It has become apparent to me that Seminary is as much about survival as it is good theology. This week I was feeling the pressure; trying to get my reading and assignments done, figuring out how we are going to pay for all of this, and oh yeah the new baby is almost here… It felt a lot like learning how to swim by being thrown into the water. Either you will learn to swim or die trying. Seminary isn’t that dramatic, but it got me thinking about how much more we see, hear and remember when we are in a crisis situation. Our senses are heightened and our focus is clear. As crazy as things are right now I feel like I am learning to swim by jumping in and flailing to keep my head above water. It is a good way to learn.

I haven’t written since we moved to Kentucky?… Imagine that.  Well I have had a few decent ideas worth posting but haven’t made the time to get it done.  Like all things that we do not act on, those ideas have faded away.  But this is one idea that I didn’t forget, mainly because I am still driving around KY illegally because I have yet to replace my lost (stolen?) license.

About three weeks after we moved to the rolling bluegrass hills of Kentucky I lost my wallet somewhere inside or outside of our local Dairy Queen.  When I realized it was missing I drove back to the scene to see if anyone had turned it in.  The round trip took forty-five minutes because our ‘local’ Dairy Queen is fifteen minutes away.  By the time I got back home empty handed, I had one of those blog-inducing sudden realizations.  It went something like this: Losing my wallet and all of it’s contents was the final step in transitioning from a Texan to a Kentuckian (Not to worry this is only a temporary transition).  It wasn’t until I lost that last connection to my old home that I could really start to embrace my new one. 

All of this also went to a deeper level of my personal image of myself.  That sounds profound but it really isn’t.  It is pretty simple: I started to realize that much of the image I held of myself was connected to my role in ministry, my home town, and my relationships.  And none of this in a good way.  I had come to see myself as part of those things and lost sight of my true identity as a son of God and brother of Christ.  It is funny because just about a year ago I preached on this same topic with some illustrative help from The Lion King.  The long story short, somewhere along the way Simba, the future heir to the throne, forgot his royal roots and responsibilities and forgot his true identity.  His life was being lived well for a fun-loving, vegetarian lion but that was not who he was destined to be.  He was the rightful King and until he remembered who he really was he would not be living a life of truth.  For me remembering my true identity meant breaking down a lot of titles that I had accumulated: pastor, Texan, Aggie, even husband and father.  All of these things were starting to define me more than the most important title: Follower of Christ. 

So losing my ID was just a step to help me remember my true ID.  All of this also came down to of all things this blog.  The title ‘Rebelbase Woodley’ is rooted in the name of my former youth group at TWUMC.  I considered deleting the whole things and declaring that ‘chapter’ of my life over.  The truth is that I can’t do it.  It isn’t over it is a part of who I am and always will be.  So in some really cool ways God has been redefining how I see who He is making me to be and it is exciting and scary all at the same time.

This picture doesn’t look very profound.  Cute?  Yes, but profound not really.  However it did get me thinking and you are going to have to follow me on this one.

Last year my grandfather died and the last time I saw him he was in a nursing home unable to recognize his family or communicate with us.  We brought him some brownies and I ended up feeding them to him.  It was a strange experience to feed someone that had always taken care of me.  There were a lot of things swimming around in my head that day:

1. Sadness over the lose of my grandfather’s stories
2. Fear for the day we would be without him
3. Realization of the short time we have in life
4. Questions of who would be feeding me someday when I was unable to eat my own brownies

The last thought has come back to me lately as my son continues to grow and pick up some strange habits. In the past week he has decided that it isn’t fair that Mommy and Daddy always spoon food into his mouth so he has started returning the favor. Whatever he is eating he puts in his own mouth and then pulls it out and with his arm extended toward us, grunts in a way that signifies it is our turn to taste his food. We want to promote his sharing attitude so of course we eat what we are offered and make the obligatory ‘mmmmm’ sound.

This is a cute mealtime game but it hit me that someday I might be relying on my son to feed me every meal. A friend once told me that there are things in life that we can’t sacrifice on the alter of ministry. One of them was our children. That means we can not neglect our families in the name of doing good things for Jesus. I am starting to realize just how wise these words are. Saving the world is great but we can’t neglect our greatest duty to love our family with the same Love that Jesus has demonstrated to us.

Every year during Lent I decide to deny myself one of my favorite things in this world… sugar.  My usual diet consists of four things: protein, fat, carbohydrates and refined sugar (not in that order).  Cutting out one of these entirely is no easy task.  This is in fact my Atkins diet.  The idea behind giving things up during the 40 days of Lent is to prepare us for the Holy Week and the death and resurrection of Jesus.  It has worked for me in this way: each time I reach for a Dr. Pepper I am reminded that I am making a sacrifice in preparation of the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection which, in turn reminds me of the ultimate sacrifice that was made for me on the cross and my response is to thank God for His grace.  

I have found that this works for me until right around day 30.  At that point my sugar-free lifestyle turns from focusing me on Jesus’ life, death and resurrection to focusing on the fact that I can’t eat jelly beans anytime I want.  Then the countdown begins.  My fasting from sugar takes center stage as I look forward to the resurrection of my normal diet not the resurrection of Christ.  A similar thing happens during periods of fasting.  As the end approaches it is easy to turn your attention to the buffet awaiting you.  Suddenly, something that started so well and served a great purpose becomes a stumbling block for intimacy with God. 

With this in mind last week I read Mark 7:8-9 “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men. You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!”  Let me say this; I am a big fan of tradition.  My opinion is that tradition is a very good thing but there is an exception when it gets in the way of loving God.  For that reason I decided to give up giving up sugar for the last week of Lent.  I want my Holy Week to focus on what is Holy not on what is covered in a thin candy shell. 

This is a picture of Willie Nelson’s 30 year old Martin guitar.  It has a hole the size of a dollar bill in it and names carved all over what is left of the top. You can tell by looking at this guitar that it is well used.  It stands in stark contrast to my guitar which sits in my closet and looks as new and un-played as the day I bought it aside from the corroded strings.  After several half-hearted attempts to learn to play I have not even picked up my guitar in six months.  So what deep Truth can be learned from this look at two very different guitars?  My wife put it this way, “the guitar isn’t doing anyone any good sitting in the closet”…

This statement got me thinking.  How many things in my life are just sitting in the closet not doing anyone any good?  I think of the obvious physical possessions in my house that collect dust along with my guitar that if they were given to someone else may actually be used for what they were intended.  I wonder if it would be better stewardship if I were to give these things away rather than waste them in my closets, attic, or garage. 

Then there are the Spiritual gifts God has given me that I have yet to even open let alone learned to use for His glory.  It is easier to focus on the physical, monetary, material things and say I am giving the right amount of money or time to God’s service, but how much more meaningful can all of those be when we are not just giving or doing but blessing others with the overflow of God’s Spirit in us not just our overflowing checkbook.  When I stand before God I hope to look like Willie’s guitar; all battered and carved up because of the years of hard service for the Kingdom.

When last I posted it was only hours before the Houston Coldplay concert and I was wondering if my prayers for a great concert were more than slightly selfish.  As it turns out God sometimes blesses us in ways that exceed our wildest hopes. 

The blessing goes like this: My wife and I had tickets at the top row of the bottom section of seats.  From there we were separated from the stage by an entire floor of concert goers and twenty three rows in our section.  All of this was fine by us as the music and show were amazing and due to the cost of tickets the evening was tagged as our anniversary, birthday and Christmas presents to each other.  Also my brother bought tickets a month after we did and as we were walking to the arena we realized that we had tickets two rows away from my brother so we would get to see the show together (sort of, more on that later).  The concert was awesome and well worth any gifts we may have given to each other for anniversary, birthdays or Christmas.  Then it happened…  In the middle of the concert the entire band jumped off the stage, ran past the crowd on the floor, up the stairs of our section and stopped three feet behind us on a small platform.  They proceeded to play an acoustic version of the song my wife and I danced to as our first song at our wedding.  I can not describe the awesomeness of this moment but thanks to Youtube here it is (if you look close mine is the highest cell phone taking pictures)…

Ridiculous?  Absolutely.  The entire time Kara and I couldn’t believe what was happening.  As the band was running our way I actually thought about what I had written earlier that day about asking to be blessed by God in some memorable way through a concert.  God is huge and He answers prayers.  It would be great if He answered them like this every time but that isn’t the way it works.  Instead He blesses us the way that He knows is best.  This is by far my coolest story of answered prayer and maybe it can help you out today as you go through your day to remember that God is working and blessings come at us everyday sometimes they are big sometimes they are small and sometimes they include Coldplay.

One last thing.  When the band came up to where we were sitting my brother who was two rows in front of us wasn’t two rows in front of us he was in the bathroom.  So the experience wasn’t quite perfect after all.

The countdown to the Houston Coldplay concert now sits at 9 hours and 30 minutes.  Am I excited? YES.  Earlier this year I saw my favorite band Radiohead live and now my second favorite tonight, it has been a good year.  The question that I have found myself asking is, “Is it a good thing that I am praying for Coldplay to put on a good show”?

Of all the things in the world I could be praying for does this concert really matter?  The more I thought about it the more it became apparent that the reason I am so hopeful for a good show is that I am heavily invested in it.  The tickets are not cheap and just like everything in life that we find ourselves heavily invested in we want it to be quality.  This idea goes way beyond a Coldplay concert.  Our families, jobs, friends, education; all of these things take our time and effort.  I should be praying just as hard for my amazing family, friends and people that I work for and with.  Without God’s blessing all of these things will be fruitless… including a concert.

As a former soccer player this story really made me think: would I give up a professional soccer career to follow God where He was calling me?  The simple answer is ‘yes, I would’.  But the more I thought about it my yes became more of a what if… 

What if instead of following God’s call in the prime of my imaginary soccer career I postponed what He told me to do until after my playing days were over?  Or, what if there was a way to do both, like a loop-hole in what God was asking?  There have been times when I have answered God’s call with a resounding Yes and other times when I have flat out ignored what God was asking of me.  Saying No to God is sometimes easier in the short term but never results in peace. 

One of our Rebelbase friends got up last Sunday to share what God had been doing in her life and read 1 Kings 19: 19-21.  This is the call of Elisha the prophet.  After Elijah calls Elisha to follow him; Elisha, a farmer, goes and burns his plowing equipment and cooks his oxen because God needs him in a new occupation as His servant.  With this in mind I say big high five to Chase Hilgenbrinck for ’cooking his oxen’ and following the calling that God placed on his life.

I am not a conspiracy theorist or anything but I have noticed a trend in consumerism that got me thinking.  If 99% of college students are using Macs what is going to happen in a few years when all of those loyal Apple customers become heads of corporate America? 

For years Apple has been cranking out cool computers, phones and music devices.  It took me a while to realize the point of all of this: to capture a generation.  Their idea is to replace PCs with Apple products by getting young people hooked on their brand.  It is a great plan if it works.  The plan is:

1)       Market your brand as cool for young people

2)       Young people like your brand, old people feel shunned

3)       Young people become loyal to your brand

4)       Time goes by

5)       Young people become old people and replace old brand with your brand

6)       You take over the world

This seems like a simple model but most companies are not willing to stick to it through step 4.  Our idea is to make as much as possible when you can.  To take over the world (step 6) you have to have patience.  If you didn’t grow up in the 80’s you don’t get the ‘taste of a new generation’ reference above; but Pepsi used that slogan way back in the day when they attempted to de-throne Coca Cola as the biggest soda company in the world.  During the ’soda wars’ it got ugly (remember Crystal Pepsi) but Coke came out on top.  So this strategy doesn’t always work.

Microsoft sees all and knows all, so now they have launched a counter campaign that is meant to show just how cool it can be to use a PC.  They are trying to shake off the label of the evil corporation that wears suits and sits in cubicles all day.  Microsoft wants to show everyone that you can still save the world even if you don’t have a glowing apple on your laptop. 

Way to go Microsoft, I now feel that PCs are cool again….? 

The question is what does all of this have to do with the church universal?  Just like Apple’s plan to capture a generation, there is a force trying to capture a generation of young people away from the church.  It is obvious that the same generation that Apple is appealing to is leaving the church just as fast as they are buying up iPhones.  Here at our church we have had several meetings dealing specifically with the issue of ‘growing younger’.  So the question is when will our counter campaign get launched?  What does it look like for Christians in the world today to shake off our labels? 

There are thankfully a lot of people smarter than me out there who are trying to come up with answers to these questions.  My thoughts are that no matter what we are looking for weather it is a computer or a way to live life it has to work.  Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is only one thing that works.  Solomon’s conclusion is my conclusion, “Fear God and obey his commands, for this is the duty of every person”.  If followers of Christ do this we will not need slogans or commercials to get people into church.  People will see the Truth in our lives and be transformed by it just as we have.

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.