PADRE OF THE BRIDE & THE WEEKEND THAT WAS

I have almost no idea of what went on at Journey this weekend. Todd preached for me & you can get his reflections here (I heard it was great!) I was caught up in this momentous time for our fam – my oldest got married!
I have been contemplating what to say & have decided that it is to much to put in a blog format so I’m going to share some random thoughts, observations & maybe a little piece of advice.
* SURREAL – This was a very surreal moment. Up to now, one of the most surreal moments of my life was the moment I dropped Charissa off at college. At the end of the day, her stuff moved into the dorm, her stereo & computer set up, Linda & I got into the car & drove off as she waved. I don’t think either of us spoke for 30 minutes. This was like that… only harder to take in, more permanent. Way more complicated emotionally!

* THE QUESTION EVERYONE SEEMS TO WANT TO ASK – honestly, “No, I did not cry… much”. I choked up a few times, but didn’t really cry. I’m not saying that’s good. Maybe the moment was too much for me. I don’t know.
* LIFE TIME PRAYER ANSWERED – I’ve prayed for each of my kids that if they married, they would marry a real Christ follower. Andrew is that. They met at Real Life at church. That’s what I always envisioned & prayed for. I think they are good for each other’s walk with Christ.

* FRIENDS ROCK! STARTING WITH SUZIE BLANK! This wedding wouldn’t have happened anything like it did or it would have cost multiples of what it did, if we didn’t have an army of friends who helped out & pulled this off. Suzie Blank (who put our last Israel trip together, as well as the last trip I “led” to El Salvador) worked with Linda for months to make this happen. We will never be able to say “thank you” enough.

Observations:
√ I had to go buy cloths for this wedding. Yes, smart __ errr … elics, I do own a suit, but it wasn’t a suit wedding. So my friend Clarke Stevens who was out from Omaha helped me figure out what the various women involved were talking about in terms of the “look” of the wedding. Off to Banana Republic we went. I almost never buy cloths (unless you count wetsuits & flip flops).
√ You never feel like you have talked enough to the people who come to a wedding. We had peeps from out of town, family from all over. I didn’t get to really talk to anyone, The possible exception being the people that went surfing with us on Saturday (Clarke, Jon & Rachel Cline).
√ One of the most sentimental moments was watching the looks on the faces of Charissa’s brother & sister. You could tell they really love each other. That doesn’t always happen in families. I’ve overheard my kids having many spiritual conversations especially in the last few years.

√ I’m glad I didn’t do the ceremony. Jason did a stellar job. I think he should modify it slightly & turn it into one of his next talks.

Here’s some cheap advice to all future father’s of brides out there: get ready. This is one of the moments in your life you really don’t believe will ever happen & then BOOM, outa here, there it is. Donnie Rea asked me, how do you do THAT? How do you get ready? So I started to think about this & I offer these words with all humility, not as some kind of all star dad, because we all know that I’m NOT!
o    Make sure I have minimal regrets time wise
o    Let go – realize she’s is God’s adult person
o    Save more cash – money flies around like… I dunno, stuff that flies around at these things.
o    Have the adult goal in your mind all along – remember from day 1: the goal is an adult who freely chooses to follow Jesus & live for his glory, not a kid who does all the stuff that you want, or gives you a chance to correct your own school days mistakes.

It’s still sinking in, but I thought I needed to give you a little bit of a look under the hood, before I start blogging about the Redeem Team or some other more personal subject.

Thanks for all the prayers,

Ed