...story of my life

For several years now I've had enough adventures, both in life and ministry, to warrant people constantly telling me I should write a book.  While I would love to do so, I'm not sure it would ever get published or read by anyone other than my mom.  Even with that being the case, I've jotted things down here and there should the time ever come for me to step up and make writing a book a reality.  For now, I plan on using this blog to at least write some of my ideas for what would be in my book.
___________________________


Often when something odd or slightly unpleasant happens, you'll hear someone say "story of my life".  I took that idea a bit further though, once I found myself saying that phrase more often than not because of all the oddity in my life.  With the idea of writing in the back of my mind, i thought "instead of 'story of my life' it'd be more like 'chapters in my book'", since i feel my life is too varied and adventured to fit all it has to offer within a title that falls short.  I couldn't have the title of the book about my life and ministry being something trivial like "a day late and a dollar short".

What's in a name?
It should be noted that from the initial idea to write a book, I had the title figured out.  Credit for that partially goes to Jason Mills.  While on a mission trip in NYC at the The Bowery, I was having a conversation with several of my students about the possibility of writing something and what it would look like.  With the types of stories I would include, and knowing somewhat my tendency to not be fully clothed all the time, Jason rattled off "Various Stages of Undressed: The Matt Wofford Story".  We all laughed at the idea and went on with our day.  This, however, got me thinking.  Maybe this did sum it all up.  Perhaps my life was a tale of various stages of being undressed.

As I recall from childhood, as evidence by a recent facebook photo album, I was never one to wear clothes too often, unless I absolutely found it to be necessity.  Even aging, and thus "maturing", didn't remedy the desire to forfeit clothing as my first option.  Despite my on-again, off-again "heftiness" in college I gladly took the reigns of the "Naked Guys", a group of BCM guys that would paint up their chests for home football games at Arkansas State.  To this day I think the phrase my sister has said to me more than any other is "Matt!....Pants!!" (of course eluding to the fact that I wasn't wearing any and thus needed to put some on to make her more comfortable)...Although I feel that if I were to wear pants around the house, when I'm home for Christmas and the occasional Summer weekend, it might throw her off and in fact be odd.

At any rate, beyond the fact that the title seemed to fit with my seemingly "free as a bird" lifestyle, it felt right in so many other ways.  The idea of "Various Stages of Undressed" felt like it reached deep into my soul.  I've always been a fan of the idea of the reverence and respect paid to royalty and who better to pay respect and reverence to than the King of kings?  Whether it is in my personal devotional time, study of scripture, or even corporate prayer, I always see myself bowing at the foot of the throne of God, on my knees, and completely humbled by His glory and might.  Going a step further, knowing that He knows my every thought and feeling, I realize there are no barriers between us.  For that reason, I am naked before God.  There is nothing that I can put up as a shield to cover up who I am, what I've done, or what I offer Him.  He sees me for what I am and still loves me as if I were the only one.  That amazes me and draws me closer to Him.  It is that moment that I feel closer to God than any other, knowing that there is nothing separating us, and that moment that I aim for in every aspect of my life...to be naked before God.
So, with that in mind, here is my life.  Journeying through various stages of undressed.

-peace