One of My Favorite Experiences
We were doing some cleaning today and I came across something beautiful I wanted to share.
Three years ago, my sister-in-law asked me to perform her wedding ceremony. Not only did I get to officiate, I got to write the wedding “sermon.” I read it this morning and thought I’d share it (with some personal bits removed)…
We’re gathered here this afternoon, in this beautiful place, to celebrate one of life’s greatest moments, to give recognition to the value and beauty of love, and to add our best wishes to the words that will unite Fielding and Michael in marriage.
Fielding and Michael, we start life out as individuals, but you know what? God says it’s not good for us to be alone, so He created within each of us a driving desire to find someone…to find THAT SPECIAL someone…and you guys did it! You found each other.
It wasn’t easy. It might have even taken longer than you would have wanted, but it happened and when it happened, you knew.
And now today, you guys begin a life-long adventure of love. Your life together is blessed by God and it’s blessed by us, your friends and family.When Fielding and Michael asked me to perform this ceremony, I was excited because I LOVE love! And, I love weddings because a wedding is a formal celebration of love…a time when friends and family join together to acknowledge love is more than just a chemical reaction or an emotion that comes and goes. It’s a decision that changes your lives as solitary individuals into a team ready to take on the world, with all it’s ups and downs.
The Bible says, Love never gives up. Love cares more for other than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love isn’t proud. It isn’t me first. It doesn’t take pleasure in the sins of others. It puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back and keeps going to the end. Love never dies.
A movie called love “a many splendored thing.”
John Lennon says, “All you need is love.”
Shakespeare says, “Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom.”
I say, nothing is more awesome than love, so my question for you guys, is this…are you ready to get married?
Then let’s do it.
Michael, do you take Fielding to be your Wife? (“I do”) Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect her, forsaking all others, holding only unto her? (“I do”)
Fielding, do you take Michael to be your Husband? (“I do”) Do you promise to love, honor , cherish and protect him, forsaking all others, holding only unto him? (“I do”)
Wearing wedding rings is an outward symbol of your inner commitment to each other and a symbol of the unbroken circle of love. You give love and receive love and the circle goes on and on without end. Each time you glance down and see the rings on your fingers, you’re sure to remember the vows you’re taking today.
Michael, as you place the ring on Fielding’s finger, repeat after me:
I, Michael, take thee, Fielding to be my Wife. To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, and I promise my love to you forevermore. With this ring, I thee wed. all my love, I thee give to thee.”
Fielding, as you place the ring on Michael’s finger, repeat after me:
I , Fielding, take thee , Michael, to be my Husband. To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, and I promise My love to you forevermore. With this ring, I thee wed. all my love, I give to thee.”
Fielding and Michael as the two of you come into this marriage united as husband and wife, you are affirming your faith and love for each another. I ask you to always remember to cherish each other as special and unique. I ask you to respect each other’s thoughts, ideas and suggestions. Be able to forgive without holding grudges. Be best friends and enjoy your life together. From now on, you’re each other’s home, comfort and refuge. Your marriage is strengthened by your love and respect for each other.
Let’s pray. God, just as you made the ocean a delightful, beautiful place to be, you made love and marriage. You didn’t have to, but I’m so glad You did. I ask you to bless Michael and Fielding throughout their lives together. Join them together so nothing on earth or beyond will shake their love for each other. Amen
Today, Fielding and Michael honored us all with an invitation to witness their wedding, and also today, they declare before all of us that they will live together as a team in marriage. According to tradition, they entered into their marriage by joining hands, taking vows, and by exchanging rings. Therefore, it is my pleasure, to pronounce them husband and wife. Congratulations, Michael, you may kiss your bride!
Break the glass and Mozel Tov!
I’m so grateful to Fielding and Michael for giving me the honor of performing the ceremony to bring them together in marriage. It was one of the greatest joys of my life. They had a baby girl in January and named her, Campbell, but it’s only a coincidence that it is also my last name. Fielding wanted to name a daughter that long, long ago. Still, it’s pretty cool!
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Existential crisis, derived from existentialism, is a stage of development at which an individual questions the very foundations of their life: whether their life has any meaning, purpose or value; whether their parents, teachers, and loved ones truly act in their best interest; whether the values they have been taught have any merit; and whether their religious upbringing may or may not be founded in reality.
My Dark Nights and the Church
I grew up in church and loved it, but I haven’t been back in about 4 years. I’ve never stopped believing what I grew up believing though.
On random nights, it seems like maybe once a month, I put on some gospel DVDs and try to tap into the joy unspeakable and full of glory that I remember from church. I’m angry at church, though, and so sometimes I have a bad gospel night where it pulls up all the reasons I don’t go any more.
The biggest reason I stopped going is that churches were becoming more and more focused on gaining political power and less focused on loving people. The specific reason I stopped going is that I’m angry with my last pastor and until I can let that go, it’s going to be an ongoing issue in my life.
When I have this dark nights of the soul, I often cry out to the twitter community. I’m not expecting a solution, it’s more about yelling out a window, and I guess hoping someone will hear.
I have a great life with a great wife. We were talking about my inner struggle this morning and the metaphore I used was that I feel like my life is a helium balloon that represents all the good things. Inside the balloon is a rock and that represents my resentment against the church and my last pastor. It seems like a mission impossible task to get rid of the rock without poping the balloon, so I just live with the rock and deal with it emotionally from time to time.
I don’t have an answer, but it seems like anyone who happens to read my late night tweets and wonders, “what’s up with that guy?” should have some kind of explaination and context.
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Cali and I both grew up poor, but blessed. Cali grew up connected to an amazingly supportive Italian family and I grew up raised by Baptists who introduced me to Jesus and home grown tomatoes.
We’ve been married nine years and we’ve put off having a kid because we have an amazing relationship. We’ve never had an argument…ever and the big fear is that having a kid might be the factor that changes that.
For our Big Trip, we started a site called PaidByPixels.com. It’s similar to the principal of buying a brick in a pathway to support your college. You buy pixels to support our trip and get ads galore on PaidByPixels.com and on our network of Web sites. We call it the Pixel Board.
We don’t need nearly all of the pixels to sell to fund the Big Trip, but we need most of them to sell. Cali said tonight, if we sell all of them, we can have a kid after the trip. I’m pretty sure I can convincer her to get started on the kid mission about half-way through.
People have always said that you can’t wait for everything to be fine finically to have a kid because things my never be okay. Cali grew up in a struggle and she doesn’t want to raise a kid that way. I’m not opposed to admitting that I need your help convincing her. She loves me, and she loves y’all.
When people don’t get this Web 2.0 world we’re living in, I wonder if they want to connect to people at all. To us the connection we feel to our GeekBrief.TV friends is more real than the connection we have to anyone in the flesh-and-blood world. That’s why I’m sharing this mission with you guys and not the natural fam.
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