Out of the Whirlwind
Blog by John Burton
The Wedding Is Finally Here!
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By John Burton on 04/29/2013 |
If all goes well my daughter Joy and her fiancée, Justin, will be married by this Sunday evening.
I have a lot of mixed feelings about that:
- My daughter is ready to grow up and move on with her life – I’m proud of that.
- Daddy’s little girl is grown up – I’m wrestling with that one.
- Phyllis and I will be “on our own” – I’m excited about that.
- I want the service to be nice – I’m a bit stressed about that.
- I will get to visit with lots of friends and relatives – I’m looking forward to that.
- After months of planning it is here – I’m hoping what I’m seeing is the light at the end of the tunnel and not an oncoming train!
My prayer is that God will bless Joy and Justin and that they will always have a close relationship with God.
Marriage is not as popular as it once was – mostly because of the large number of painful divorces that people experience. One cannot dismiss the pain associated with those divorces but to give up on finding a loving mate because of the potential of a painful divorce is a bit like giving up the hope of a bright new day because of an overnight thunderstorm. If I may use a baseball analogy, too many people settle for trying to hit a single for fear of striking out. Not many people ever hit a homerun when trying just to get to first base.
A lot of people in our church have hit homeruns – finding and making a long, lasting, loving marriage. We salute them and look up to them as examples and role models for great marriages. At the same time we should remember that some of them had a strikeout before they hit their homerun. Isn’t it great that they had the courage to come back out of the dugout and take another swing at love – and eventually hit a homerun!
While I am away the youth will play! Actually, they will be hard at work leading our morning worship service on May 5th. I know that they and Olivia and all the parents who have been helping are planning for a great Sunday in worship. I think that in terms of the service, they too can hit a homerun. I hope that you will be there to cheer if they do so. Whatever is the equivalent of bringing your glove to a Rangers’ game in hopes of catching a home run ball – well bring it to worship in hopes of catching something beautiful and wonderful. Whatever you do – don’t stay home because this game is not going to be televised!
See you when I get back!
