field.

+ The pages told stories of life and gardening (which are kind of the same thing, right?), noting the particular varieties of tomatoes—the ones we call "vintage" today; + Journal notes about particular strains of watermelons to never plant again; and notations of rainfall amounts and the date of the last freeze of the spring.
+ A few torn out pages from the year's Farmer's Almanac tucked in here and there amid notes about loved ones on their birthdays.
+ There was even a sketch of an old barn in one of them.
+ And to our great delight, the journals were punctuated with scattered bible verses and short written prayers throughout—like seed planted in the soil of those now weathered pages—still blooming a hundred-fold yet a hundred years later. On the inside cover of one of the booklets were these iconic words in ALL CAPS KJV:

THE GRASS WITHERETH, THE FLOWER FADETH, BUT THE WORD OF OUR GOD SHALL STAND FOR EVER. ISAIAH 40:8. 

It brought us great joy to peruse these precious pages, and then came conviction—that we weren't writing down more of the ordinary details of our days and capturing the convictions of our life and times and gardens. How could we deprive our grandchildren of such delights?

Something about a journal “grounds” our ordinary lives into living history—sowing humble legacy long into the future. 

In that spirit and craft, we decided to make a journal for ourselves, to inspire and encourage our own practice of the ancient art of journaling. And we made a few extras for you. You will love the premium Horween leather that will age from grace to glory. 

We’ve got a couple dozen from the first run and if you order soon we can get one to you in time for Father’s Day.

You can see all the details and order here (link).

You’ve been so patient. O.K., you may have even forgotten you subscribed to this seed of a vision website. Either way, thank you. David (son #1) and I are now neck deep in the ruins-of-what-once-was here in our small town of Gillett, Arkansas. As 2025 unfolds we want to keep you abridged of the unfolding story. Watch the minute long video above to see the hundred-ish year old building we bought (thanks to the extraordinary generosity of an old friend). And scan the photographs below. We will fill in the details later.

There’s a song I have loved for the past couple of years. It’s called Foundations. The key lyric sings,

“When I feel like ruins, you see foundations—to build your Kingdom here.”

There is something about this place that feels like that song—ruins becoming foundations for reclaiming the possibilities of God—on Earth as it is in Heaven. Something tells me you’ve got one or more of those kinds of projects underway or maybe still stirring in your imagination. We would love to hear about it.

God loves ruins.

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will rise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. Isaiah 58:12

He replied, “Dad, it’s two words, Ex Deus. It’s Latin. It means ‘From God’.”

It turns out I wasn’t taking David to spelling class. Bezalel was taking me to Latin class. Wow.

Ex Deus!

From God!

It is the perfect caption for the story of Exodus isn’t it?

Upon David’s arrival in Gillett, a tiny map-dot in the wilderness of Arkansas, I commissioned him to do an original artwork on Exodus. I left it broad and with no coaching, other than my voluminous writings (which he may or may not have been reading).

He went to work. He chose for his medium, oil pastel on canvas. (dimensions) Here’s a bit of the journey of the piece.

That’s David’s cat, “Patchy” wondering what’s next?

Ex Deux in early wilderness phase. I love how he drew the path even before he sketched in the wild. And I love how he began with the cloud, signifying the transcendent presence of God. . . Ex Deus.

We are in the mist of trying to purchase an old abandoned hardware store at 200 West Main Street in our little town of Gillett, Arkansas. You can get a glimpse of it in the short video above. We call the place, “The Seed House.” We are calling our new venture, “The Daily Seed Company.” Our vision is simple: “Sow Much Good!” It will be part studio, part art gallery, part house of prayer, part community center. All those parts and more we pray will add up to “a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor” (see Isaiah 61). We are praying for a Rural Renaissance to rise up from the ruins.

That’s him, John David Walt, III, Gillett’s newest public artist, sifting glory from the rubble and imagining what could be through what once was.

One afternoon David had the idea of going out to the edge of town and seeing if the path in the painting in process might match up to the centerlines of the highway and the cloud with the sky. You get the point. Here’s the finished work:

I wonder what you “behold” here. There is so much going on; so much coming Ex Deus—From God.

I asked David for an “Artists Statement” on Ex Deus. He’s working on it. In the meantime, here’s a “Dad’s Statement” through the lens of my message on Sunday in which we consecrated the piece in our morning worship service at the Gillett Methodist Church. If you care to see the whole message it can be found here.

Finally, here’s another glimpse of the piece from inside The Seed House.

We would love for a print of this painting to find its way into your home. It will serve as a living reminder of our pilgrimage through Exodus together and it will help us “Sow Much Good” with the Daily Seed Company.

I wrote the following in my journal this morning:

“A work of art is a seed planted in the heart of a home—transforming a wall into a window—opening a new world to behold.”

We are planning a limited edition signed print run to ship in early January. If you would like more information on the print and such let us know here.

A long abandoned hardware store on Main Street + An Artist & Craftsman + a Poet-Priest = Sow Much Good. Welcome to the Seed House and the Daily Seed Company.

This is the story I referenced in Wake Up Call entry 7.23.24. Linked: The Truth About Hard Times

Farmers never want credit; hence they deserve it. The Farmer’s name is Tyler Place.

I am hoping some of you will find your way to his online store and into his story and maybe even find a Christmas gift or two there for your loved ones. David’s goods are sold in several high end boutique shops across the country and he has made featured appearances at a lot of local markets. His goods are finely crafted and hand made with the highest quality materials. (I think his prices are too low.) Check out his WEBSITE HERE and his INSTAGRAM HERE. My personal favorite is the CatchAll.

That’s David with a couple of his recent works: The Sower (left) and The Angelus (right). I believe he has some of these prints in the store as well.

The one below is from MADESOUTH, a Holiday Show in Franklin, Tennessee, David was featured in the last few years. (With Sam (18), Lily (19), and Mary Kathryn (21))

Lot’s more to say on this front, but I’ll leave it there for today. Be sure to watch the short “Workshop Demo” video. FarmStrong is my favorite company. I believe it will become one of your favorites too!

The message begins at 41:20. The Service of Holy Communion begins at 1:17:00. I know! Too long! Every sermon is its own journey, beginning long before Sunday and hopefully going onward long after. The church’s richness is in its realness and its realness is most fully known in the reality of Jesus with us. This was Labor Day Sunday and we had a good crowd. That’s my family on the left front side (in the thumbnail above). My two sisters and some of their families were able to come.

We are in full harvest season here in Gillett—and in the Kingdom of Jesus. Come Holy Spirit! We are also enjoying hosting Wake Up Call Readers on Sundays. Soon I will publish the celebrated potluck lunch calendar. If you are going to make the pilgrimage to Gillett I would encourage you to come on a Potluck Sunday so we will have time to visit and you will get to enjoy the best food in the tri-county area.

Below is the sermon from week #2 of the Acts Series. The text is chapter 2. The song comes from a precious brother and sister who live in the next community over. I also show a short video in this message and the sound did not come through. If you would like to see that video (and I would love for you to get the full experience), you can see that at the link I will include below.

I have arrived. And we are embarked. The journey will unfold here.

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