While You Were Sleeping In Seattle, I Married A Fat, Greek Wedding Planner: An Ode To Chick Flicks And Twenty-Eight Years

20 Saturday Aug 2011

Posted by in Anniversary, Marriage, Sandy, Weddings

≈ 6 Comments

Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth…be intoxicated always with her love.”
(Proverbs 5:18,19)

“See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek.”
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

“You stay alive, no matter what occurs!I will find you.No matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you.”
Hawkeye, Last of the Mohicans

“I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.I choose a mortal life.”
Arwen Evenstar, Fellowship of the Ring

Darcy: What endearments am I allowed?
Lizzie: Well, let me think…”Lizzie” for everyday…”my pearl” for Sundays, and “Goddess Divine,” but only on special occasions.
Darcy: And what am I to call you when I’m cross? “ MRS. Darcy?”
Lizzie: No, you may only call me “Mrs. Darcy” when you are perfectly, completely and incandescently happy!”
Darcy: And how are you, this evening…MRS. Darcy?”
Pride and Prejudice, (The Movie)

“You have given me the highest, completest proof of love that ever one human being gave another.I am all gratitude and all pride (under the proper feeling which ascribes pride to the right Source); all pride that my life has been so crowned by you.”
Robert Browning to his “Ba” (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

When we first got married, it was Rambo, Clint and Chuck. As I look back now upon our evolving love affair, I see that we (that is to say, I) have mellowed and lean more toward the “sense and sensibility” and far less gore and dismemberment of Austen. Methinks I like this a whole lot better.

Who cares if convention sees us as boring and old? We are seasoned, not old. If seasoning makes something even better, then our something has taken on more flavor and appeal through the years. And what, pray tell, if we are aging? Two words: fine wine. To put it as Browning, “Grow old along with me; the Best is yet to be!”

You know any man who has bawled through “Steel Magnolias” more than once has GOT to be a hopeless romantic. Guilty as charged. I know Truvy (Dolly) said, “Time marches on and sooner or later you realize it is marchin’ across your face!” but I defer to the pragmatic Shelby (Julia) who opined, “I’d rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.” You, my dearest, are my thirty minutes. And counting.

I am grateful for every darkened theater and tear-soaked kleenex, holding hands and making goo-goo eyes while the likes of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are splashed across the screen, dancing all alone in a crowded room; I love that that scene moves you so. For these and every other moment I share with you I am indelibly stricken with the pleasure of knowing that you truly “complete me.”

What can I say that hasn’t been said? I shall brave an attempt…

You are comely, my fair one
And I am satisfied
As here
I rest
in our love;
You, the moon in my night sky,
You, the shore that welcomes my advances;
Absorbed, I become
One with you.

I am Aragorn and you are my Arwen:
(“Go to sleep.
I am asleep. This is a dream.
Then it is a good dream.”)
Rivendell has never seen the likes,
The shimmering delights;
Such serenity—
Tranquility,
Or daring romance!
With you I have traversed into uninhabitable wild,
Unfettered joy;
Thirty minutes of wonderful—
A child, waking up on Advent morn
To outdoor white and indoor peace.

When your eyes take me in, their irises embolden me
To feel confident I am your Man:
Golden mane—
Well chiseled—
Fit and upright—
Dashing and daring—
(Your tainted vision!)
Steed, Armor, shield and javelin,
With war in my heart to fight for you,
And lose for you,
To win you,
My Jocelyn,
My home and heart.

Twenty-three bells peal today;
Another will ring tomorrow,
(By God’s grace)
Sounding forth their ode for Esmeralda—
A song the world may listen to, but not own;
It is for you, and no other.
You are altogether lovely…MRS. Mitchell…
From your soul ascending to your halo cascading.
And I,
Here I,
Blessed I,
Am perfectly, completely and incandescently
Satisfied.

NOTE: This is a repost from an earlier time (5 yrs ago). My feelings haven’t changed, only deepened. I love you, Sandy. Happy Anniversary!

Rehearsing For That Day

19 Friday Aug 2011

Posted by in Christianity, Commitment, Endurance, Faith, Faithfulness, Heaven, Hope, Inspiration, Intimacy, Jesus Christ, Marriage, Sandy, Weddings

≈ 2 Comments

“Beloved, now it does not appear what we shall be, but we know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him face to face.”
1 John 3:2

“We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!”
1 Corinthians 13:12, The Message

We all long for [Eden], and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature…is still soaked with the sense of exile.
–JRR Tolkien

The Father is longing for the day in which He can present to His Son, and to the earth, the one who “made herself ready” for His return.
–David Sliker

Twenty-eight years ago–today–a passel of bridesmaids and groomsmen joined the minister and prospective bride and groom–‘the Sange’ and me–for the rehearsal of our wedding. It was August and it was hot. Even the Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwaterians called it hot.

Vows were already written and in the hopper, the gown was hanging ready, tuxes were rented and the accoutrements of the next day’s celebration were gradually taking their place throughout the church. Amid the overbalance of familiar was a sprinkling here and there of transcendence. As the hours grew closer to the unveiling, however, the balance of common and sacred would shift. Dramatically.

Shortly before midnight Sandy and I parted ways: she to her house, me to my hotel. It wasn’t lost on me that the next time I saw her, she would take my name and I would take her home.

In the tension of “yes, but not quite yet” we ran the gamut of emotions in those in- between hours of preparation and realization, consecration before consummation, fine-tuning until finality…one moment we were walking on sunshine, the next walking in the quicksand of time stand still. Waiting. Doubting. Wondering. This is for life, sport. Am I really ready to commit to this? How could I even dare form the question? How many hours yet? Anticipating. Waiting. Then: watching as her face floats up and docks with my conscious thought: ah, yes, she is the one who causes my heart to race!

Until a few minutes after six on August 20, 1983, I had a pretty good idea about Sandy. I had memorized her face–from the gorgeous mole above her left cheekbone to the ‘talent specks’ in her hazel/green eyes. I knew she had a slight discoloration in one of her front teeth from a childhood mishap and a cute, subtle worry line between her eyebrows. I knew the shape and color of her lips that needed no artificial coloring. Yeah, I pretty much had her down.

Yet, all I had in the “yes, but not quite yet” was a blurry familiarity of my girl. It was stick-figure reality compared to the 3-D HD image I would soak in a few hours later. Even still, in my dusky twilight timescape, the image in my mind was Rembrandt in quality. Up until “then”.

And I was in love. Boy howdy, was I in love! I didn’t need any more evidence to convince me I had made the right choice. Or so I thought.

I was pretty composed until the doors of the lobby popped open and a bedazzling white surprise came into view. Suddenly, everything else faded away and I had tunnel vision as I watched this one I thought I had a handle on, move toward me. The most beautiful vision in the room, and she was making her way to me! The transitions from friends to modest lovers and now matrimoniously one was completed. For good. Why would she come to me?

Because nine months earlier I said (not word-for-word translation): “Here’s a crazy thought. Marry me. I promise to love you—and only you—always.” Somewhere in that goofy proposal, for better for worse for life, Sandy could not imagine another life. Thankfully.

Can you imagine “that” Day? The Eternal Day? When all our strifes, burdens, cares, failures, wins, blessings, hardships, doubts, waverings, repentings, struggles, following, pursuing, obedience, disobedience, falling, rising, trusting, warring, defending, sighing, crying and rejoicing—everything we knew of this life and all that was necessary to prepare us for the next—will have run its full course and we will be clothed with immortality. And why? Because, through it all, we believed what He said: “Follow Me, and I will make you…”

Follow Me. Through this narrow gate. Down this narrow road. It’s taking us Somewhere…you will never believe what’s ahead.

Somebody’s Knocking

11 Thursday Aug 2011

Posted by in Authentic Christianity, Christianity, Hearing God, Intimacy with Christ, Jesus Christ, Michael Card, Music, Obedience, Passion, Worship

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It is the strangest thing.

Just now…well, moments ago, a tune from a long-ago ere-forgotten song just leapt into my mind. Immediately, I recognized it as one of the first of my introductions to the music of theologian/minstrel Michael Card and I knew “in the now” that the Lord had planted the melody there and I had no choice but to give ear.

A bit of background: earlier I had spent a bit of personal time studying the word “obedience” in Romans 1:6. Paul’s context reminds us that our faith is not passive but active, requiring obedience. Broken down, the word means ‘to give ear, attention’, ‘to submit to (a word)’. And this: ‘to answer (the door)’ Continue reading »

Sweet Tweets

07 Sunday Aug 2011

Posted by in Adversity, C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Church, Deception, Discipleship, Encouragement, Faithfulness, Forgiveness, Hope, Hudson Taylor, Inspiration, Intercession, Jesus Christ, Kingdom of God, Persecution, Prayer, Truth, Twitter, Waiting on God, Wisdom

≈ 4 Comments

This is my third installment of various quotes I’ve run across in the world of Twitter that are robust for life and living. I pray they will properly kick-start your week in the Lord and provide Spirit-induced fuel in the coming days:

  • “When God closes a door, don’t look for a window. Maybe just look for a couch and sit down for a few days.”
    Jason Upton
  • “When my church grows at your church’s expense, that’s not growth, it’s swelling.”
    Rick Warren, via @RonJacobs_
  • “We must move people from Come and See to Come and Die.”
    Rick Warren, via @RonJacobs_
  • “We pass on our convictions to our children by the things we tolerate.”
    Amish Proverb, via @LifeVerse
  • “A little thing is just a little thing, but faithfulness in a little thing is a great thing.”
    Hudson Taylor
  • “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”
    William James
  • “Take comfort in this: when you are persecuted for righteousness, Jesus takes it personally.”
    Billy Humphrey, Atlanta IHOP
  • “On the power of words: for every word in Hitler’s Mein Kampf 125 persons lost their lives in WWII.”
    David P. Craig, via @LifeCoach4God
  • “The purpose of prayer is not to get man’s will done in heaven but God’s will done on earth.”
    Warren Wiersbe, via @LifeCoach4God
  • “God invisible work in you prepares you for God’s visible works through you.”
    Steven Furtick, via @WhiteKn1ght
  • “The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”
    C.S. Lewis, via @jimbotts
  • “Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you because you hurt me.”
    Khamneithang Vaiphei
  • “When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord’s choicest wines.”
    Samuel Rutherford, via @desiringgod
  • “The whole earth has been lied to and it is the church’s responsibility to bring truth to it.”
    Terry Virgo

The Incredible “Light”ness of Being

28 Thursday Jul 2011

Posted by in Christianity, Confession, Crucified Life, Encouragement, Faith, Freedom, Gospel of the Kingdom, Intimacy, Jesus Christ, Kingdom of God, Ministry

≈ 6 Comments

Thought you might be encouraged with a fresh voice today that echoes my own. Or vice versa. Well, anyway, we both are echoes of the True Voice. Today’s Hat Tip goes to Kurt Willems, a pastor who calls himself a “lower-case evangelical, fairly charismatic and sometimes contemplative.” He says he’s “done living like a Christian.” Me too.

Something happened last week. I went on a retreat with an amazing spiritual director / teacher named Jan Johnson. By the end of our time together I realized that I’m done with living like a Christian.

  • I’m done serving the poor.
  • I’m done going the extra mile.
  • I’m done being a husband who strives to love his wife as Christ loves the church.
  • I’m done visiting the sick.
  • I’m done opening up my life to Christian community.
  • I’m done loving my neighbor.
  • I’m done living with integrity.
  • I’m done loving my enemies.
  • I’m done giving finances to global causes.
  • I’m done opposing violence.
  • I’m done speaking out against hatred.
  • I’m done standing up for the marginalized.
  • I’m D-O-N-E done… Continue reading »

How Can I Hear God?

20 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by in Christianity, Discipleship, Faithfulness, Hearing God, Humility, Hunger, Intercession, Journaling, Obedience, Passion, Prayer, Rest, Revelation, Scripture, Shepherd, Surrender, Trials, Trusting God, Worship

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In culling old emails from my ‘All Mail’ folder, I came across a response I had given to a brother on the matter of hearing God. It’s ironic I found it from the archives since I am reading on this very subject today.

The following response was  sent exactly one week—to the day—I entered one of the darkest times of my life, a period in which I would need to draw on God’s love and wisdom as never before. (I have written extensively on this shadowed valley of death; you can find it here.) It seems our Lord was preparing me to learn even more intimately on the subject, so what you read here is “in  part” but tested and true nonetheless. Continue reading »

Sweet Tweets

15 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by in Christianity, Encouragement, Gospel, Gospel of the Kingdom, Hearing God, Quotes, THE Sin, Trusting God, Truth, Twitter

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I really like Twitter. Someone called it a “large, heavily populated metropolis, while Facebook is a favorite vacation spot and MySpace is a ghost town.” Evidently, yesterday 600,000 signed up in a single day. It took 16 months to sign its first 600,000. I saw where 224 ‘tweets’ are sent out every tenth of a second—that many tweets were sent out the entire day on July15, 2006.

I like it because I am fed with rich life-giving confessions and instructions (depending on who you ‘follow’) throughout the day. I like to pass some along to you, and I do so here again today. I pray you are built up in your most holy faith. I pray they confirm, instruct, encourage and challenge you as they have me.

“Sin is the suicidal action of the heart against itself.”
Tim Keller

“The call to martyrdom is not just the call to a heroic death, but the willingness to relinquish and lay down the self-life today.”
Art Katz

“Greatness resides in the one who is no longer looking to be blessed, but is seeking to bless others.”
Bob Sorge

“What you cherish at your core is what you aim at with your life.”
Craig Groeschel

“The wise virgins said to the foolish ‘No’ when asked for oil. We won’t say ‘No’ in that day until we learn to say ‘No’ to distractions today.”
Corey Russell

“When you speak, be sure the things you say are an improvement over silence.”
Jason Oelrich

“It is a cheap zeal that reserves its passions to combat only the sins and temptations of others.”
D.A. Carson

“A saint is one who exaggerates what the world neglects.”
G.K. Chesterton

“God calls us out of darkness and into his marvelous light and then calls us to walk right back into the darkness and shine.”
Burk Parsons

“Preaching must continually show not that Jesus is the means to prosperity but that he is better than prosperity.”
John Piper

“Most of your unhappiness is due to listening to yourself instead of God.”
Rick Warren

“The gospel is always counter-cultural. No culture has ever heard it and said “Yeah, we knew that.”
Albert Mohler

Does Anybody Care What I Do?

14 Thursday Jul 2011

Posted by in Bible, Christianity, Courage, Culture, Encouragement, Endurance, Faithfulness, Healing, Hope, Inspiration, Jesus Christ, Ministry, Obedience, Pastoring, Persecution, Renewal, Scripture

≈ 4 Comments

For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.
Hebrews 6:10

When I had my fortunately unfortunate accident in 1981, the Lord clearly told me my life’s assignment: to encourage the Body of Christ. Isn’t it cool when people repeatedly recognize in you a particular call or gift and you are taken aback–because it just flows out of you. You don’t have to “work it up” because it just happens ‘naturally’ in the course of the day. This is how you know it is Jesus and not you. Continue reading »

Fashionably Late

12 Tuesday Jul 2011

Posted by in Beatitudes, Christianity, Encouragement, Grace, Hope, Shepherd

≈ 2 Comments

What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?…I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
(Luke 15:4,7)

“Who is this coming up from the wilderness
Leaning on her beloved?”
(Song of Songs 8:5)

My heart goes out to underdogs.

People who seem to never be invited to the party.

The last people grudgingly chosen.

Who can’t buy a friend on Facebook.Whose followers are few and far between.

They just want someone to sit with them and listen for awhile. To be someone’s hero. For once.

But knowing there’s only a snowball’s chance for them.

There’s something you need to know.

The party cannot start without you.

You’re out there in the sticker bushes and thickets, alone and woefully sad. Could someone please come looking for me?

I’m here to tell you, He is following you.

He has told a houseful of eager celebrants to hold off partying while He goes to corral a special guest. You. Because, He explains, the party is just a crowded room with ambient noise unless you take part.

You think no one cares. You think you’re just collateral. A charwoman who’s only good to clean up after a ball.

But what you couldn’t even possibly suspect is that there is a place-card at the dinner table with your name written on it in a well-scripted Hand. The same finger that pointed the stars in their place, carved the Ten Words in stone tablets and touched a leper wrote your name so you would know that you belong there. And He wouldn’t dream of leaving you out.

To that end, He has tracked you to where you are. He hears all your bawls and bleats. He reads your tweets. Your trail of tears has not been difficult to follow and He has relentlessly pursued you. Now His crook is gently poised to foster you out of the brambles and brush.

Come here, My lamb.

To Him, you are Cinderella, and His shoulders are your carriage.

There’s a party to get to. And you have a prominent place.

In His way of doing things, in His Kingdom, the last, lost and least are first. The friendless get friended. The underdogs become overachievers. The poor in spirit get the keys of the Kingdom. Those who mourn get a place at the adult table.

C’mon. The party’s just starting and you’re not late. Your fashionably late.

While Grace Is Still Counting

04 Monday Jul 2011

Posted by in Deception, Forgiveness, Grace, Judgment, Prodigal, Repentance, Restoration, THE Sin

≈ 9 Comments

The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy.
Numbers 14:18

Hell is God’s justice, heaven His mercy, and the earth His long-suffering.
Anonymous

The goodness of God leads you to repentance.
Romans 2:4

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evil.
Ecclesiastes 8:11

All the day long I have stretched out My hands unto a people disobeying and opposing.
Romans 10:21, Darby Translation

My stars, this is painful.

It’s like I’m watching a train wreck about to happen.

I can see a horrible collision unfolding but am helpless to stop it. I can warn the train: The bridge is out! I can jump up and down, wave my arms and yell, but the train keeps barreling down the track, unconcerned about the impending danger to itself and others. There will most certainly be a violent end, a cacophony of twisted metal and burning flesh. And there’s nothing I can do to prevent it from happening.

I’m not speaking curses here, I’ve just stood around enough tracks to see how these things turn out. Be not deceived, we are told, God is not mocked; whatever a man sows, the same he will reap. Oh, how I wish this time could be different, yes I do, but this is an immutable law of life and those who refuse to learn from the past are destined to repeat it. Continue reading »

Sweet Tweets

02 Saturday Jul 2011

Posted by in Arminianism, Calvinism, Christianity, Community, Discipleship, Encouragement, Quotes, Revival, Trusting God, Truth, Twitter

≈ 5 Comments

For your exhortation and edification, I offer you some words that will no doubt speak life into your spirit today. We all could use some encouragement these days, so here is a sampling from  my “favorites” file on Twitter:

  • “We cannot grow in grace by withdrawing from others.”
    David Timms, Living the Lord’s Prayer
  • “The greatest test of a servant is how you act when you are treated like one!”
    Sam Ward
  • “Faith never knows where it is being led. But it knows and loves the one who is leading.”
    Oswald Chambers
  • “Spiritual formation in Christ is the process by which one moves and is moved from self-worship to Christ-centered self-denial.”
    Dallas Willard
  • “The more I think it over the more I feel there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”
    Van Gogh
  • “When the time comes to die, make sure all you have to do is die!”
    Jim Elliot
  • “God doesn’t need your good works, your neighbor does.”
    Martin Luther
  • “A gospel-centered disciple is a disciple whose center of gravity is neither community nor mission but a settled identity in Jesus.”
    Jonathan Dodson
  • “A worshiper can work with an eternal quality in his work but a worker who doesn’t worship is only piling up wood.”
    A.W. Tozer”
  • “Purity of heart is to will one thing.”
    Soren Kierkegaard
  • “The mission is not to do my thing, or your thing, but to do our thing.”
    Mark Driscoll
  • “Revival is when God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented that He shows Himself.”
    Leonard Ravenhill
  • “Great spirituality is what you do with your pain.”
    Richard Rohr
  • “Don’t be leaning on a shovel and praying for a ditch. Work like an Arminian, sleep like a Calvinist.”
    John W. Bryson

Which speaks to you?

Could you add a tweet of you own?

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