Wedding in Montana

My sister and I made the 9 hour drive from Portland to Missoula yesterday.  We had a good time and some good laughs.  We stopped at a gas station/restaurant/truck repair shop (that should tell you everything you need to know about it) in Umatilla, Oregon.  They had doughnuts on steroids for sale.  Literally, the maple bar was almost a foot long.  We saw a billboard that said, "When life sucks...there's hope."  It then gave an 800 number to call.  I thought: If I lived in Umatilla, I'd want an 800 number to call when life sucked.  Too funny.

The purpose of this trip was to officiate my cousin's wedding on their family ranch in Stevensville, MT.  Joe (my cousin) and Carrie did great and the ceremony went well.  The sound guys turned my microphone off with the music at the beginning of the ceremony causing an annoying pause and one of them to come to the mic to get it going.  I told the sound guys before the service that they would either be my best friends or my worst enemies.  It turned out to be the latter.  I also dropped Carrie's ring when the best man handed them to me.  There's always something that goes wrong in a wedding.  Those are the things that you remember.  Here are some pictures from the ceremony and reception.  Notice the natural backdrop that no church building could ever come close to matching.

The arch is where we stood during the ceremony.  When I look at this picture, I think...postcard.

My sister Casey (on the right) and my cousin Molly.

A great picture my sister took after Carrie and her dad passed her as they walked down the aisle.

It was a great privilege for me to officiate the wedding.

Weddings are a great celebration.  As I prepared for the ceremony, I was reminded of how marriage pictures Christ's relationship with the church (Ephesians 5).  I believe that if both parties in Christian marriages just kept that fact in mind, there would be a lot less problems in those relationships.

I was also reminded that marriage was the first institution God gave to man (Genesis 2).  Marriage came before the home (the union of a man and a woman is the foundation of the home), government, nations and even the local church.  Obviously, God holds marriage in high regard.  Too bad our culture doesn't really do the same.  Satan knows that when he destroys marriage, he destroys the societal example of Christ's relationship with the church.  It's another victory for him.  He loves anything that keeps people from seeing Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Pray for Joe and Carrie as they start their new life together.

A Joke about Two Jewish Guys

Already you're thinking: this is going to get Chris in trouble. I'm sorry if you find this offensive or blasphemous. I don't think a reasonable person will. Here goes:

Two Jewish men have been friends since childhood. Several times a week, they would go on a walk together at the end of the day. One would always ask, "How was your day?" The other replied, "Fine. How was yours?" The first said, "Fine."

One day, the first Jew asked, "How was your day?" The second replied, "Not so good." The first one asked, "Why?" The other said, "It's my son. I've raised him to be a good Jew, taken him to synagogue every week, taught him the law of God and all of the sudden he wants to become a Christian!"

The first Jew looked at the other and said, "Funny you should say that, my son too! I raised him to be a good Jew, took him to synagogue every week, taught him God's law and now he wants to become a Christian! What should we do?" The other Jew answered, "I don't know, let's go ask the Rabbi."

So, off they went to the synagogue and they told the Rabbi the situation. "Rabbi, Rabbi, it's our boys! We've raised our sons to be good Jews, you've seen us bring them to synagogue every week, we've taught them the law of God and all of the sudden they want to become Christians!"

The Rabbi answered, "That's funny you should say that, my son too! I'm the Rabbi, I've brought him to synagogue with me every week, I've taught him everything I know about God's law, I've raised him to be a good Jew and now he wants to become a Christian!"

The two men asked the Rabbi, "What do we do?" The Rabbi replied, "Let's pray about it."

As they prayed, the whole synagogue started to shake and a loud voice spoke from Heaven, "Funny you should say that, my Son too!"

A Message for the Lakers

Get a rebound.  You're doing a good job forcing the Celtics to take long jumpers.  Long jumpers equal long rebounds.  The Celts are killing you on offensive boards and second chance opportunities.  If a long jumper is taken, don't run under the basket and expect the ball to fall in your lap.  Back up and block somebody out.

Rotate on pick and rolls.  I'm going to lose my testimony if I see another Celtic guard beat an LA big man to the basket by about 10 minutes.

Unless some things change real quick, this is going to be a short series.

More Global Warming Please

If I haven't already ticked off a liberal with something I've said on my blog, I just did with this post title.  Seriously though, where is summer?  I'm hearing of seasonable temperatures all over the country, but we're still in the dead of winter in the Portland area.  I'm glad to see "Global Warming" is alive and well.  Wait...I'm sorry...it's called "Climate Change" now.  I would like the climate to change.  We had one week of 90 degree weather a month ago and it's been in the 50's and raining ever since.  I seriously thought it was going to snow the other day.

I am going to ask the question regardless of the cliche factor: How is the weather where you are?