Do You Trust Me?

Posted on by benjaminwoods

“I’m scared, Daddy.  I don’t wanna do it.”

“Bubba, do you trust me?”

“A little bit.”

“We’ll start with that then.”

And just like that, he did it.  He put his feet on the pedals, took a breath and pushed forward.

Today was a monumental day in Ezra’s life…a monumental day in my life too.  I can’t put into words the feelings that rushed over me as I ran alongside my son, cheering him on like a maniac.  As a dad, you dream about moments like that.  These are the days you just don’t miss…the days you don’t forget.

I’m so proud of my son.

The Experiment

Posted on by benjaminwoods

For the last several weeks, the Northside family has been unpacking what it means to take the high road in the way we live and how that plays out in every aspect of our lives; our marriages and families, our physical and spiritual health, and even our finances.

College students are often written off as a demographic of people waiting to enter the real world.  A lot of times they are perceived as “earning potential” and subsequently, few are challenged or taught to develop the discipline of giving or tithing.  But in reality, if you don’t learn the discipline of giving when you have little, it will be so much more difficult to practice when you have a lot.  Our hope is to challenge students to be generous with what they have, even when what they have is not what they would define as “a lot.”  To reinforce the idea that it’s more about the heart in which the gift is given rather than the amount of the gift itself.  I want these students to know that both individually and collectively, they can do something that matters right now.

So last Friday night was our experiment…our exercise in living generously.  We broke into our groups, collected an offering, totaled them, and each went out with a plan to bless people.  We knew it could and would be awkward.  Generosity spooks people…it offends people, it stretches people, it blesses people.  We knew we could be sincere in the way we help, but still be sincerely wrong in the way we did it.  We didn’t set out to profile people or approach people as “projects,” but creatively share what we had with others in a way that gives God all the credit.

The creativity was not just exercising generosity in random and spontaneous ways, but the challenge was also coming with an offering to give.  How does one create an offering? What are you going to give up in order to have an offering to give? Sacrifice has to come into play in some capacity.  Our students rose to the challenge, some giving up meals out, coffee or soft drinks, their Warped Tour savings…just under $1900 was collected and distributed last Friday by The Return.  Wow.

Some groups took quarters to laundromats, some paid for families’ meals at restaurants, some left giant tips for waiters or waitresses, some passed out grocery gift cards, some filled strangers’ gas tanks, and throughout the night they all felt the tension of trusting God to do something with their offering that they may not get to see the fruit from.

Hearing all the stories at the end of the night made it easy to be inspired by their passion and excitement.   One student shared, “God was definitely present Friday night – and he made that apparent when one of the families we chose to bless had the intention of paying for another family because their meal had been paid for just a few weeks earlier. That table’s waiter came up to us and said, “This is such a coincidence; that couple just came in a few weeks earlier and the same thing happened.” All I could think was, “This is no coincidence. This is God.” He is pretty amazing.”

“The Experiment” was certainly an incredible night, but generosity can’t just be a one-night thing.  The goal is that being generous becomes a lifestyle, a way of living…not just with our finances or our stuff, but with our love, our encouragement, our gentleness, our kindness, our grace, our forgiveness…

God is the one writing the story, but we all have our parts to play.  We have to  be looking for our cues…the moments when God allows us to participate in the way He is loving people to Himself.

It’s the way we live lives in love with Jesus.  It’s who we choose to be.

We are The Return.

Prayers of a Five Year Old – Crystal Woods

Posted on by benjaminwoods

I’m secretly jealous of well-behaved children who sit like little adults and will lead the group in prayer before we eat dinner.

Because, truthfully, its been a struggle to teach my kids how to pray.  I still haven’t figured out how to get them to sit nicely, fold their hands, close their eyes and bow their heads while we thank God for our food.  No, every single time, they are taking bites, slurping drinks and giggling at each other throughout the pre-meal prayer.  And before bed, they are suddenly overtaken with uncontrollable wiggles during our prayer time, usually resulting in a wrestling match, mid-prayer.  Every time Benjamin or I ask Ezra or Calla if they want to pray, they say no.

And just when I’m ready to scream from frustration, God sends a breakthrough.

By inserting the words, “And Ezra wants to pray for…” into an already going prayer, a whole new world opened up!  Ezra started to pray.  Simple, sweet prayers like, “thank you for mommy and daddy and my sister.”  Then Calla followed his example by praying “for everybody in the whole world.”  Ahhhhhh…

And each day I catch another glimpse of the way God is working in my children’s hearts by the way they pray.

     ”Thank you God for houses and food and toys and my blankies and grass and trees and a mom and dad and sister and my whole family.”

     ”And be with Titus and Tristan and Justus and Aunt Sarah…and make those three boys and their mommy not get sick…ever.”

     ”Thank you God for what you gave us and I think we should give some of our money back to you.”

     ”God, why don’t you just go ahead and change everybody’s hearts and defeat Satan forever.”

     ”And be with the kiddos who don’t have a mommy or a daddy to watch over them.”

     ”God, you can change anybody’s heart…change Satan’s heart and make him not a bad guy anymore.”

     ”And I’m sad about people who don’t have clean water to drink.”

     ”God, you are so powerful, you can get rid of all the sick in the world…so you should do that.”

     ”And please help all the people in the world who are hurt or sick or who are not hurt or sick…even if they’re a bad guy.”

Ezra prays like he’s talking to a person next to him…he’s in a conversation.  He prays to Jesus like he has His full attention, like he’s the only one in the world talking to Him.  He prays with full confidence that God is able to do anything he asks.  He prays without guilt or obligation or limitation.  And he is teaching me so much about how to pray.

Oh, I’m so thankful for the kids God gave me.  And I’m thankful for the realization that He is teaching them and working in their hearts in ways that my imperfect parenting can’t and isn’t.  Ben and I aren’t alone in this…God is actively parenting and investing in our children, both through us and in spite of us.  And our prayer for our kids is that God continues to work in their lives and that they remain open to His hand.

I’ve Been Dating Crystal For 15 Years

Posted on by benjaminwoods

I’ve been dating Crystal for 15 years.

That just seems wild to me…that 15 years ago today was our very first date.  A week before, I built up the courage to ask her out after a basketball game at Lincoln.  She patiently listened and smiled while I stuttered and fumbled and rambled through my carefully practiced proposal. (Did she help me land it and make it easy on me?  Nope.  Obviously this was before she started finishing my sentences…all of them…all the time…currently with a 65% accuracy rate.)

My buddy, Nate Andris, let me borrow his car and I wined her and dined her at Perkins (their Chicken Tender Melts were the bomb even all the way back in 1998…yes, I just said “the bomb”…very 1998).  I remember her playing with her hair and her gum a lot…so much so that somehow the two got all tangled together and we spent a good portion of our meal trying to separate them with our fingernails, ice cubes, and ultimately a pair of scissors from our waitress.  I’ve since convinced myself that gum stuck in hair = she has the hots for me.  After dinner (and a haircut) we did what any young couple does when they have no budget…we went to Toys R Us, where a kid can be a kid.  We spent a ton of time playing with toys and racing each other at Mario Kart.  She won.  I lost…pretty severely (video games have never been my strong suit).  We spent the rest of the evening just talking…in the car on the ride home and at Steak and Shake when we got back to Lincoln.  (Steak and Shake because in 1998, or 2013, the only things to do in Lincoln were to go to First Wok, to Steak and Shake, or back to school…First Wok was closed.)

Yeah, maybe it wasn’t the most impressive first date, but it was the first of many.  Just the start of really getting to know, and falling in love, with the most remarkable woman I’ve ever met.

I look back, and we’ve been on a lot of dates…a lot of walks…a lot of cookies and chocolate milk picnics…a lot of dinners and trips and movies.  We’ve lived life together for 15 years.  Those memories matter and they come back vividly…like they were last week.  And I’m still dating her…I’m still trying to woo her…win her over again and again.  I’m still writing her songs, some silly, some sweet.  I’m more in love with her now than ever, I’m more thankful for her now than ever, and I can’t (and don’t want to) imagine my life without her.

There comes a point where someone means so much to you…where they’ve had so much influence in your life that you feel like they’ve just always been with you.  You even find yourself trying to put them in your own memories from before you met them.  You do that because you love them.  And that’s how I am with Crystal.  I didn’t grow up with her, but I feel like I’ve always known her.

And there’s so much more to write about her, but tonight, I’m going to attempt to beat her at Mario Kart, eat cookies and milk with her and let her finish all my sentences.

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bencriz

2012

Posted on by benjaminwoods

After finishing up my first year at Northside, I was given the opportunity to preach this last weekend about all that 2012 brought us as a church family.

It was a big year in many ways.   We’ve seen terrible storms and terrible tragedys.  Its been an election year.  Its been an Olympic year.   For some, this year has brought growth and healing and for others its brought sickness and brokenness.

Either way, a whole lot happened in 2012.

Maybe for you its been mindblowinglyawesome…or maybe its been gut-wrenchingly painful.  Maybe a year to remember, maybe a year to forget.

For my family, it was a huge year of change…everything is new in so many ways.  New job, new church, new state, new house, new community, new school, new neighborhood…new everything.  But looking back, I can see its been a beautiful year of overwhelming blessing.

I’m learning that God doesn’t work on a calendar year.

He doesn’t go on vacation at Christmas and take the week off to slap together some New Years’ Resolutions before coming back after the first of the year and hitting it hard.  There was not a reset button at midnight last night.  The season you’re in may be the one you stay in for a while.

I’m recognizing that my 2012 had everything to do with my 2011.

2011 was difficult in so many ways, but we saw God provide, we saw God heal, we saw God reaffirm, and we saw Him restore.  My 2012 is what it is because of my 2011.  And I wouldn’t have that perspective if it weren’t for the process.

The process.  A simple way to look back and take some time to review, reflect and resolve.

REVIEW:

Its vital that we identify the markers on our timelines…the milestones, the pivotal moments that shape us.  Take the time to remember how God has marked you…the game changers of your year.  All throughout the Old Testament are stories of God having His people pile up rocks when He did cool stuff.  They called them standing stones…physical reminders that He was good and faithful to his covenant.   I, personally, don’t have piles of rocks in my backyard, but I do keep a journal.  I write because I don’t want to forget how good He has been to me…I don’t want to miss the moments to celebrate Him.

Some things in our lives are easy to celebrate…a new baby, a big promotion, a healing conversation…but not everything that’s marked you has come without struggle.  Sometimes its things like the loss of a loved one, the loss of a marriage, or a battle with illness, but nevertheless, we must identify the markers on our timeline because it helps us begin to reflect.

REFLECT:

We’ve got to think long and hard about why these markers on our timeline matter.  Are you getting older or wiser?  What are you learning about yourself?  What are you learning about God?  How has He stretched you to love Him more and what markers on your timeline reveal that?  Reflection is where you are reminded that God will not waste opportunities to grow you.  God won’t waste them, but we most definitely can if we don’t take the time to stop and reflect.  And when we reflect, it helps us find resolve.

RESOLVE:

Resolve is that firm determination to do something about what you now know.  It’s the what now moment…because of what I know now, what changes?  To have resolve is to choose to live with conviction…to reposition ourselves, to change our posture, to live out 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  

To live with resolve is to give Him the room to move.

We’ve all got chapters in our lives we would rather rewrite, rip out, bury or burn…pages we want to forget even happened, but the reality is that our stories don’t make much sense without them.

You have no idea how God intends to use you, where you’ve been, or where you are right now to further His kingdom.

So whether you feel like you’re on top of the world, or the world is on top of you…God is still writing your story.

Give Him the pages to work with and be ready to pile up your rocks.

Just in case the world ends on Friday…

Posted on by benjaminwoods

Opportunities to write have seemingly disappeared over the last 6 weeks.  Life has brought tons to write about, but somewhere close to zero moments to actually record and share them.  So, just in case the Mayans were actually on to something, I feel the need to document my weekend and post it on the internet so the government can store it in one of its data farms in the desert.  You know, just in case.

My family is a circus.  And that circus came to town this weekend and descended upon our home with all their stuff.  I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a while, and it was so cool to come home from our college-age ministry’s Ugly Christmas Sweater Party to the ginormous pile of shoes at the front door.  The following 40 hours was been complete chaos.  Beautiful chaos.  We are a loud family and there are a lot of us, but since moving 3 ½ hours away, we have to make the most of the time we have…and so we did.

We stayed up late watching Duck Dynasty and got up early to eat monkey bread with (unfortunately) little sleep in between.  We all sat around the tree to open presents, attempted some order but with Calla as our “elf,” it proved a bit of a challenge…turns out she can’t read yet.  So I had to help her decipher gift tags while fending off all the other cousins from swiping presents from under the tree.  It was intense.  The party moved to the basement where we built a pretty incredible tent that spanned nearly the entire surface area of our basement.  (It was also in tents….get it?)  It was fun to build a tent with Jonathan again…we got to relive a piece of our childhood while watching our children not help.

The kids all decorated cookies with icing and an inordinate amount of sprinkles.  Really, the ugliest Christmas cookies you’ve ever seen, but they still tasted good.  And then for the first time in a long time, I just got to go to church with my family…all of them, to hear my cousin preach and worship together.  Then everybody came back to our house for Christmas supper and more gift-giving chaos with my aunt & uncle and cousins.  Ezra and I scored some sweet remote control helicopters (already practicing our flight skills), and Calla paraded around in her new Dorothy costume, complete with wig, red slippers and even Toto in a basket.  The minute she put it on, she started quoting the movie (which she’s never seen), “There’s no place like home…there’s no place like home.”  We ended the night sipping Orange Julius and watching super 8mm home videos with a sheet and a projector because that’s how you did it in the 80’s.  The next morning we relaxed, ate and the men of our family commenced with our annual tradition…beard shaving.

This was a weekend I’ve been waiting for for a long time…and it was a good one.  Good to hug my mom, and tickle my nephews, shave absurd things on my face with my brother and my dad, laugh with my sister…and just be together.  And in the midst of a national tragedy, my heart and mind just keep thinking of and praying for families in Connecticut.  You never have any idea how much time you have or don’t have with your family…with the the people you love.  I’m reminded again that every moment matters. and to find a way to celebrate what I do have and who I have for as long as I have them.

And now I get to go to bed thankful and actually get some sleep.

Can You Feel The Love Tonight?

Posted on by benjaminwoods

This last week has been good.  I came home late last Sunday night from being on a six day trip to Catalyst Conference in Atlanta and then visiting Elevation Church in Charlotte.  It was an incredible trip that I will hopefully get time to write about later, but it is just good to be home.

From this point on, all of my vacations submit to Ezra’s school calendar, so I took this week off while Ezra had Fall Break.  And its been a great vacation.  Again, budget is tight, but we needed a good time to rest and refresh and reconnect in a way.  Life has been so full lately that getting time together has been difficult, so we spent the week just being together as a family.

Every day has felt like a party.  Whatever we were going to do, we were going to do it as big and as cool as possible.  We hit Huber’s Farm and scoured the pumpkin patch for the perfect pumpkins.  After staking claim to his pumpkin, Ezra proceeded to carry what ended up being an 8.56 pound pumpkin over 100 yards back to the wagon.  And then, after weighing and paying, he carried it clear back to the van by himself.  The kids carved their pumpkins and proudly set “Helen” (Calla’s pumpkin) and “Doc” (Ezra’s pumpkin) on our doorstep, on display for the neighborhood.

We saw all walks of life and ate all kinds of fair food at Harvest Homecoming, which apparently is a pretty big deal down here.   We introduced Ezra and Calla to “The Lion King” for the first time and snuggled on the couch together.  We hit the Louisville Zoo’s Trick or Treat Party, where Calla insisted upon getting her picture taken with every character on the trail (we’re talking Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, Belle, Ariel, Dory, a polar bear, an ice cream cone…seriously, everybody) and the kids went crazy at a “kids only” dance party. We made a fountain science experiment that Criz found on Pinterest and spent a whole afternoon in our backyard chasing a couple snakes we found, building a miniature fort and planting a “weed garden” (not what you’re thinking). Crystal and I watched movies and cuddled on the couch almost every night after the kids were in bed.  Ezra even created a chariot for princess Calla by tying his bike to our stroller and took her all over the neighborhood.  Everything we did was fun…we turned baths into disco bubble baths and had monster dance parties in the basement…we spent almost every minute together this week.

And beyond all the crazy, fun memories, the week was sprinkled with precious, tender moments and really good conversations…the ones that reveal the kind of kids you have. Whether it was watching Ezra help his little sister onto the alligator roller coaster they rode together, or comforting Ezra because he was so upset with Scar for being a “bad uncle” and hurting Simba’s daddy, or snuggling with Calla on our couch, or listening to your kid sincerely pray for “everybody in the whole world who is sick or hurt right now.”

I’m a blessed man…and I pray I never forget that.

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