Kara Kaleen

Today is my wedding anniversary. Kara and I have been married for five years now. I can close my eyes (which I'm happy to do right now since I'm stuck in the Atlanta airport on my way home from Columbia Seminary) and see her beautiful face walking towards me. The Highland Cathedral is playing in the background . . .

The planets were aligned just right that perfect Saturday in July five years ago. My closest friends and family were there to witness the promise Kara and I made to live with each other in times of blessing and times of want; times of excitement and times of boredom; when the doctors report comes back good and when it comes back with a devastating bite.

Just because two people have a wedding license does not mean they are married. Just because you wear a ring on your finger does not mean you are husband or wife.

It's a daily choice. Love is much deeper than a feeling or a motive. It's a daily decision to believe that God is working in the midst of your shortcomings, her shortcomings, and both of your differences.

I've been choosing Kara every day for the last five years . . . and I will for the next fifty to come.

Dear Kara

I'm a firm believer that we do not affirm and encourage each other enough (in society in general and in the church specifically).

I wrote this short letter to Kara recently. It was read to her at the baby shower our church family put together. I could not be there (I was speaking at a church in Kansas) but wanted Kara to know how honored I am to be "doing life" (as our small group calls it) together. If you have not affirmed your wife/husband/significant other in an intentional way . . . I'm giving you homework this week. Do it.

Dear Kara,

I know you don't like public attention. In spite of me and your dad, you have always been a person who prefers to be behind the scenes, using your gifts and talents for God in simple but powerful ways. Since we've lived in Michigan you've helped our Cass Park efforts by cooking, and arranging misc.. gifts for our friends (chap stick, lotion, scarves). You have been the rock of our small group, organizing and encouraging the many different people God has woven into our lives. You are Mrs. Consistent when it comes to serving on the praise team and in the arts.

This does not even mention your work as a bank teller, substitute teacher, and organizer to Josh (Lord knows I'm all over the place, traveling several times per year--yet you keep me grounded).


All I have just mentioned does not define you. You are not what you do. You are special because you are made in God's likeness. You emulate and reveal God to me and others in ways that only you can. I want you to know, by proxy of this letter, I'm honored to be bringing Lucas into the world with you. I'm excited to be partners in this, the most terrifying and thrilling, of all our adventures to date. Yes, even more than the ominous time we were stranded in Paris during a bomb scare on our way back from Uganda.


Lucas will get to discover all the things I already know. You are beautiful, resourceful, humorous, lovely, dependable, brilliant, and all together fun. I would not wish for my life to have turned out any different than the manner in which God has shaped it to be. You are the nearest experience of God's Grace in my life. I love you without conditions.

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