Monday

I'm a little tired today, but not near as bad as I thought I might be. I tried to watch what I ate, I forced myself to keep my running schedule for the week, but it might have more to do with the number of people who were praying for the situation. And when I say that, believe me, I know that my part in the whole wedding/funeral things was nothing compared to others, but I'm not too proud to admit that I wasn't in need too. So, "thanks," to all of you who have been praying.

THE WEDDING
It was a beautiful wedding if I do say so myself. For early February it was a nice day - about 40 degrees when we arrived. It was actually nice to be at someone else's church, because I didn't have to set up or tear down or worry about the music or anything like that. And their sound guy was fantastic. Little things like that can make all the difference in the world (to me). Plus the wedding party were all pretty mature and experienced at "wedding stuff." It's also a HUGE help having my lovely wife there to do most of the organizing and getting people lined up and on schedule, etc. This was probably the biggest wedding I've done as far as the number of people in attendance, but I really don't think I even broke a sweat. I surprised myself.

THE FUNERAL
The funeral went well also. They had two days of visitation at the funeral home (2-7 each day), and I had heard there was something like 2500 visitors the first day. The second day was almost as bad/good. So they ended up moving the funeral service to the high school gymnasium. That was definitely a good idea. I don't know how many were there - maybe 500-800, but it was without a doubt the largest funeral I had been involved in. I was actually surprisingly calm for this too (at least in my mind). Again, it helped that there were soooo many other people who were involved and I only played a very small part.

The actual service at the school lasted about an hour. The hardest part of any funeral is that last time the family gets to see the deceased. In this case, the family stayed and watched them close the casket. It's been my experience that they don't usually do it when the family is present. No one was going to argue though. I simply do not even want to think about what I would do in that situation.

There was a huge, long line of cars going to the cemetery - which surprised me too because it was single-digit temperatures. Man was it cold. So it was very brief there. And people didn't linger long afterwards.

The only real problem during the day was at the end of the committal service I invited everyone back to the funeral dinner. I had thought that was the plan, but I was quickly told that there wasn't enough room for everyone. Oops. I felt terrible, but at that point there was nothing that could be done. In spite of a few rankled old ladies it seemed to work out fine anyway. Jane and I didn't eat anything though - just in case they were short on food.

SUNDAY MORNING
I decided early last week that I couldn't go with the message I had planned to preach for this Sunday. I tried a few alternatives, but ended up just showing a movie instead. We had actually watched it several years ago, but I figured there are enough new people that many wouldn't have seen it, and even those who had should see it again. It's a 30-minute video called The Journey Home To Love. I really like this piece. If you go to their site (The Father's Love Letter) you can watch a clip of it, read the letter, or listen to it. I highly recommend at least reading The Father's Love Letter - which is a compilation of Bible verses from both the Old & New Testaments that are presented in the form of a love letter from God to the world. It's what the video is based on. I made copies for people to take home (we have had one on our fridge for several years), but I think the movie is just really powerful. I had hoped to have time at the end to give people an opportunity to respond, but I went over and I needed to hurry to get to the funeral. I guess that's how it goes.

Well, I'm not sure what's in store this week, but I hope it's not anything like last week. Again, I can't say enough how much I appreciated all the comments, emails, and prayers.

Peace out; peace in.