Do Not Be Afraid

[This was shared with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio, during yesterday's worship services.]

Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)
1 Corinthians 14:8
Luke 12:32
This morning, I’m scrapping the planned sixth installment of our series, I Am a Church Member. Through times of prayer and conversations with many members of our church, I realized late yesterday morning that I would be shirking my duty as the spiritual leader of Living Water if I did not address our church’s most pressing issue directly, lovingly, and resolutely. 

The King James Version translation of Proverbs 29:18, says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish…” Today, I will remind you again today of the vision and mission of Living Water Lutheran Church. 

Some will welcome what I say. 

A few will not be pleased. I can’t help that.

I take as my model the apostle Paul, who wrote the church at Galatia: “If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10) 

However imperfectly, I do seek to be a servant of Christ and I do seek to be a leader who gives a clear vision to the people I am called to lead as pastor. 

I wrote this message without any input from our leadership or staff. So, if you do get angry, get angry with me. 

And if you do want to call anyone crazy, as I know a few people said of our church council this past week...if you feel the need to violate the eighth commandment by failing to put the most charitable construction on the actions and lives of sisters and brothers in Christ, do it to me. 

It’s as true of the pulpit as it is of the Oval Office: the buck stops here, with me. 

As you know, the only time I’ve spoken before the whole congregation regarding the proposed building project was last March. Otherwise, I’ve listened. I ask you to do the same now as I seek to apply God’s Word to our situation.

This past Monday night, thirty-six hours after it was announced that Living Water members, led by the Holy Spirit, had offered to pay the entire $41,000-cost of a capital campaign to raise money for the first phase of our repeatedly-approved building plan, the church council met in emergency session. The council met because on Sunday night, I received an email from Christ the King Lutheran Church. It told me that that congregation was moving toward closing its doors. Would Living Water be willing to receive the property to be used or sold as our congregation chose? I was told that Christ the King needed to know by September 27, this past Thursday. 

The council was unanimous in saying that we would be interested in receiving the property. Since then, I’ve learned that a decision on the disposition of the property still has not been made.

Our church councils have always been transparent. That’s why on Tuesday, the council sent out a special edition of The Wave notifying you that we could possibly receive Christ the King’s property. You deserved to know of this possibility before the vote that was then scheduled for today and next Sunday. 

The feeling of some members of the council was that, if we receive property, we should abandon our present property and move to the Christ the King campus. 

More said that we should sell the Christ the King campus and use the money to help pay for the first phase of our building project or retire a portion of our current mortgage. 

Of course, there’s no decision to make until and unless we actually receive the property. 

Because of that, it was felt that we needed to go ahead with the scheduled vote. As our meeting ended on Monday, I had two prevailing feelings: 

First, awe of God that in a day-and-a-half, the Holy Spirit had affirmed our plans by blessing us with the money to run a capital campaign and blessing us again with the possibility of a property that could help us pursue the mission and vision of Living Water Lutheran Church. God blesses His people in unexpected ways when they step out in faith to do His work! 

Second, I felt grief for the people of Christ the King, forced to acknowledge decline of their congregation. 

I also thanked God that the people of Living Water know that the call to discipleship is not a call to comfort or easy answers, but a call to faithfulness and acceptance of God’s crazy plans. 

• Like the crazy plan God had to make a 100-year-old man and his 90-year-old wife, Abraham and Sarah, the ancestors of Israel in a place God would show them if Abraham believed and followed. 
• Or God’s crazy plan of freeing His enslaved people via the leadership of a tongue-tied murderer, Moses. 
• Or God’s plan to defeat the enemies of God’s people through a shepherd boy named David and his measly little slingshot. 
• Or God’s plan to save us from sin and death not through good works but by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. 

Listen: If God calls you to do something that doesn’t seem a little crazy or that you can easily see the end of, you’re probably not hearing from God.

Within hours of our council’s decision, we heard that some people were confused and some didn’t understand why we would go forward with the vote. Others thought that, given the $41,000 donation, there was no need to vote; we should simply forge ahead with the campaign.

Because of the confusion, the council decided to postpone the vote. I supported that decision. But I was and am deeply saddened that that decision was necessary. I know from my conversations with others, that many other Living Water disciples feel the same way. Many feel betrayed. Others feel like yo-yos, up and down, back and forth, yes and no.

As you can imagine, both because I’m pastor of Living Water and dean of the Southwest Ohio Mission District, Bishop John and I have had ongoing discussions for several months about what might happen with Christ the King. In our most recent conversation, two weeks ago, Bishop John said, “I’ve told you before, Mark, and I don’t mind you telling everyone there that whatever happens at Christ the King, Living Water must move ahead with the building plans for your present site.” 

Is Bishop John crazy? Well, he is a fool for Christ. And like me, he loves this congregation. But he also knows that we cannot afford to keep delaying doing what, through prayer and discernment, we have learned God wants us to do! We can’t keep saying, “Ready! Aim!” “Ready! Aim!” "Ready! Aim!"

Bishop John has repeatedly underscored for me that the priorities we originally identified through our cottage meetings and online voting and which you have affirmed in multiple votes since--activity/community center and kitchen first, classrooms and offices second, sanctuary third--are the priorities adopted by churches that are serious, as Living Water is serious, about being and making disciples, about growing. 

The community center is a key component of our future growth. A bigger sanctuary won’t bring growth because the unchurched aren’t likely to be introduced to Christ and the church through a worship service. That’s too foreign and foreboding to them. They’re likeliest to be introduced through various community events, like Upward basketball or outreach efforts. 

And, given traffic patterns, this location is superior to Christ the King’s location for that. 

I believe that we need to quickly reschedule the vote originally scheduled for today and next Sunday and get moving on God’s plan for us!

Am I apprehensive about doing that? Let me remind you of a few facts. 

• We have ended every year of this congregation’s history with an operating surplus. 
• While our attendance for 2018 is presently lower than it was in 2017, it’s higher than it was in 2016, a common blip in the path of growing congregations. 
• While our current annual budget is at about $400,000, it’s no stretch to extrapolate from the answers of well over half of our congregants in the recent REVEAL survey that this congregation could easily handle an annual general fund budget of $800,000. I’m not proposing any such increase. But I am saying that although we’ve never held an annual stewardship program, our members have still generously given to the need they perceived in our budget. 
• In addition, they have always found extra money to pay for things like sanctuary reconfiguration or building a church in Haiti or money for rice and beans for people in that country.* 

So, am I afraid to have a capital campaign and have it fall short of whatever goal we set for it? No, I’m more afraid of waiting around or settling for being an ordinary, cruise-control church. 

This is not a cruise-control church. This is a church that prays, that serves, that reads and studies God’s Word. 

This is a church that cares about those who are going to go to hell if they aren’t connected with Christ and His Church. 

The building process laid out in the plans displayed in our hallway will, in the first phase, provide us with an irreplaceable tool that we need to reach this community for Christ and at a great location.

I remember the day that George Kellar asked to meet me at 667 Miamisburg-Centerville Road. “Pastor,” he told me after I’d arrived. “I’m asking you to look at this property not for what it is right now, but for what it can be.” 

The relocation team that George headed had looked at, in one way or another, about forty properties. 

This was where they were led, this is where we were led, not as a stopgap station, but as a place where we could put down roots and do an expansion that will make Living Water and the Gospel we proclaim visible to and welcoming of the spiritually disconnected in our community.

In 1 Corinthians 14:8, the apostle Paul asks, “... if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?” Today, as your pastor, I am sounding a clear call: Let’s quickly reschedule the vote and move ahead on the path God has laid before us. The quicker we do a capital campaign, the quicker we’ll know what God wants and, perhaps, the quicker we can start building. No more uncertain trumpets or signals! We need a vote to decide right now it we want to be a missional church that takes reasonable chances to reach the lost or if we just want this congregation to be a place where we gather in comfort. 

But let me remind you that this congregation started because people believed--many of you here believed--in more than having a comfortable church. 

You believed in Christ and the authority of His Word and the power of prayer and the joys of discipleship. 

If you’d wanted a comfortable church, you would have stayed at your former congregation. 

But you wanted to be part of a faithful church. 

Don’t let the temptations of comfort lure you away from that. 

Don’t let the temptations of ease lure you away from being faithful stewards of the gospel and all the other gifts God has given to you!

Jesus famously tells His Church: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32) 

Friends, the worst that can happen if we forge ahead with a capital campaign for this location is that we might fail to raise the needed money. 

But even if we fail, we will still have the Kingdom of God, eternally. 

Forging ahead with the vision revealed to us in prayer will not result in the loss of our salvation. 

We don’t know how a capital campaign will turn out. 

But we do know that if we forge ahead it may result in many new believers trusting in Christ and becoming part of His eternal kingdom. 

And we know that it will certainly result in our trusting Christ more and growing deeper in discipleship. 

By forging ahead, we may even ensure that this congregation will be a vital disciple-making community, welcoming young families and singles, for decades to come. Whatever happens, that possibility alone makes trying to move ahead with our current plans a win.

I took the call to Living Water because God and the congregation were telling me that this is a church that cares about mission, about making disciples. Continued inaction will harm the positive initiatives we’ve undertaken since we moved here, including the growth of youth, children’s, and family ministries, which had to be rebuilt from scratch when we moved to our present location. We don’t know what decisions Christ the King will take. The real question is what decision are we going to make? 

I urge you all to pray. Then, let’s do the vote and move into the future God has in mind for us. Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

*At the 8:45 service, I mentioned that through the generosity of Living Water, a well was built in a community in Haiti served by our congregation. In this instance, it was the generosity of one member rather than of the whole congregation. No matter. It still speaks to the generosity of this incredible church!

Choosing Christ and the cross over the easy lies I tell myself

I met the Lord today during my quiet time in Genesis 12-14. Below is my journal entry from that encounter. To see how I approach quiet time with God, see here.

Look: “When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, ‘I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, “This is his wife.” Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.’” (Genesis 12:11-13) 

Abram (later Abraham) is the patriarch of Biblical faith. Through the grafting of grace, God makes all who believe in His only Son Jesus spiritual descendants of Abraham (Romans 11:11-31). So, it’s instructive, sometimes inspiring, and sometimes uncomfortable to observe him. 

In chapter 12, Abram is instructed by God to leave his home of Ur to a land that God would show him. This land was God’s pledge to Abram’s descendants. In obeying God, picking up stakes and moving his entire household, Abram exhibits faith, the kind of faith in God I would like to have. 

Abram goes to the promised land, traveling around for a time. But when a famine hits the land, he books. He heads for Egypt. 

A history of God’s people going to Egypt in times of crisis would later develop. The Israelites were more or less forced to go to Egypt during a later famine after God had placed Joseph, Abraham’s great-grandson, in a place of authority through which he could save the people. 

In the New Testament, another Joseph, selected by God to raise Jesus in his home, is told by God to go to Egypt in order to save the Christ Child from the murderous intentions of King Herod. 

Though Genesis records God’s command to Abram to go to the land He would show him, we have no indication as to whether God told him to go to Egypt when the famine hit. Abram may have just thought, “There’s no food here. I’ll go to Egypt.” 

It’s plausible to believe that the trip to Egypt was all Abram’s idea when we see the plot he hatches just as he, Sarai (later Sarah), and their people and livestock are about to enter Egypt. He tells Sarai that he’s afraid that if the Egyptians think he’s married to Sarai, they’ll kill him so that one of them can have her for their wife. 

Listen: There are several problems with this plan: 

1. Abram is thinking instead of praying. Had he prayed instead of thought, allowing God to guide his thinking, he wouldn’t have suggested such a conspiracy to his wife. I think of Proverbs 14:12 (again!): “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” 

Certainly, we’re to think. God gave us our brains. But we need to let God lead our thoughts. If we don’t let God lead, we’re led into sin and into death, separation from God. 

2. Abram is yielding to his fears, not following the God who had called him to faith. In this instance (and in another one when Abraham did the same stupid thing), fear beat out faith. Not good! 

God had promised Abram: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2-3) 

God had shown Abram the land that He was going to give to him. Abram knew that God was good for His promises and that in order for Abram to become the ancestor of a great nation, he would need to father a son. Inherent in that promise is another one, that Abram wouldn’t die before he had fathered a son. 

Yet, Abram decided to place greater faith in his own intellect, his own analysis, and his own plans than he placed in God. 

3. Abram is essentially giving his wife permission to commit adultery in order to save his neck. Not even the Pharaoh thinks that this is a good idea! When Pharaoh finally learns that the woman he’s taken into his house for a wife is already Abram’s wife, he’s horrified. “What is this you have done to me?” he asks Abram. “Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” (Genesis 12:18-20) 

Abram isn’t only sinning against God then, he’s encouraging his wife to do so and enticing the Pharaoh to do so. 

To paraphrase C.S. Lewis’ observation in Mere Christianity, there have been cultures that have said that men should have only one wife and others that said they could have multiple wives. But no culture has ever said that it’s OK to take another man’s wife or another woman’s husband. This was true even before God gave the ten commandments to His descendants at Mount Sinai. So, Abram is skating on extremely thin ice. 

Nonetheless, this third “problem” (read sin) with Abram’s plan is just the result of the fundamental sin: Failing to trust in God. 

Like Abram, I sometimes fail to trust in God. I value my own thinking more than I value His. I value my fears more than my faith. 

To trust in anyone or anything--even rational fears, even smart analysis, even feelings of love--more than we trust in God is idolatry. 

Every sin, in fact, from taking God’s name in vain to murder, from gossip to theft, is idolatry. 

Abram’s problem in the wilderness is that he was conflicted about who to worship: God or himself. 

That’s what lay behind his other conflicts: God or his fears, God’s promises or the temptations and dangers of the current circumstances. 

It’s amazing to me how often this conflict between following God, on the one hand, and following my thoughts, my fears, my plans, my reasoning, or my feelings, come into play in my life. 

This conflict is caused by my resistance to the anvil of sanctification on which God wants to forge me and my character for faithful living with Him now and in eternity.
God is interested more in my eternal comfort and my having a God-seeking character than he is in me avoiding problems in this world. (And to God, even death is only a problem, one solved by the resurrection of Jesus in which those who repent and believe in Jesus have a share.) 

It can be painful to opt for the eternal security of life with God over the immediate security of doing what we think is right, which is why I try so hard to avoid what God wants to tell me, why Abram concocted his lying conspiracy, and why the hardest petition of the Lord’s Prayer for me is, “Thy will be done.” 

It is painful. Every day, Lord, I have to ask You repeatedly to make war on my penchant for comforting myself, for doing what I want to do, for ignoring Your gracious call to turn from temptation and sin and to turn to Christ with honesty and transparency.
It’s painful to heed Your words, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) 

The New Testament books of 1 Peter and Colossians, among others, promise that those who submit to this process will be transformed, becoming more like Christ, fit for eternity with God, fit as an instrument of God’s grace and love in this world.
But what Your Word tells me God is: It is through this painful process that You can set me free from fear and allows me to become my better self. It’s a process that will be incomplete before my time on earth is ended, I know, Lord. But I need the courage to stick with this process, to learn to yield to You, to ask You to guide my thinking and my living. 

Abram was confused. He didn’t know what he wanted more, security or You. My desires get similarly muddled, Lord. I need to be unmuddled every single day. 

Respond: God, in Jesus’ name, set me free from myself. Set me free from sin. Set me free to live for You with joyful abandonment. You know me: You know how relentlessly willful I can be. You know too how fearful I can become of offending someone. When sin or fear or idolatry tempt me this day, help me to resist. When tempted to act on a comforting lie rather than Your life-giving truth, help me to choose the truth. Help me to follow Jesus and live, no matter how others may judge or dismiss me as a fool or even hate me. No matter how hard following You may sometimes be. Let me opt for the pain of following You over the death that comes from following myself. Let me act on my faith today. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Sarah's Got a Brand New Car

Actually, it's a used car. (Or, as they like to say, a "pre-owned" car.) But you couldn't sing any of that like James Brown: "Papa's got a brand new bag." This is a post title you can sing.

And for Sarah, it is a new car.

Thank You, Sarah!

"Did you get my card yet today?" our twenty-three year old daughter, Sarah, excitedly asked me during a telephone conversation last week. "No, honey," I said.

Sarah, who lives in Florida, found a Father's Day card she wanted to send to me a few weeks ago. Last week, unable to hold onto it any longer, she'd dropped it in the mail. She sent it on Thursday and probably because of Memorial Day, I didn't get it until today.

"It's the perfect card for you," Sarah had told me.

But when I read it, I wondered. How is it that an adult child can look past a father's many imperfections and send such a precious message? God sends grace to us in many ways, even in a simple card from a young person filled with His love.

I was touched, Sarah. Thank you very much. I love you.

Dad

By the way, Hallmark folks, if this violates copyright laws, I apologize. But as you can see, Sarah cared enough to send the very best.

[You can click on the images above to enlarge them.]

The Love We Need to Make Our Marriages Work

First Corinthians 13:4-13
(shared at the wedding of our daughter and new son-in-law, June 18, 2005)

We just heard Don read a definition of love that comes from the first century preacher and evangelist, Paul. “Love is patient; love is kind,” he says. “Love is not envious or boastful...It does not insist on its own way...It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

We’ve all collectively heard that passage read at hundreds of weddings in our lifetimes. And though Paul originally wrote it to remind a first-century congregation in conflict of their need to love fellow believers, his description of love really does apply to all of our relationships, including marriages.

In fact, I believe that without the sort of love Paul talks about, all our marriages, friendships, and other relationships are doomed to fall apart. For any marriage to work, the ties between us must be strengthened by mutual selflessness and supportiveness.

But, Brien and Sarah, let me ask you a question which, in the fogs in which you may find yourselves right now, you probably won't be able to hear. I hope though, that it’s a question which, in one way or another, you’ll ask yourselves every day your whole lives: "How does our love for each other measure up to Paul’s picture of love in that passage we had read at our wedding?"

If your experience is anything like mine has been the past nearly-thirty-one years of being married to Ann, I think your answer each day will be: I don’t quite measure up.

I say that because sometimes I am arrogant or rude toward my wife. Sometimes, I'm envious or boastful. Sometimes, whiny or contentious.

You may say, “Even if that does happen to us, Cinderella and Prince Charming, we’ll just work harder at loving each other.” That’s good, of course. Everybody should work at their marriages because, as another Paul (McCartney) writes in a song called, We Got Married: "It's not just a loving machine; it doesn't work out if you don't work at it."

But if you’ve ever found yourself on January 2, forgetting the New Year’s resolutions you made on December 31, you know that saying that you’ll work at keeping your love alive won’t work.

You see, neither of you and not one of us in the world, can manufacture the kind of tough, resilient, devoted, tenacious, never-give-up love that we need in order for our marriages to be what we want them to be. (Or, what God wants them to be.) If we try to love each other on our own power, we’ll find ourselves giving up.

Power to love like that must come from an outside source and I know of only one. It comes from the One Who loves us so desperately and completely that He divested Himself of all the comforts of heaven and all the advantages of being God to become a baby, was reared in the family of a poor carpenter in a backwater village, then subjected to temptation and humiliation and execution on a cross, and finally raised up from death, all so that He can give everyone who follows Him fresh starts, new lives, and endless love. Jesus is the One we need to make our loves and our lives work. Without Him at the center of our days, we’re just wasting our time. With Him, as He tells us, “all things are possible.”

I spoke with a colleague of ours the other day, Pastor Roger Lawrence. I told him that today, you two would be married. He said, “That’s wonderful, Mark. On Father’s Day weekend, you get a new son.” Ann and I are glad about that. And I can tell you, Don and Charline, that you are getting a fabulous new daughter in Sarah.

But I want to tell you two, Sarah and Brien, not to be too confident in yourselves or your love. And don’t think you have to face the future alone. God has designed all of us to need one another and there are lots of family and friends willing to help you.

But more importantly, the God Who is with us here this evening, is willing to be there for you every moment of every day.

Make Him central to your life together. Worship and pray and read God’s Word and receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion together regularly. Serve others in Jesus’ Name. In short, submit your whole life, all your decisions, your marriage, your total selves to Christ.

Then, your love will be more than just resilient and strong. It will, each day, become infinitely better than it is right now. You’ll be empowered to live life as it’s meant to be lived: as an adventure in which, with God’s help, we challenge ourselves to be more, live more, love more, and accomplish more than we ever could on our own steam.

So, here’s my message in a nutshell: Put Jesus Christ first in your life. You will never regret it.

Here are links to some recent wedding and marriage posts:

Our Daughter's Getting Married; People Wonder How I Feel About That?

Mistakes Help Make Weddings Memorable

Importing the Love You Need

Marriage: Laying Aside and Putting On

Sometimes Tears Come

UPDATE: Many folks were concerned that I wouldn't be able to emotionally handle the wedding ceremony of our daughter and new son-in-law. But I can report that I didn't shed a single tear. I'm certain the reasons for that were several. First of all, unlike the wedding I mention in Sometimes Tears Come, when emotion had arrived unexpectedly, I had steeled myself for that eventuality. Secondly and more importantly, I prayed like crazy, asking God to ensure that I would keep my focus steadily on him and on the bride and groom. I asked Him to block all self-indulgence. God heard and answered those prayers.

By the way, my wife and I watched today's showing on TCM of the Spencer Tracy classic, Father of the Bride. While watching it, emotions sneaked up on me and guess what? My eyes misted.

Our Daughter's Getting Married: People Wonder, "How Do You Feel?"

A week from today, our daughter will be marrying.

People ask me how I feel about that. "How are you doing?" they ask, as if they suspect I'm dreading the day or that, like Tevye, I'm going to break into Sunrise, Sunset at the wedding.

But, at present anyway, no such bittersweet emotions well up within me. My wife and I (and our son) like our soon-in-law, he and our daughter are happy together, and, after all these months of preparation, my wife and I are both ready to say, as the Mercury astronauts used to before liftoff, "Light this candle!"

I'll be co-presiding over the wedding with a friend. She, her husband, and I graduated from seminary together. Our families have spent a lot of time together through the years. The wedding will be in the facilities of the congregation where my friend is a pastor, as will the reception.

The kids wanted a no-frills wedding. That includes a small guest list. "We want our friends to be there, Mom and Dad, not yours," our daughter told us.

That was fine with us. After presiding over tons of weddings in the past twenty-one years, I can tell you that one of the worst things that parents do is turn their children's weddings into their weddings. Mothers of the bride seem particularly prone to this. Maybe it's because their own mothers did the same thing to them and they feel the need to compensate for what they missed out on. I have seen many a M-o-t-B dictate the particulars of their daughter's weddings to the point that several brides have sought me out for counseling and encouragement. "If I kill my parents now," they ask, "would it be justifiable homicide?" (Actually, none of them have asked that. But they've probably wanted to.)

My wife and I have taken a completely different approach to wedding preparations. This is not our wedding, after all. The bride and groom, to their credit, are more focused on the marriage than the wedding. Simple has been the watchword and that has made it easier on all of us. As my wife has said many times in the process of going over the guest list and working out details, "Can you imagine how hard this would be if this were a big, formal wedding?" I shudder at the thought.

Our daughter asked for only one of the standard-issue, money-eating wedding expenses: A dress the cost of which would make a downpayment on a nice empty nest villa for my wife and me. I gasped when I heard the price. But after I'd recovered, I told my wife, "She's asking for nothing else. We can go all-out on this one." It turns out though, that I had no idea what "all-out" for a wedding dress is and that our daughter had actually picked a dress that's on the lower end of exorbitant.

But, as to the event itself: How will I feel? Yesterday, before a meeting of the Boys and Girls Club board of directors on which I serve, one of the other members told us that his son had been married last weekend. "I didn't tear up or get sad at all," he said. "I was just happy. They love each other and are happy together. So, why should I be sad?"

My wife has been saying, "If I do get sad, it won't be because I dislike what's happening. She's marrying a wonderful guy who loves her very much. Any tears will be from considering the passage of time." I think that's right.

Frankly, when all is said and done, I suspect that my prevailing feeling next Saturday night will be relief that the many months of anticipation are done and the new marriage can begin. I think the couple will feel that way, too.

But there's one other emotion I'll be feeling: Confidence. From the moment my wife informed me that she was expecting our daughter and three years before that, our son, I've presented a prayer to God almost daily. It's gone something like this, "Lord, grant that one day, our children will have and be faithful spouses. Grant that they will have strong marriages, filled with joy and happiness and You. Grant that they will never go through the agony of divorce and that their children and every generation that proceeds from them will know You, follow You, and have Your joy and presence in their lives."

I don't know how God intends to answer that prayer as the generations unfold. But for now, from my perspective, God seems to be doing okay with that request. And that, folks, makes me very happy.