Faith Struck

I have had a chance or two to hang out with a few stars, or catch glimpses of them. Growing up I used to work for Rod, my kids’ Pa, and we would go to these batting tournaments for American Legion Baseball. At one of those tournaments there was a high school kid hitting bombs out of the park. Rod assured me he would be in the majors one day. I didn’t ask his name at the time, but a few years later I asked where that kid was and Rod told me that kid was Albert Pujols, now the rookie of the year.

In college I took a detour into rock music focusing on punk. I loved pop punk and a band called MXPX that had some faith themes. I went with my buddy to their show, and he was able to get us backstage passes. I stood face-to-face with the lead singer, so I asked him a question about a song. My buddy couldn’t believe I was so bold to walk right up and ask him a question, not to mention a question about a song with faith implications. My buddy and I also had t-shirts made for the show, which he was too timid to wear, but I was able to get mine signed. I was soaking up every bit of that moment.

During my lonely days back in Chattanooga, I met some people with common interests. One of them was a girl who liked John Mayer, like me. (Don’t worry, she had a boyfriend and I had a girlfriend.) John Mayer was playing concerts for 10,000+ people across the US at the time, but came back to Atlanta, GA to sing at Eddie’s Attic, the place where it all started for him. There were 3 shows with only 120 tickets each. This girl had an extra ticket to one of the concerts and wanted to make sure the right person got the ticket.  She could see my passion for John Mayer and invited me to the show. I had a major dilemma about what my girlfriend would think, but this was too good to pass up. I was able to take a picture with John Mayer, which I hung on my wall.  My girlfriend and I broke up but I got a life long memory, and I met Mindy the next year.

I’ve grown up a bit from my star-struck behavior.  A few years ago I got to go to a Storyline conference with Donald Miller, my favorite author. His passion is to help people change their stories through the message of Jesus. It’s a great message. Donald Miller wants everybody to have the opportunity to attend his conferences regardless of how much money they have. If you pay the regular fee to attend, he invites you to his exclusive after-conference event as a way of saying thank you. I got to go to the after-conference event. We listened to a chapter of his new book while enjoying the cuisine of a few San Diego food trucks. At one point Donald opened the floor for questions, so I popped up with a question about the necessity of vulnerability in the Christian church. His answer, “Many see vulnerability as a weakness, but it is actually a strength,” are words that only enhanced my thoughts about ministry.

No matter how star-struck I have been over the stars I’ve seen, they are all human. John Mayer openly admitted he was on a diet during that concert, and my picture with him is proof. One of my worship leaders in California who knew MXPX said that their faith was not as squeaky clean as they portray on tour, and Albert, well he left the Cardinals. They are all human.

In this week’s lesson of the wedding at Cana, there are so many details to distract us. One of those, of course, is Mary the mother of Jesus and her way of asking him to help at the wedding. You probably know what happened, the party needed more wine, Jesus came through providing the best wine as He performs His first miracle. Let’s think about it for a minute. If you saw Jesus, the Son of God, and his new crew come in, and you knew He was about to break out the promise that would restore all of humanity, who would you turn to if you had a problem? This weekend we take time to see what the miracle at the wedding at Cana has to do with us, and if, perhaps, we are more like Mary than we think.