Jesusluvsall's Blog

I think sometimes we get so ‘pious’ that we see God as some ethereal it with no emotion as we strive to be ‘perfect’ in our reactions to life. When I read through the bible, it seems obvious to me that God is a passionate person who loves us passionately. Other emotions are displayed by God too. God laughs showing he has a sense of humor. Psalm 2 says he laughs regarding those who say he doesn’t exist. Psalm 126 talks about his people that their mouths were filled with laughter indicating the laughter came from God as a result of the joy of serving him.

Sometimes I think God has a sense of humor when it comes to things I try doing in ministry. The ultimate example is that I was a wedding coordinator twice. People who know me personally would never associate wedding coordinator with me. But I found myself in a situation several years ago that if I didn’t try to coordinate a wedding, some refugee friends would not have had a wedding.

A refugee family from Ukraine was fairly new to America. The mother and one daughter were my students. I saw the father often too. One of the daughters wanted to get married, but the family had little money and the bigger obstacle was they could not use the church building their church rented on Friday evenings or Saturdays. They asked me if I could help them. I got in touch with Pastor Scott at my church and explained the situation and he agreed to let them have the wedding no charge for the building. But the women who did wedding coordinating did not feel confident about helping people who speak broken English, so I stepped up.

Fortunately for the bride, she had friends who had lived here longer and knew where to get stuff for a wedding, so my job was really only for them to ask if they could do something, I would ask the building manager my friend Kevin, he would tell me yes or no, and I would then tell them yes or no. So I thought, ‘this wedding coordinating is easy.’

I found out how wrong I was about a year later. A graduate student from China wanted to have her wedding at my church. I got it okayed and we planned to meet on a Thursday to plan it. Thursday came and we met for lunch to discuss the wedding. I quickly realized that my friend from China did not have friends who had lived here very long and my friend did not know where to get stuff for a wedding like decorations etc. So what does a guy do? I envision God laughing a little or at least smiling while he watched me try to deal with the situation.

Thankfully I had an inspirational idea. I called my friend Kathy from church. She had helped me with other things for my weekend groups, so I thought maybe she could help. I called, she answered, and I asked her, “What are you doing tomorrow afternoon about 2:30?” She laughed and asked, “Why, what have you got yourself into this time?” I explained and she said, “I will be there.” Kathy took over and did the work. I think I might have still had the title Wedding Coordinator, but I am not sure about that.

The wedding was wonderful and we even used skype so her parents could watch it from China and the bride could see her parents on the large screen.

There have been many examples from my life where God leads me into doing something and I  start but then realize I need help. Like the time I started to cook a Thanksgiving meal for my weekend groups and ended up searching for help, but that is a story for November.

Don’t get me wrong. There are definitely times to be serious and we should always respect and honor God. I am just saying let’s not have the image in our minds like Jesus being portrayed as some emotionless zen master that I have seen in some movies. There are times that laughter, humor, and having fun while serving are also appropriate.

Oh and one more  thought- There are some young bloggers I follow such as beautybeyondbones  1 Timothy 4:12 Girl  The Godly Chic Diaries  . If you need a wedding coordinator in the future, maybe I can help 🙂 🙂 🙂