How It Happened

In great anticipation and expectation of my upcoming wedding on June 7, I wanted to post the following story from our wedding program.

Jared Musgrove and Jenny Thompson met amid a flurry of church activity the morning of October 15, 2006 as first-time visitors to Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth. Walking to the sanctuary they chatted and discovered their Oklahoma connection, Jenny's beauty making it easy for OU-grad Jared to quickly ignore the fact she was an OSU alumnus.

They sat by one another in the balcony during the service, both walking away afterward hoping to see the other again. Soon after this first meeting, Jared was led by the Lord to join Normandale Baptist Church and Jenny stayed at Travis for the time being. A month and a half went by in which they were increasingly on each other’s minds, but were unsure as to how they would get back in touch.

Hopes were realized when Jared finally tracked Jenny down and asked her to coffee early that December. That first date was an evening from which both walked away with a sense that the other was someone unlike any they’d ever met. Jared went home intent on a second, third, and fourth date. Jenny went home and stated to her friends that she “could marry a man like that.”

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The Sunday afternoon of September 23, 2007, Jared led Jenny to the first-row balcony pew at Travis Avenue Baptist Church where they met nearly one year before. They sat in the empty sanctuary, reminiscing and laughing at how the Lord had had grown and deepened their relationship since that day.

“I have something I would like to read to you,” Jared said, taking a piece of parchment paper from his pocket and unfolding it. Jenny did not think this out of the ordinary as Jared often wrote something and read it to her on an occasion or in a place of significance to both of them.

Jared began to read, “Beautiful the marriage of Christians…..”

Jenny admits not hearing much of what was read after that third word. Jared was just hoping his voice wouldn’t quake and give him away. As if the third word hadn’t already.

He finished reading, looked into Jenny’s eyes and said, “Jen, that is what I want for us. I want us to be all of this. I love you.” He got down on one knee in front of her, brandished a small black box, and, opening it, said, “Jennifer Marie Thompson, will you marry me?”

Jenny’s “YES!” was instantaneous and breathless. Jared couldn’t stop smiling as he shakily took the ring from its perch and began to slip it onto Jenny’s right ring finger.

“Um, Jared, other finger.”

“Oh. Right.”

Nerves, you know.

After the ring had been applied properly, they kissed and held each other. In the dimly lit sanctuary, they prayed together over their future, committing it to the Lord and giving thanks for each other and God’s faithfulness in their lives and relationship. The Lord authored a beautiful story for the two of them and at this moment their whole hearts melted in gratitude, loving Him and each other all the more.

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"...Not Many Super Anythings Anymore"

This is a little on the fly, but I thought the recent continuation of a conversation on the deeper side of superheroes between myself and Sir J. Austin McKnight had the beginnings of some good thoughts and was appropriate (and fun) to post here.

I will likely follow this up with a more in-depth blog on the subject at a later date...

Austin McKnight wrote There would be real Jokers and Lex Luthors in the world, but most of them suffer from the sin of laziness. No Hitlers recently because people are lazy. I count it a good thing... as long as the heroes aren't suffering from laziness as well. There just aren't many super anything anymore.

Jared Musgrove wrote
I agree with you, but would like to believe if an evil like that ever came about, we'd oppose it. Preferably with capes on, but that's just me 

Seriously though:"There just aren't many super anything anymore."
That's sadly true. No one holds standards of excellence anymore. In anything.

Austin McKnight wrote
Somedays I feel I have excellent standards, but really, no. These guys in movies and the fictional people in books and comic books are not just in our imagination. According to Platonic thought, we can only conceive of what is possible. That means that the heroes and the villains are both possible.

Jared Musgrove wrote
Oh, totally. We've seen them before. Of course, not a Superman or Batman, or Joker or Lex Luthor, but we've seen Hitler and Sadaam. The real world sadly knows little of some of its greatest men, the real heroes.
We latch onto Superman because he's a snapshot of what we'd like to think we'd do if we had the abilities (in the form of powers). We would like to think we'd make a choice to help and protect people from evil...to fight it and vanquish it. It's a very primal instinct and we've been displaying in through story since the beginning of time (Hercules, Odysseus, etc. Superheroes are just our modern mythology) When, in reality, believers have these abilities not in flight or heat vision, but in Christ and by the power of the Spirit. If only more of us really worked on refining our God-given abilities to be more Spirit-driven to the point of being epic.

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Adding to this and keeping with the theme, I read this phrase from the novel, The Last Days of Krypton by Kevin J. Anderson, which focuses on all that led to the planet's destruction:

"Everyone had been forced to be 'average' for too many generations. One cannot constrain an ever-growing thing without consequences. If society inhibited the bell curve too long, radical spikes would appear at either end. Some anomalies took the form of unorthodox geniuses like Jor-El (Superman's Kryptonian father) and Zor-El (Jor-El's brother), while others were heinous criminals who demonstrated their 'genius' through violence and destruction rather than creation. Like the Butcher of Kandor. Like Zod."