rebelbase Woodley

The past three months have flown by.  I have had the opportunity to travel far and wide and it has been amazing to witness God’s love blow people away all across the country.  Thinking back on it I got to see homeless women worship together, abused families start over again, and even a frozen fish used as a baseball.  With all of this going on it is easy to say that everything was worth the time and effort that we put in to create the situations for God to work in and through us.  At the time though, I wasn’t so sure. 

This has been a rough summer for me as a new father trying to balance out the value of time away from home in the name of ministry and time at home helping to raise my family.  Each time I have been away over the last few weeks it started the same way: first I would count down the days until I returned home (you will notice the self-centeredness here).  As each week went on God began to move in huge ways to change lives and build relationships.  Slowly but surely in Seattle, Nederland, Edge Camp, and yes even on the Rollercoaster Tour I started to see the impact Christ was having on everyone. 

I still haven’t figured out all of this being a dad and a pastor/missionary/mentor/teacher thing but what I have realized is that it is worth it.  It is worth missing the first time your son rolls over to be a part of students giving thier lives to Christ in Seattle, Washington.  It is worth missing your son’s first illness to spread the love of Christ to hurricane victims at UM Army.  It is worth missing out on seeing your son’s smile in the morning to be changed by a message at Edge Camp.  Sacrifices for the sake of furthering God’s Kingdom always seemed easier before I was married and had a baby.  Sacrificing time and energy didn’t feel like such burdens.  Things are different now.  The cool thing is that God has not let my sacrifices be in vain.  I pray that is always the case for all of us.  Certainly no sacrifice is great enough for the God who created and loves us.