Stephen King and the Cost of Fighting Evil

I have avoided reading Stephen King pretty much my whole life. I, sadly, judged a book by its cover and thought King was "just" a horror writer.

How wrong I was.

My favorite TV show is Lost and it has been well established that the book, The Stand, had a huge influence on the writer's of that show. So, at the prompting of a friend of mine (thank you Kiley), I picked up the book.

I was hooked right away. The story was amazing and introduced me to a theme in King's writing that has such an amazing truth.

Fighting evil comes at a terrible personal cost.

We are so naive to think that when we fight evil or make a stand against it, that it will just wilt and go away. It doesn't and it fights back. The cost might be anything. Our baby having seizures in the hospital. Our house failing to sell for some strange reason when there is no earthly reason it should not sell. Our health going down hill. It is always something.

I think about this as I pray for my city, Columbus. Our church is looking to transform our city by the Love of Christ that lives in us. That is a direct challenge to the evil in the city, as the evil thinks the city belongs to it. And maybe, we might be tempted to agree. There are horrible things that go on here. The rape rate is one of the highest in the country. Those with aids in our city are neglected not just by the church, but the whole community. There are orphans. Single moms who are preyed upon. Young girls forced into a life of prostitution. People steal. People lie. Nature is gutted (yes this is a sin). And with each act, our city becomes a little more dark.

but the city does not belong to the powers of darkness. It belongs to Jesus. He loves it. And He seeks to bring beauty to it. And we ought to be agents of the beauty, not to bring more darkness. To make beautiful art. To help the aids patients by holding their hands when they die. To make nature a priority and take care of it. To make sure young women are protected.

But beauty will come at a cost. We have to be ready for it. The battle between good and evil, beauty and ugliness, all of it comes at a price. Because evil will not set back and let it happen.

Back to Stephen King. I am a huge fan and in fact consider him in the top five of my favorite authors (O'Connor, Tolkien, Lewis, King and Lawhead would be the order). If you have avoided King like i did, shame on us! You will find nowhere in popular fiction the discussion of the battle betweeen God and evil discussed in such stark, honest, and beautiful terms.

Yes, Stephen King is beautiful. I said it.

Of Weddings and coordinators

One of the great things about being a minister is that you get to do weddings. I love that part of the job. This weekend, I was able to officiate the wedding of my two best friends. How cool is that? It was so great to see two people who love Jesus and each other be married. It was truly a joyful experience.

Anyway, the experience made me think about my other weddings and all the fun stuff that came with them. The thing that really gets me is that we have turned weddings in our culture into something other than what they should be. Meaning, weddings have become all about show, rather than focusing on what is going on. Don't believe me? Look around. Weddings have become big business from the tuxes, to caterers and for crying out loud, even the churches. A wedding has become a staged performance rather than what is should be; two people coming together before God in a worship service.

Because, that is what a wedding really is. It is a worship service to the God of creation who made marriage and the two people coming together worship Him for that amazing gift. It is not a performance. It is not a race to see who can spend the most money on stuff that will not last past the wedding day. It is a time for God to be worshiped by the marriage of two people and for all those people who come to celebrate what that couple is doing.

And because of that, the minister is in charge of the ceremony. Now, this part maybe totally ego. And I have nothing against wedding coordinators. I think they do a great job in helping with the logistics and positioning of people in the ceremony. I love having them there for that.

What irritates me is when the coordinator tries to take over the ceremony. The coordinator I worked with this weekend was great and she did a great job. However, I have worked with some in the past who thought they were completely in charge and had a right to interfere with the ceremony. Not happening.

Anyway, it just made me wonder, my friends wedding was all about God and Christ being the center of marriage. I wonder if in our rush to make the wedding all about the couple (and in fact all about the bride) that we doom some marriages from the start. Because, we teach couples that marriage is all about serving their needs, even in a Christian marriage. Guess what? It isn't.

Maybe ministers are more to blame for the Christian divorce rate then we like to admit.