Ten years ago on this day, December 21, 2002, I woke up in a church pew. I know, it’s not quite as bad as a park bench, but it kind of makes you wonder…”what was he doing?”

It was my wedding day!

Huh?

Well, let me explain. Since Sonja and I were both teachers, we decided to get married and take our honeymoon during our Christmas break. It was either that or wait until summer and why would I want to wait any longer to be with this wonderful woman.

So, I had just finished up all of my grading and our school had given our Christmas program. It had been a busy couple of weeks leading up to the wedding. After the groom’s dinner, skating party, and final wedding and honeymoon preparations, I still had one important task to finish. I wanted to write a song for Sonja.

Thankfully, the school I taught at was in a church, which had a piano, so at about 1 AM, I headed over there to begin composing. I gave instructions to a friend to make sure I woke up by 6 AM. After, about two hours, I felt I had most of the pieces to the song, but it still needed to be put together. Extremely tired, I decided to lie down in the front pew for a short rest. Oops, I completely zonked out. Thankfully, I woke up three hours later with just enough time to sow the song together.

Here is the song I wrote for her that early morning. With sweaty palms and lots of nerves, I surprised her with it at the wedding. The song is entitled “Because of Christ” (click the play button below) and it is as true today as it was then. Happy 10th Anniversary Sonja!