Dan & Tina are Married!

I love officiating weddings. Our friends Dan & Tina were married last night at the Wild Basin Lodge. The aspens had just started turning yellow. The outdoor ceremony was cool, but pleasant. It was a simple ceremony, with only a harpist accompanying the service. Dan & Tina's family and friends traveled from far and wide to be with them on their special day. We prayed for them. They honored their parents. I exhorted them to live out the biblical vision for marriage that Meg and I studied with Dan & Tina during our premarital counseling sessions earlier this year. They entered their marriage covenant with one another with a beautiful set of vows and rings. We prayed for them some more. I pronounced them husband and wife. They kissed. The crowd erupted in applause. It was a beautiful wedding. And FYI, the Wild Basin Lodge has the best wedding banquet fare I have ever tasted. The grilled salmon and buffalo roast last night was fabulous! The toasts were honorable, the cake was excellent and the dinner conversation was friendly. And yes, I danced with Meg and Anna (Sophie fell asleep on her chair).

May God's covenant of grace with Dan & Tina be the source of their covenant-keeping with one another in this marriage.

Cool River Church

Earlier today I enjoyed a prayer walk with my friend Kevin Colon, who is the church planter and pastor of Cool River Church. I love Kevin's heart for God and for people. I'm looking forward to more prayer walks through the Town of Superior with Kevin in the months to come. Thanks, Kevin!

Pray for Our Garbage Collector

Our garbage collector drives a side-loading collection vehicle that's a bit like this one. It's a really cool truck with these big mechanical arms that pick up the trash can and shake the trash into the truck. I love watching the trash truck.

Our garbage collector's name is Ismael. He has been a Christian for nearly 7 years and he prays for the people in the neighborhood as he drives his route. And he is grieving today, so please pray for him.

We moved into our home 4 years ago and that's when I met Ismael for the first time. He was willing to take a few extra boxes of stuff left by the previous owners and I was so thankful. We usually chat a little bit when we see one another, but lately that's only been once in a while.

Ismael usually runs his route through our neighborhood on Mondays. Monday is now my usual day off, so as I was running up to the school to pick up Anna & Sophie this afternoon, I saw Ismael coming down my street.

Honestly, I didn't expect him to stop and get out of the truck when I waved at him. And I didn't expect to see his eyes red from bloodshot like they were. I instantly knew something was terribly wrong and asked him what was up. And this is what he told me: "My wife died 3 months ago this coming Thursday."

His eyes were bloodshot because he had been crying and because he hasn't been sleeping well lately. Ismael's wife died from complications related to a long battle with fibromyalgia. She had endured extreme pain in recent years. Like me and Megan, Ismael and his wife have two little girls in elementary school.

I was able to talk and pray with Ismael for a while this afternoon as he took a break in the park just below the school near our house. He is a man who knows God through Jesus Christ, and he is holding on to God's promises in the Bible, but his heart is broken. He doesn't know how to answer his 8 year old daughter's questions like, "Daddy, why did God take away my Mommy and your wife?" He knows that God is good and sovereign and that as Christians we do not grieve without hope. But he looks tired and sad and he's doing his best to hold on.

Will you please pray for our garbage collector, my brother in Christ, Ismael? He's grieving today and he needs people like us to pray for him. Pray something like Romans 15:13, that the God of hope might fill him and his daughters with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, they may abound in hope.

If you do pray for Ismael, will you please post a short comment? I'm planning on seeing him again next Monday and stopping him to see how he's doing. I'd love to tell him that lots of my friends were praying for him too. Thanks.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Well, I'm sad. How could someone read this book and not feel sad at the end?

The themes of love and loss are compassionately handled by J.K. Rowling in the Harry Potter series. In this 6th book, there continues to be a strong theme of right verses wrong.

Like Megan, my favorite scene was when Fleur Delacour rebukes her future mother-in-law, Molly Weasley. Fleur had just staggered at the sight of her fiance Bill's facial wounds after his having been attacked by a werewolf.

"You thought I would not weesh to marry him? Or per'aps, you hoped?" said Fleur, her nostrils flaring. "What do I care how he looks? I am good-looking enough for both of us, I theenk! All these scars show is that my husband is brave! And I shall do zat!" she added fiercely, pushing Mrs. Weasley aside and snatching the ointment from her.

And who among us remains unaffected by the blossoming of romantic love between Tonks and Remus Lupin? Or Ron and Hermione? Or Harry and Ginny for that matter? (I'm hoping that Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood get together too). NOTE TO THOSE WHO HAVE READ BOOK #7: Please don't spoil the good stuff for me.

So, my dear readers, in the wake of Dumbledore's death and funeral, how shall we characterize Rowling's view of the afterlife? Yes, there are shadows of Christianity in the book, like Christmas and the little man in the black suit speaking at Dumbledore's funeral, but is this series built on a Christian worldview in any way? And as we learn about the divided soul of Tom Riddle (I'll say the name, VOLDEMORT!), how does Rowling see humanity? What does Rowling have in mind when she talks of "a well-ordered soul"? With all the right and wrong in the Harry Potter series, is there a clear understanding of the sinfulness of sin in these books? What about forgiveness? Could we ever trust Snape again? Will Harry ever be able to forgive Dumbledore for trusting Snape, after all that it appears to have cost him?

Let me know what you think by posting a comment.

PS: I even found myself having a smidgen of compassion for Draco Malfoy at one point. That was a shocker. How about you?

www.ourchristchurch.org

We now have a website. Rejoice with us!

And FYI this was my 101st post this year!

Sometimes reaching the little landmarks does a lot to keep you going.

Montezuma Bowl

I am really looking forward to skiing Arapahoe Basin's new Montezuma Bowl in December.

Logos v.2.1

Hi friends,

What do you think of this one?