Israel & Rachel Campbell "SOUP" Podcast
Join us for an exciting Season 2 of our podcast, which garnered over 7000 downloads last year! Your hosts, Rachel and Israel Campbell, are back to take you on an incredible journey. In this podcast, we invite you into the ongoing dialogues about life, love, parenting, relationships, spirituality, and whatever else sparks our interest!
Our motivation for creating this podcast remains unchanged: we believe that discipleship should encompass more than just a classroom experience; it should be a way of life. Drawing inspiration from Jesus' interactions with his disciples, we see that it was far from a traditional classroom setup. Instead, it was a continuous exchange of teachings and discussions encompassing all facets of life.
Imagine savoring a delicious bowl of soup – that's what our podcast is like. We're here to engage in honest and unfiltered conversations, covering a wide spectrum of topics. And now, we invite you to share this podcast with your friends, family members, or coworkers, just as you'd share a great meal. Just like Jesus and his disciples, we're here to explore the richness of life together!
So, come join us for another season of candid conversations as we dive into a little bit of everything – from the profound to the lighthearted!
Israel & Rachel Campbell "SOUP" Podcast
Stay Fresh, Stay Green: Don't Peak Early
Have you ever felt the pressure of peaking too early in life? The societal norms and expectations that you should have reached certain milestones by a certain age? Let's shatter those pressures together in this enlightening conversation. We unveil the true essence of life as a journey, not a race, emphasizing that peaking isn't about the early bird catching the worm, but experiencing longevity and fulfillment in our lives.
Dive deeper with us into the wisdom of Psalms 92, 12-14, where it beautifully depicts a flourishing life that doesn't peak until old age. We'll inspire you to declare the Spirit ageless, encouraging you to stay vibrant and alive until the very end of your journey. We'll also share practical steps to ensure you're fully living, not just existing, until your last breath.
And the secret key to this enduring journey? Gratitude. We'll explore the power of thankfulness and how it can be the antidote to peaking early. We'll delve into biblical instances of how moments of celebration and gratitude lead to enduring mercy and love. Join us as we reflect on the importance of building up God's kingdom instead of personal empires. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic, so feel free to reach out with your questions and reflections - we're listening!
Season 2, baby Woo. Season 2, baby, I know I'm so excited to be back. This is going to be a good season.
Israel Campbell:Well, I'm excited too, because we're kind of like doing things a little bit different, like we'll be talking to each other but we'll also be like talking directly to the person we're getting so official. I don't know, oh my goodness it's going to be so good. Yes, but Season 2, and if you haven't downloaded any of the Season 1, I think we had over 7,000 downloads, which I don't know if that's a lot or if that's just my mom listening to the same one over and over.
Israel Campbell:But for us we just wanted to develop something that, yes, even some of the things that we might say on a Sunday we can't dive into limited on time, and really just kind of some conversations that we have. And this is kind of like a discipleship podcast, so that while maybe you are on a treadmill or doing life.
Rachel Campbell:It would be good, absolutely. That's what this is all about, and so we're praying that last season ministered to you and maybe sparked some thoughts for you to go on your own rabbit trails with. And because I know that we've had a lot of rabbit trails we're really good at, I'm going to say I'm going to take it, I'm really good at rabbit trails.
Israel Campbell:You're going to take one for the team Good job.
Rachel Campbell:You keep me in line, babe.
Israel Campbell:Yes, and you know, I heard that rabbits are like a frolic a lot, so maybe we are a good rabbit trail, so it's good. Well, hey, one of the messages we actually preached this summer and we even when we traveling, have we preached together not too long ago the same message, and I guess it's been a conversation that we've gone back and forth with. So it's not just a message, but it's really kind of a thought, a mantra. Is that the right way?
Israel Campbell:Yeah, it's a lifestyle, yeah, lifestyle, just an attitude, and that is to not peak early. And of course, my story is that when I was in I think it was I was an eighth grade, or not ninth grade, rather, at Explorer Junior High in north of Seattle Washington. I asked this girl if she would go to the ninth grade dance with me, and we had seventh, eighth and ninth and she denied me and said I cannot imagine she denied me, babe, and if you saw the pictures of me in ninth grade, you would have denied me.
Israel Campbell:God was just saving you from he was protecting all of humanity. And so because I looked just like the geek from 16 candles, like I could be his twin, I think even looked like you're like a fine wine, you're just still peeking.
Israel Campbell:Yes, I'm still peeking. We'll wait till that moment. But anyhow, asked her. She said no, I'm going to go out with Chris Lords. And I was devastated. So I asked another girl and she goes, I'm holding out for Chris Lords, and I'm like I hate you, Chris Lords. And so I think I went by myself. How awkward is that school dance stand on the wall and Chris Lords had a plethora of dates that night, I think, and he was like had a full mustache and ninth grade I think he was even held back a year, so he should have been in 10th grade, Like he was like the only one that drove a car to school and so he was way cool.
Rachel Campbell:I mean even I want to meet Chris Lords.
Israel Campbell:And he had all this, like he had, then he had like that flannel from like breakfast club, breakfast club, red flannel with the sleeves cut off.
Rachel Campbell:I didn't like those kind of guys.
Israel Campbell:Just so you know my gosh he was, he was taller than everybody and all that stuff. So just to say, it was a few years later well, I guess a lot years later, ninth grade, we were just married, had bought a house in Everett, had little baby Phoebe. We were youth pastors, living the dream and I went to a blockbuster video. Do you remember those? I remember those. Yes, remember the late fees. Yes, I remember those.
Israel Campbell:Okay. So I went there and who was at the counter? But they, the awesome, the, the quintessential teenage lady killer, chris Lords, and he had lost a lot of that hair. It started to kind of get a beer belly and then career wise how many of you know, like blockbuster video is not a company to really you know, not a company to really, you know, not a good, it wasn't going places Wasn't going places, and so this just I remember, and somebody had said the term or whatever, they peaked early, and so we've always kind of said that like in spiritual in life, we never want to peak early.
Rachel Campbell:Yeah, and we've talked to our kids about you never want to be the person who peaks in high school. If you're, you know the top of your game in high school and it's all down here, he'll from there. That's sad, and so you know to our kids. You know you try to take the pressure off. Where high school isn't the end, all be all. You don't need to be the prom queen to live a beautiful and important and valuable life that makes a difference on this earth. And so you know we don't want to be people who peak early.
Israel Campbell:That's why I married you. Oh well, you're, you've got us some time to wait to what about if you just never peak? What is that? But, yeah, I, so we want to talk a little bit about that, because maybe you know, because maybe you've already peaked and where you feel like you've, yeah, you feel like you're peaking. The thing with God is we actually never have. But I do think it's very important to kind of be aware of in our life A like don't put that pressure on you, like you were saying, get that pressure off of you, but also be thinking, longevity thinking, legacy thinking, and in mind not necessarily how you start. Yeah, monday night football. Last night, watching first play for first couple plays, aaron Rodgers gets hurt, he's out and the whole stadium you could tell that they Jets fans, because Jets fans, this is like, this is just what happens to Jets players and so you can just see everybody's emotion.
Israel Campbell:Well, at the end of the game and I know you don't care about this, but those of you, sorry just, but at the end of the game the Jets actually won the game. Like this miracle punt return in overtime, and so it doesn't really matter how you start. What matters is how you finish. Yeah, and we as Christians have to think of that even more, and it's a shame. So many stories in the Old Testament, so many people we know personally, peaked early and didn't finish well, and so how do we do that? How do we keep from not peaking early?
Rachel Campbell:Yeah, totally, and that's what we want to talk about today. This is something you know.
Israel Campbell:we're celebrating 26 years of being in love, 28 years in love, 26 years married in our relationship and I was in love with you way more than you were before, because you were engaged first. So, maybe I could have more years.
Rachel Campbell:Israel, you just like to throw me under the bus.
Israel Campbell:That's all I got to say.
Rachel Campbell:But we want to talk about this because it's so important not peaking early, and we've seen it so many times and I think that even if you're a young person, maybe in the beginning of your career, you can get really discouraged, feeling like I should be further along than right now, maybe I should be further along at my age, or maybe there's been some mistakes in your life where you feel like that's peaked you, and we just want to encourage you.
Rachel Campbell:Israel and I have gone through seasons of great loss, seasons where we've failed, you know, seasons where we wished we could go back and redo some of our early financial decisions or some of the way that maybe we treated people as leaders. And you know, all of us are growing and evolving and learning more about ourselves, learning more about the Lord, having more revelation in His word, getting better at relationships, at leading our lives all of those things. I think that the enemy comes in and tries to paralyze us in moments where maybe we're not doing our best, but we just want to come today and say you haven't peaked. You might even be in a season where you wish you were somewhere else, but the word of God says that he works and operates from glory to glory, which means there's always more.
Israel Campbell:Oh, so good. I love that, and one of our it's one of our church's theme verses, it's probably one of our life theme verses is just Psalms 92, 12 through 14. And I love it because it talks about flourishing like a palm tree. Love it growing like a cedar of Lebanon planted in the house of the Lord. But one of the things that you've really been talking about is they'll flourish in the courts of our God and that they will still bear fruit in old age and they will stay fresh and green. So one of the promises is actually to not peek early, but it's actually to stay fresh and green and we're at the age.
Israel Campbell:Oh, rachel, it was so embarrassing. We had our men's event last week and we were having these competitions, so we were trying to evenly stack the teams and so there were these like age groups and it was, like you know, 12 to 19 was one group and 19 to 20 was a group and 20 to 30. And then and then the group was 50 and over, so there was the old person group and I was in it, but, babe, you are Psalm 92, 15,.
Rachel Campbell:you are still fresh and green in your old age, you're going to bear fruit.
Israel Campbell:I take it by faith, but I'm not always fresh and green, because Phoebe and Chloe will mock my Instagrams and say that was not cool and mine too, babe, it's okay. We'll stay, we just have to have as you age.
Rachel Campbell:You have to have thick skin. And I just want to say this I, your grandma, had Alzheimer's and we all had to move her into a home in Seattle and she used to be on those silver alerts and we would have to go find her through the neighborhoods. We'd be watching a movie and, across our screen, silver alert with a picture of your grandma, because she was a runaway again. But I loved where your mom chose to put her. It was a Christian facility that was really caring for these elderly people as they aged.
Rachel Campbell:But when you drove onto the campus there was this arch that said in really big letters the spirit is ageless.
Rachel Campbell:And that has marked my mind forever is that you know we can actually age and stay young and it's a promise in the word of God that the spirit inside of us is ageless and so we, as we, do age as we walk through these seasons of life. Maybe you're young but you feel old because you've been through hell and back, but the spirit is ageless and it's regenerative. That is the gift of the Holy Spirit in our life is we don't have to be old and crusty people that have seen our best days, but as long as we're taking a breath on earth. I love we're declaring this over our life is that we're going to be young, we're going to be creative, we're going to be inventive until our dying day. Because the Bible promises if we build God's kingdom, if we stay planted in his house, that we will flourish like a palm tree and in our old age we will be cute and stay fresh and green. Is that the passion.
Rachel Campbell:It's a Rachel Campbell declaration.
Israel Campbell:Well, but it does say and I think it's so powerful and in false humility yourself, you know when you're trying to make fun of yourself or whatever, but the truth is, one of the ways you stay fresh and you stay green is to actually declare that over your life, and so it's easy to go. What do they do these things? Like the old man or the you know my old man, my old lady, the old lady, no way no way, no, no, no, no.
Israel Campbell:Don't say those things over your spouse and and really do declare no, I'm, I'm, I'm. The Holy Spirit is making me fresh. The.
Rachel Campbell:Holy.
Israel Campbell:Spirit is causing us to be green and I think that that is such a important and and actually just a great thing to develop.
Rachel Campbell:Let's talk about a couple ways that are just practical, ways that maybe we can make sure that we're not peeking, giving up dying early while we're still alive, all of those things.
Israel Campbell:I love it. So what would you like? You wanna just volley back and forth? Yeah, let's do it. So what are some things that you would say? I think you're?
Rachel Campbell:pretty good at growing old I just wanna say that. I am the most blessed girl because I feel like you've gotten better looking over the years, and everybody knows it, that knows you, so I'm a lucky girl. So why don't you start and say what are some of the things, what are some of the ways that you have chosen? And also, you're five years older than me, so you have more wisdom on this. Wow, wow, Okay so what's something that you think helps, maybe spiritually or even in the natural, so that you're not peeking early?
Israel Campbell:Yeah, one we went to and we even preached about. It is just, the Bible says that when they went out to war, jehoshaphat went out to war and he said don't bring your swords, don't bring your shields, but to send out the worshipers. And it says to give thanks unto the Lord. It actually declares it like this. It says make sure that you give thanks to the Lord because his mercy and his love endures forever. And it's almost like this tie-in with thanksgiving causes you that his mercy endures forever. It's the enduring, and so it's tied into thankfulness.
Israel Campbell:And I think one of the ways to peek early and all throughout scripture, whether it's the children of Israel, and God delivers them from Egypt, and then they come up to the Red Sea and they forget what he's already done, and so then you peek and the children of Israel, they peeked in the desert. They're good times, where, in the wilderness, that one generation, instead of actually possessing the prophetic promise. And so for me, I think what helps me stay fresh, stay green and keeping us from peeking is reminding ourselves so often of how good God has been, and just being thankful and grateful, because to every day and every decade is a new thing to be stressed about. There's new challenges, there's new things, but the way to keep from peeking is to reflect on. But look what God has already done.
Rachel Campbell:Yeah, I was just reading a Psalms this morning and I don't even know which one it was, but one of the lines was I recite the songs that I have sung because of you in the night.
Israel Campbell:Psalms 122, verse six.
Rachel Campbell:I'm just kidding, I just wanted to say I know Like wow, I was just reading through a bunch of Psalms and that was one that stuck out to me. It was like I remind myself the songs.
Rachel Campbell:I have sung to you in the night seasons and that is a really powerful thing. It's just not like that Thanksgiving. Sometimes we think we have to sit around and make a thank you list to God, but really Thanksgiving is a lifestyle. It's reminding yourself of what he's done, but it's also being able to see the world through the lens of the goodness of God, straining the junk of our world through. But God is still good and he's going to be good and I think it's so important I was gonna talk about, I was gonna make you so proud of me, and then you talked about it first. But Aaron, Rogers.
Israel Campbell:Rogers, I'm still proud of you they were.
Rachel Campbell:Your ESPN was on and I wasn't watching it but I heard it with my big ears. And there was a girl and she was talking to another news anchor about Aaron Rogers last night and she was so horribly negative that it drew my attention and she was saying Aaron Rodgers his career's over and he just left. He wasn't happy with his old team and now he's with the Jets and it's bad on top of bad days for him and there's really no recovery at his age and the Jets have never had anything good ever happen for them. And she is, matter of fact, cursing this whole situation in such a sad way and I thought that is one way to live.
Rachel Campbell:To be honest, we can have something bad that we're talking about and we can just see it like it's the end of everything which this girl did. If I had a news company, she would not be the one I would hire, because there's something so powerful about needing to see things well. And imagine being him today, hearing her and he's facing this new injury and now there's this person that's just absolutely cursing his future. It's just not what anyone needs in today's world and our hearts are conditioned to act that way when we don't have the goodness of God to be our frame.
Israel Campbell:Yeah, I love that. I think it's so easy you peek when you fixate on today's problems instead of God's faithfulness in your future. So good, okay, Voli, do you?
Rachel Campbell:And you peek when you see today's problems, as you're forever.
Rachel Campbell:Right, wow, absolutely so another thing, I think, for us that we've chosen to do that really, I think, keeps us, you know, depending on God, keeping us fresh and bearing fruit, is building the kingdom of God and not building our own empire.
Rachel Campbell:We are not here to build Israel and Rachel's brand. We're not here to build a specific church, we're here to build the kingdom, and so that is vast and that also takes an element of surrender to God. Not my will, not what I'm wanting, but what you want I've got. I'm here as a servant for your kingdom, yeah, and if that means I'm in a corner and you've called me to this sphere, you know the Bible talks about the boundary lines that you have set before me, oh God, have fallen in pleasant places and God has given us each this calling, this boundary line, this area of influence. It may be just in our families, it might be in our workspaces, it might be even broader than that, but I think something that helps us not speak early is fighting the world system of building our own empire and protecting me in mind, and making sure you know it's this stingy mentality of building up our lives instead of building up what God wants.
Israel Campbell:Yeah, I remember John Ortenberg writing that book about at the end of the day, all the pieces go back in the box again. And it's talking about like when you play Monopoly, you know you might get all these hotels, you might get all this, whatever B&O, railroad, but at the end of the game all the pieces go back in the box and life's like that. At the end of our life, all the things we got go back in the box. We don't take it with us, and kingdom is actually not that. That's what's so great about. When you build a kingdom, you're actually building legacy and you're building beyond. Because when we build our own empire, well, the Roman Empire is gone, the Byzantine Empire is gone, the Aztec Empire is gone, the Inca Empire is gone. So many different empires, the British Empire that used to have. You know, the world is not the same, it's gone. And so when we fixate on empire, our own things, they'll always have a shelf life.
Rachel Campbell:It'll always have a peak.
Israel Campbell:And so when we build kingdom, kingdom is eternal, you know, and kingdom is beyond where we're at right now. We're building gods, we're building for eternity rather than just for the moment. So good.
Rachel Campbell:I mean, that's so powerful. The kingdom of God is the only thing that's not going back in a box and it's going to continue into eternity. That is so powerful. And you know our sin nature is bent to be concerned with ourselves, concerned, obsessed, trying to figure out the why, trying to figure out the how. I know I can do that. You know where you just have problem after problem or situation, your life gets so full you forget.
Rachel Campbell:Actually I exist to expand the kingdom of God. That means the things that should be most important in my life are making sure my kids love Jesus and I'm representing him well to them. Making sure that I'm spreading the good news of the gospel everywhere that I go, making sure that I know my Bible so that I'm not bending towards sin nature and what the world system is trying to get me to come alongside of. And so those kind of things help us continuously bear fruit and not have this one good year that we always those good old days where God moved. And you know Israel, when I think about our personal journey. We were youth pastors in Seattle and that was like glory days. We had some beautiful moments.
Israel Campbell:The best.
Rachel Campbell:Some of you that listened. You were in that youth ministry and we love that so much. Then we moved to Florida and that was such a great and awesome and trying season of our life and we still have these beautiful friendships out of that and saw God move there. Then we moved and we started building the kingdom of God in North Carolina and that season was a fantastic season for our family to build the church, all of our beautiful people there and I am careful whether we're our beautiful because they weren't our people but I remember when we felt the call to move to Los Angeles, we had some friends that were godly people that said you built that and that building that church would not exist If you didn't fight for it and go through what you went through for it to exist.
Rachel Campbell:They owe you something and I remember you and I going no, because it's God's kingdom and whatever he's asked us to do, we're just servants, Whether that's in North Carolina, Seattle, Los Angeles, none of it is ours ever. We don't need to be paid off, we don't need a salary when we're gone, because God takes care of us and he's our supplier. And I just think maybe you're in a situation where people are pressuring you to think a certain way. Maybe you're carrying the burden of it's yours when you need to remember you're the vessel, but what God's doing is all his, including us, and that actually sets us free and takes off a lot of pressure, doesn't it?
Israel Campbell:I love that. Yeah, so good. So my volley back to you, or I guess.
Rachel Campbell:No, it's your turn, because I just talked a lot.
Israel Campbell:You just said a lot of information. I'm a girl, it's good, it's good. Mine is maybe a little bit more practical, but what I like to do is I have my favorite podcast that I listen to. I am a, I love preachers, but one of the things that I do is I try to listen to different frequencies that then maybe I would normally not listen to, and I think that that's really good. To stay fresh is that you're not just getting in.
Israel Campbell:It's so easy to get into a rut and just like You're safe circle yeah and you're stuck, your uncle Rico, you're stuck in whatever season that was, and always talking about that era and God's revelation should always be increasing and it should be new. And sometimes I think we can get in these camps and you can get in the Rama camp and it's Rama and it is Rama only. Or you can get in the AG camp or you can get in the Joseph Prince camp and none of those things are bad in itself, but I do think it keeps you from. You can peak, because then it's like that's the only thing and I just think it's good to consistently be stretching our faith, stretching our knowledge.
Israel Campbell:I was listening to and I was so excited when one of our small groups was doing something from NT. Right, and I'm like he's too thick for me and I love. I listened to this one audio book and it is like whoa just jammed pack way beyond my one. Two, three easy points. You know what I mean and I love it Causes me to, in my prayer life, think more and causes me, when I'm reading the text comes a life a little bit more, because I found out about this was how Paul thought during that, and so I just think for practical, I think like doing things that keep you fresh and young has to be intentional or we get stuck in our era.
Rachel Campbell:Yeah, and I know we have to end because we're probably close to time. But you know, in all of this, in all of the doing and all of the pursuing, I think it's so important and it's definitely an ingredient in our life is to make sure we're laughing, make sure we're looking up, making sure that we're friends with non-Christians. Those kind of things help you not peak too, because we can get so us against them, or we can get so fixated on building the kingdom that we get too serious. And God is a God of life, and life more abundantly. And so you know, eat with the friends you love and go on long walks and take deep breaths and allow some space to breathe so that God can do a new thing too. I think it's really important.
Israel Campbell:Yeah, and I would just maybe close with the story of I believe it was Hezekiah and he's told you're dying, you're gonna die. And Hezekiah has this he peaked, he had. I believe the way the story goes is he had gotten kind of prideful, had showed his material wealth, his empire to the Assyrians and the Babylonians or something like that. And then God said, okay, you're gonna die. And Hezekiah repents, and Hezekiah, I think, fastened praise and God comes back, says to the prophet, go back to him and tell him you've got 15 more years. And it's this incredible story of he actually did peak too soon. Wow.
Israel Campbell:But we serve a God who says, yeah, you know what, I'm gonna give you more, I'm gonna add more life to you. And it's like this God of second chances, this God of one million chances right, is who we serve. And so if there's a situation in your life and you feel like you've peaked, don't let the enemy say, well, they were preaching about you. Or don't let the enemy say, well, it's too late for you. No, no, no, no, no. We serve a God who loves to, when we've peaked, turn it around and give us more of an opportunity. And what a way to live. I mean I can't wait to go to heaven and ask Hezekiah what were the last 15 years, like knowing that you didn't peak and you still had more.
Israel Campbell:I mean, how did he live that life? You know what I mean? I think, life to the fullest. And so just I guess my prayer, maybe, rachel, you're, you declare your what you would say, but don't you know, this is a challenge to not peak. But if you ever feel like you did peak, we serve a God who can turn that around?
Rachel Campbell:Yes, amen. You know my mom. When she had cancer and then went into remission I think that was a beautiful gift that we were all given to watch her lose her filter and she didn't care anymore if she was gonna offend or if she was gonna. She was like I need to tell you this, and it's because I don't know how many more days I have and this matters and she got a lot more focused on passing down truths to us, speaking the truth, sometimes saying crazy stuff, and I loved those days because she was bold and we need to be more like that In order to not peak. We need to realize tomorrow's not promised and we are called to make a difference on earth and love well and speak truth, and so if we do those things, god can help us keep regenerating right.
Israel Campbell:Amen, if you see Chris Lords, tell him hi for me.
Rachel Campbell:Tell him you're the man.
Israel Campbell:You're the man and kind of do it like this with some shooter McGavin gunshots, but we love that you've been listening to season two now. Yes, we did season one and of course we love to like answer questions and I don't know why we've gotten like the it's dwindled down for some questions and so we need some new ones, ask questions, ask some questions D, ms, or put it on the comments on the podcast.
Israel Campbell:But we would love to try to answer some of those questions. And then, of course, what are they telling the kids? They say subscribe, share, like this, and it does all the stuff so people, more people, can listen to it. But we'll see you next week.
