BRIDE!!!!!!!!!!

This story took FOREVER for me to write, and for that I sincerely apologize.

Well let’s see. Cori’s birthday was in late September — right around the time I planned to propose — meaning I had a golden opportunity to do something special without drawing too much attention to myself. One particular Friday afternoon I had her come home from work early and get dressed up for a surprise.

We went downtown to a restaurant in the bottom of the Four Seasons Hotel known as The Trio where our reservation table sat at the top of a green, well manicured, gently sloping grassy knoll overlooking the beautiful Town Lake.

After dinner, right before sunset, we walked down to the lake and boarded a private electric party boat. While riding into the sunset with a CD Cori made for me playing in the background, I asked for her hand in marriage. She said yes and we kissed for the first time.

When we got back to our original dock and hopped back on dry land, Cori’s family and some of our close friends were there waiting to surprise us with roses and hugs and smiles and laughter. We went back into the restaurant where a party table was reserved. With sparkling champagne to make our toasts and chocolate covered strawberries to feed our tummies, we simply enjoyed each other for the rest of the evening.

Perhaps a poem I wrote to Cori looking back on the engagement might put into words what I was feeling that day:

One Lavish Promise
Five weeks ago is not too long
To look into and laud upon
The God who gave and even planned
Our engagement. A stable hand
It was whose might did clasp around
Our hearts and hold us tight when sound
And song had set the sun to sleep
For our enjoyment. Love ran deep
Into Town Lake when time did all
But long forsake those tangled, tall
And teeming banks of floral bliss
And adornment. With one first kiss
My heart did scream inside the cage
That kept its beam from writing pages
Like a dream eternal in their
Long employment. Things they fell right
Into place when love made life come
Out and face the living Lord from
Outer space who’s warm embrace you
Gave me more of. So I’ll not stop
From loving you, my confidant—
My sister too—for like a dove
who sings to coo I’ll lavish mine
right onto you.

“Sometimes…people have…good suggestions and counsel that would be helpful, but pride so overwhelms their wisdom that it’s impossible to even hear [the counsel] they’re providing.” — Mark Driscoll.

Losang Rabgey says*, “My cousin in Tibet is an illiterate subsistence farmer. By accident of birth, I was raised in the West and have a Ph.D. The task of our generation is to cut through the illusion that we inhabit separate worlds. Only then will we find the heart to rise the daunting but urgent challenges of global disparity.”

I say, “If you experience the universe as one giant cosmic accident, the cumulative affect of all your social endeavors can, and undoubtedly must, be summed up as little more than nature’s untimely attempt to balance out its mistakes. The task of our generation is to cut through the illusion that we inhabit a random universe. Only then will we find the heart to rise the daunting but urgent challenges of global disparity.”

*Taken from: “The Way I See It” #289

The Evangelical Crackup: David D. Kirkpatrick, of the New York Times, has written what is sure to be the must read political-religious article of the 2008 presidential race. Warning: Not for the faint of heart (6500+ words).

Reformation Day Symposium: Tim Challies is playing host to a wide mishmash of blogs giving tribute to Martin Luther and the Reformation.

Best Line Ever: Think asking a father’s permission to marry a girl is nerve-racking? Try being this guy. By the way, I won’t be posting the update on my story tonight, I’m just too tired. Look to hear from me soon, though. (HT: Challies)

Sorry, guys, for not posting this until now. For those of you who don’t know, five weeks ago I asked Cori Elizabeth Williams to marry me (pics here). She is incredible. I am blessed. The following is my personal reflection on the story. I’m breaking it into two parts.

Getting married, I am learning, is a lot of work. It is incredible and fun, but it also requires careful planning and precise execution. Thus far, I’ve had to, in the following order, (1) get a job, (2) get permission, (3) get a ring, (4) make plans for a special evening, and (5) do it all in time to comfortably plan a wedding by spring break. Everything worked out, praise the Lord! I am now an engaged man – I have a job, her parent’s blessing, a surfeit of great memories, a date set (March 8th) and, more than anything, a wonderful woman to spend the rest of my life with. God is good. So how did it all come about? I’ll give it to you straight. At first, all I could do was

Get a job. Really, who in their right mind could ask permission (see below) without a job? I moved to Austin in late July, searching near and far first for anything that would sustain me, and then for something that would help me provide for a family. Five grueling weeks later, on September 4th, I began working for JPMorgan Chase as a private banker. Phase one, complete! A few weeks after being hired, on one particularly soggy afternoon, I drove to Cori’s parent’s domicile in Houston. I was alone. I was there to

Get permission. To say I was a “little” nervous would be like saying the Pope is a “little” Catholic. I was VERY nervous. In fact, looking back, I think the few minutes just prior to the talk were more nerve-racking than actually asking Cori to marry me! To you single guys out there, here’s some advice. Forget the speech. I don’t care how much you think about, rehearse, write and memorize—it won’t go down that way. I promise. When Cori’s father and I sat down to talk, every brain cell in my head rushed in mass exodus out the window. I said, and I quote, “Charlie, I, um, uh, well, what I mean is, um, I’m uh, I’ve come, uh [He smiled a reassuring smile]… Okay. Here goes. [Deeeeeeeeeeep breath] I want to marry your daughter.” How lame. That’s not even a question! Praise God for grace, there was much of it. We—Charlie, Diane and I—spoke for about an hour. It was a wonderful conversation. They are loving, gentle, caring, protective parents. I am so blessed. When everything was all said and done, Charlie stood, smiling, and said, “Well, I guess we’ll go ahead and make this official. My answer—our answer [pointing to Diane]—is yes. Welcome to the family.” We shook hands and hugged. It was powerful. Have you ever been in a situation where you feel privileged to just witness something, much less take part in it? That’s how I felt. Privileged. Blessed. Honored. And now, with two big steps out of the way, I could

Wait to tell you the rest until tomorrow.

A man of integrity does not seek profit through another’s loss.

Ex: While in HEB, if your eyes catch a bag of meat in which the price tag has been ripped off and you think, “I bet I could get that for free”, you should not try to buy it. In this situation, you’re not merely looking for a “good deal”, you’re hoping to legally rip off HEB.

And lest you miss the point, the problem is not in profiting from another’s loss, it is in seeking profit through another’s loss. A man of integrity, whose heart beats strong after God, should never commit such sins (though I did yesterday).

Sam Moore says*, “Let’s do a better job of exposing the children to our rich musical history, so they know more than hip-hop samples of artists like Curtis Mayfield, Jackie Wilson and Billy Preston. Help them appreciate Duke Ellington and his peers, like Count Basie, for being more than lyrics in a ‘back in the day’ Stevie Wonder song.”

I say, “Let’s do a better job of exposing the church to our rich liturgical history, so they know more than holy-hymn samples of songs like ‘Amazing Grace’ and ‘Come Thou Fount’. Help them appreciate Martin Luther and his peers, like Fannie J. Crosby, for being more than lyrics in a ‘back in the day’ Chris Tomlin song.”

*Taken from: “The Way I See It” # 285

It is not beyond a loving God to so orchestrate two people’s days such that one will be given an opportunity to transfer some part of himself onto the other, and vice versa. The highest demonstration of love is evidenced when one’s “wonderful day” is brought humbly underneath the other’s “dreadful day” so that the effect produces in both a deep joy in God’s sovereign goodness.

Ariel Dorfman says*, “Beware of turning into the enemy you most fear. All it takes is to lash out violently at someone who has done you some grievous harm, proclaiming that only your pain matters in this world. More than against that person’s body, you will then, at that moment, be committing a crime against your own imagination.”

I say, “Beware of fearing you will turn into your worst enemy. It is possible to focus so intently on what you don’t want to become that somehow, without knowing, you altogether lose sight of who you are and what you’re after. The greatest threat to wonderful dreams is laying awake at night, tossing about, locked into the terrible fear that one of these nights, you might just have a nightmare.”

*Taken from: “The Way I See It” # 279

A little something I wrote yesterday…

A simple song I dare prepare
For you my listener.
It tells a story filled with scare
About a carpenter.

But Fright, fear not, my faithful friend,
For I know something true;
This story has a joyous end,
This man, he died for you.

Now it may sound a little queer
To say that death is ‘good’,
But death is how he did appear
In perfect servanthood.

Carpentry was never what he
Set out on earth to do.
Indeed, he came to set men free;
People like me and you.

Yes, you and I, because of sin,
Have turned away from God.
We’re in a dreadful, wicked pin;
Our feet, with chains, are shod.

Now what I’ve said is not brand new;
The story is quite old.
Our consciences give us a clue
What in the Bible’s told.

So now let’s begin the story;
We have much to cover;
This Jesus came in veiled glory,
As we’ll soon discover.

A life he lived, this man of wood,
In wonderful display
Of all that can be right and good;
He lived it every day.

Whenever he was tempted thus
To sin and run amok,
His heart looked forward to a cross;
His eyes to God went up.

In that dark hour it took a tine
With poison laden tip,
To bury in our Savior’s mind
The sins that he would whip.

It was God’s grace that nailed Him there
In agony and shame.
Through suffering we’re now an heir;
In Him redemption came.

T’was grace that lead our hearts to turn
From sin to righteousness;
And grace now helps us long and yearn
For more in life than this.

Amazing Grace! I’ll say again,
Has liberated us;
Eternal life we shall obtain–
A great inheritance!

I love to write prayers to God. It helps me articulate many things — from gratitude to adoration, from confession to repentance, from submission to surrender, from petition to warfare, from my own words to those of Scripture. Today I want to write a public prayer. And I want you to join me; it will be a blogoprayer-meeting of sorts. I’ll write a prayer below, and you can pray with me in the comments section. Just like a corporate prayer meeting, feel free to feed off each other. Try to keep them short, though, that way we can follow the prayers more easily. I will surely join in again. You can too.

Father in Heaven,

Thank you for giving me this day to sit before You in humble worship. I think of You and am drawn in — I want more, God. You used Don Carson this morning to remind me of Your worth. You are not simply a means to personal fame and fortune. You are not a “three dollar gospel.” You are holy. And infinite. And sovereign. And lovingly merciful. Today specifically I feel Your mercy. Underneath the weight of Your righteous judgment, O Lord, who can stand? Not me.

No, not me. But one can. One did. So I thank You. I praise You.