Mr. Kalkwarf

Here's one of my favorite videos. EVER.

I've had the privilege of being a friend to Martin Kalkwarf over the last three and a half years. I remember the days when he'd wander into our dorm room in Birch Hall almost every day, just wanting to hang out. It's amazing to see where God has taken him and it's fun to have been used played a small part in that journey. Martin is now an integral part of a church plant in Iowa City. He is the best embodiment I've ever seen of 2 Corinthians 5:17-- "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

I'll let Martin tell you the full story:

This is my God story - Martin from Veritas Church on Vimeo.

If you're interested, follow Martin's blog here.

Ron Who?

It's been forever since I've posted. Busy summer. I promise a substantial post about the baby boy we're having, the fatherhood I'm preparing for, and the things I've been learning about God will be coming as soon as time allows.

First, though, some politics. Yep. I've been paying more attention this year than I ever have. Sam and I watched the Republican debates and I was surprised by what I heard. Most of the candidates just seem like political talking heads that just spit out the party line to rabid, cult-ish followers.

But not Ron Paul. The FoxNews analysts said he had a terrible debate, but, as you'll see in the video, the media is a bit biased. Ron Paul won me over in the debate. I don't agree with everything he says, but he seems sensible and thoroughly Constitutional-- even when that means losing some Right Wingers. I went to the Straw Poll and voted for him (though I feel like I'd need to do more research before I would vote for him in a real election).

Ron Paul is winning over lots of voters in a bi-partisan (I met some people at his Straw Poll camp who voted for Obama last election), grassroots kind of way. It's definitely not a media-driven effort, that's for sure. Maybe that's part of why it's starting to take off.

Hilarious Jon Stewart on how the media literally ignores the Paul campaign:
                       

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Indecision 2012 - Corn Polled Edition - Ron Paul & the Top Tier
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

                       

Reminiscing (Part 2)

Figures 1 &2: "The Shack" (Winter 2006)

This was titled well before William Young's book, "The Shack," and I'm not going to rename it now. One of the earliest photographs I took, this was for a high school art class. As I carried the photo into school to turn it in, two snowflakes fell on the print, ruining it. Instead of getting a new one printed, I decided to go with it. I beat up the edges, smeared some more water on it for a flood-damaged look, and mounted it on some matting I stained with tea to make it look antique. Here's the final product:

Figure 3: "Mongolian Sunset"  (Summer 2008)

The hills of Inner Mongolia (basically, it's Mongolia but part of northern China) are one of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever seen. Hill after hill covered in grassland and crystal clear, smog-less air. Awesome. 

Figure 4:  "Facebook Addiction" (Fall 2007)

Sadly, this is one of the only photos I have saved from my days as an Iowa State Daily photojournalist. It's a photo illustration for a story about how easy it was for many students to become "addicted" to Facebook, spending 4-8 hours a day on the site. My roommate, Grant Kellogg, agreed to "shoot up" on some Facebook (which was really Dial body wash I found in the dorm shower that morning). We took the photo in a tiny, dark room in the Theilen Student Health Center, because they wouldn't let me leave the premises with the syringe (I have no idea why Theilen had a syringe intended for use in medicating horses, by the way).

Reminiscing (Part 1)

This morning I was going through some old files on my computer and found lots of creative projects from my past. Everything was more than a year old (honestly, I think it's been that long since I've done anything "creative"). Some of the things were more than six years old, dating back to my junior year of high school.

Not wanting to completely lose my creativity, I'd like to use "Holding the Life" to look back at these artistic expressions from years past. Some, in my opinion, were pretty darn good... others, not so much. But that's not what matters. We'll look back once every couple weeks or so and get another glimpse into what makes me tick. This will be a learning experience for me, too!


Figure 1: "The Fall of the House of Usher" (Spring 2005)

Appropriately, I'll start with the chalk drawing that made me decide that I like doing art. I did this as a junior in high school for an assignment in a literature class about Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Fall of the House of Usher." It's nothing special, but it's definitely (and sadly) one of the best human figures I've ever drawn.

Figures 2 & 3: "Anthem"  (Fall 2008)

The church I went to in college puts on these awesome nights of worship twice a year called "Anthem." This is where I discovered I love taking pictures at concerts. The lighting is always phenomenal and the emotion bleeds into the pictures effortlessly. (Taken with a Cannon 5D)

Figure 4: "Holding the Life" (Summer 2007)

For a different crop, just scroll up. This photo is the banner for this blog. To me, it represents being all in. As the sun sets on my life, I want to be completely spending myself for the glory of God. (I don't mean to be morbid. I know I'm only 23, but each one of us is closer to dying every day.)
When I die, I don't want to have earthly treasures stored up in my clenched fists. I'd rather die with my hands open, just like this dead weed's seed pod, having completely surrendered myself and all I "own" to the Lord.
On a purely photographic note: This photo was extremely hard to capture with my point-and-shoot camera. I literally watched the sun close in on the horizon as I tried and tried to get the seed-pod in focus and not the background. This was the last shot I got before the tree line swallowed the sun!

My Hometown is Famous

When I was in 5th grade (I think), former Kansas University basketball player Nick Collison was a senior at Iowa Falls high school. And he was good. Really good. Naturally, so was the Iowa Falls basketball team.

My home school, Clarion-Goldfield, had the misfortune of having Iowa Falls in their conference. And we weren't very good. Not very good at all.

Nick is now playing for the championship contending NBA team, the Oklahoma City Thunder. It's good to know he still remembers Clarion-Goldfield. We're the school he talks about in the following interview on the Thunder's website: (Thanks, Levi Larue, for the link.)

We caught up with Collison for today’s installment of “Getting To Know…”

So you got your shorts pulled down one time during a game, right?
“We were playing a team, they weren’t very good, and we ended up winning 116 to 30-something. We set a school record. I went to turn and shoot and a kid pulled my shorts down.”

Do you think he was mad?
“Nah, I think it was a joke. It was weird. It was like his coach was in on it. And then when we had 98 points, they scored the 100th point in our basket – so they inbounded the ball and scored in our basket. It was just like a joke, man.”

How did you react to getting pantsed?
“I was upset about it. I was just shocked. Luckily I had shorts on underneath. I had like a smaller pair of basketball shorts underneath. I just pulled them up and they threw the kid out and maybe threw the coach out. Yeah, I was just shocked. I felt like it was more embarrassing for them but, whatever. It’s a story not too many people have. My senior year of high school.”

Not a bright spot in our school's history. Regardless of whether our basketball skills improved much, we sure got a lot more classy in the years to come!  ;)

Family Worship

I tried something new tonight.

And it was awesome. In fact, I want it to be a new Young family tradition.

It's called "family worship."

It's a concept that was introduced to me by our pastor, Michael Felkins. He leads his "family worship" several times a week with his wife, teenage daughters, and 10-year-old boy.

Maybe you've heard of it before, but it was basically new to me. The idea is beautifully simple: worship God with your family. Crazy, right? Worship the Lord regularly, together, in your home (yes, you can worship outside of the church sanctuary), with no pastor, no worship leader, off-pitch voices and all. Exactly how this fleshes out will differ from family to family, but the concept doesn't change a bit.

 Here's how it looked for us tonight: We started with a worship song (tonight was "Praise You, Lord" by Anthem Band). Then we read Mark 1 out loud (we'll read another chapter of Mark every time we have "family worship"). After reading the chapter, we simply discussed any questions we had about the passage and what we learned from what we read. Finally, we closed by praying. I grabbed a copy of the Powerline, a weekly prayer bulletin our church puts out. Sam and I each prayed from something in the Powerline, as well as something not in the Powerline (I prayed for those impacted by natural disaster, and Sam prayed that our baby would follow the Lord).

I wanted to start "family worship" well before we have our baby for a couple of reasons: 1) It's just good for Sam and me to worship God together; 2) We can't expect to start a discipline like this once the craziness of a kid hits us. We have to get in the habit now. It might be an awkward hassle to get started, but I know it will be a rewarding discipline.

I believe the advantages of "family worship" are immeasurable. Most importantly, it glorifies God. It does this by centering my heart, Sam's heart, our marriage, our child's heart, and our family on the things of the Lord. I pray that God will give me the perseverance to continue this discipline for years to come and that He would use it to show my child how to unashamedly worship.

If you're married or want to be married, pray about what family worship might look like for you. Don't wait until you have a 5-year-old to start. Don't even wait until you have a spouse. Start now. Get in the habit. We'll learn together!

Finally, here are a couple of posts by Jason Helopoulos from "The Gospel Coalition" blog that gave me tons of theological and practical wisdom on how to lead this with my family. I positively, definitely, 10,000% encourage you to read, save, and share these two articles:

"11 Reasons to Worship with Your Family"

"The What, When, and How of Family Worship"

Oh Baby You're So Fine...

Last week, Sam and I got to have an ultra-sound of our first child! Yes, we're having a baby! We're about 12 weeks along right now, and we're due November 19th!

Without further ado, our first glimpse of Baby Young:

As of right now, Baby and Mom are doing well. We're thankful to God for this indescribable blessing!



More to come later...

I'm a Terrible Videographer

Earlier this week, Sam and I got to go to Des Moines to visit my brother, Andy. He's working as a page in the state House of Representatives during his last semester as a senior in high school. This means that whenever a rep needs something (whether it be a copy of a bill or a bottle of water) he gets to fetch it for them. That's a pretty simplistic summary, but he would tell you that it's be an interesting job overall.

When we visited, though, he got to play the part of a tour guide. He took us through all the nooks and crannies of the Capitol Building. We got to see places that normal tours never would.

Here's a video of the top floor of the rotunda. Sorry for the awful narrator, I'm not sure who that guy is...

This one's the inside of the golden dome. It felt like we were in "National Treasure" or something! Again, sorry about the narrator. The weirdo must have followed us around all day.

Lastly, the lavish Law Library (alliteration!). This place was sweet! And I never even knew it existed. A beautiful place filled with TONS of boring law books. Could be a cool place for someone's wedding photos, if our legislators would ever allow it. Just let me know, and I'll have Andy pull some strings for you. Just look past the fact that he's creepin' on my wife. Ha! What a kid.

Easter Message

On Easter Sunday, I gave the message at the sunrise service at my home church in Clarion. I preached from Hosea 6:1-2, a beautiful prophecy of Easter. Here is the manuscript, for anyone interested:

HOSEA 6:1-2

 ¹"Come, let us return to the LORD;
   for He has torn us, that He may heal us;
   He has struck us down, and He will bind us up.
²After two days He will revive us;
   on the third day He will raise us up,
   that we may live before Him.

This text in Hosea is a beautiful prophecy of Easter. Indeed, it foretells the One who would be revived and, after three days, rise up and live.

Before we look at these two verses more deeply, I want to begin with a little background and context of the book of Hosea. The man Hosea was a prophet to Israel about 700 years before Christ was born. Hosea, an Israelite, lived in a time when Israel was committing unthinkable sins against the LORD. In fact, God tells Hosea that Israel has been, in effect, prostituting herself out. Instead of worshipping the God who brought them miraculously out of slavery, through the Red Sea, and into the Promised Land, they were bowing before all sorts of idols and false Gods.

In this time of abounding sin, God used Hosea to warn Israel about the coming judgment. You see, the God of the Bible is not only a loving God and a compassionate God, He is a GOOD God and a HOLY God. If God is good and holy, it means that anything that is not good and not holy must be separated from Him. Because Holy and unholy do not go together. Holy and unholy do not go together.

And this is precisely what Hosea is warning about! In His goodness, God responds justly to unholiness. He responds with wrath and with punishment, which is exactly what unholiness deserves. That’s really BAD NEWS for Israel.

So, how does all of this apply to an Easter sunrise service in 2011, in a little town in Iowa? We’re pretty far removed from 700 B.C. and the Middle East, right? Right. But, this timeless Word of the LORD in Scripture directly applies to each and every one of us in a deeply profound way.

You see, you and I bow before idols every day. Idols aren’t just limited to golden statues and false gods. No, I am no better than the Israelites who Hosea warned of God’s judgment. None of us are.

We’ve all been deceived to worship something other than the One True God. The “false gods” in our lives could be work, family, money, comfort, self, the list goes on. None of these are bad things, but they often take our highest affections and attentions away from our Creator. They become our idols and we, like Israel, become idol-worshippers.

This means that the judgment of God upon sin is headed our way too, unless something changes. Left to my sinful self, I will only and always be an object of the LORD’s wrath. Remember, Holy and unholy do not go together. As sinners, this is really BAD NEWS for each and every one of us!

Right about now, you might be thinking to yourself, “Sheesh, Tim! What’s with all this talk about how bad we are? It’s depressing! Isn’t Easter supposed to be a celebration? Isn’t it about the Good News?”

To you I say, “Yes! Easter IS a celebration! It IS Good News! But you can’t see how good the Good News is until you understand how bad the bad news is. Without bad news, there is NO SUCH THING as Good News.”

And that’s where we come back to Hosea 6:1-2 where we see bad news followed by Good News::

Bad news: “He has torn us”

Good News: “that He may heal us”

Bad news: “He has struck us down”

Good News: “He will bind [bandage] us up”
Good News: “He will revive us”

Good News: “He will raise us up, that we may live before Him”

Remember that this is a prophecy of Jesus Christ. Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, Hosea said that someone would be torn – and it was Christ who was whipped until the flesh fell off his body. Hosea said that someone would be struck – and it was Christ who was twice beaten by the rods of the Roman guards until he was nearly beyond recognition. And Hosea said that someone would be revived, raised up, and LIVE – and it was Christ who was resurrected from the dead. He came forth from the tomb, ALIVE after three days). This is a prophecy of Good Friday and Easter Sunday!

This prophecy paints a picture of Jesus bearing the punishment we deserve to bear. We deserve to be whipped and beaten for our unholiness, but it was Jesus who took our unholiness upon Himself and received the blows.

What’s more, this prophecy paints a picture of US receiving the healing and holiness that Jesus earned by living a perfect life. Do you see that it is US, the new Israel, who is spoken of in Hosea’s prophecy? This is because the Cross presents us with a beautiful, but unfair trade: our unholiness in exchange for the holiness of the God-Man Jesus Christ. This means he takes EVERY BIT of our sin. That’s every thought, word, and deed that doesn’t honor the LORD. In exchange, we receive EVERY BIT of His holiness, so that we can stand before the Holy God. You see, we NEED His holiness, because holiness and unholiness do not go together.

Finally, this prophecy paints a picture of how we can have a relationship with Christ. In Christ, it is WE who are healed, it is WE who are revived, it is WE who are raised up, and it is WE who live! This is accomplished only by putting our faith in the unfair exchange, because it is only HE who does the healing, it is only HE who does the reviving, it is only HE who does the raising, and it is only HE who gives us life!

And as Jesus promised, this healing and life isn’t just physical (though He is the provider of all healing and life on Earth). The healing Jesus spoke of is something far more valuable, and far more lasting. Everything in this life is temporary, including pain, troubles, and even this life itself. Jesus bought for us a life of even greater worth than this Earthly one that has been corrupted by pain and sin. He bought each of His children an eternal life, forever before the Creator, the LORD God Almighty!

This spiritual healing and everlasting life isn’t something WE CAN EARN with good deeds and kind words. No, it is something that HAS ALREADY BEEN EARNED through the tortuous death of a sinless Savior and His resurrection on the third day. To try to earn it ourselves is to de-value Jesus Christ.

Instead, we must do as the LORD commanded through Hosea in the first line of this passage: “Come, let us return to the LORD.”

Let us leave behind all idols that grab our affections away from the Savior this Easter. Let us repent of our idol-worship and bow a knee in surrender to the King who left his throne to live among His people. And let us return to the Lord and rejoice in the Cross and the Empty Tomb, because it IS Good News!

I wish I could...

But I can't.

I watched this video four times before I realized it shows TWO of this gymnast's routines. That's right, he didn't just get lucky and land it once. No, it looks as though this man is regularly capable of flipping and spinning his body like a squib kick in a football game.

I wish I could...



*If you're in a reader and can't view the video, click into the actual post.

B-B-B-Beat Box

Actually, this isn't beat boxing. This is far more advanced. Like an alien race or something.

I saw this guy on TV yesterday. They said his snare/hi-hat/snare/hi-hat sound is so fast (18 times a second) that if he did it any faster our ears could only hear it as a constant sound with no distinction.

He's in a room with cool acoustics, but he's making all of the echo sounds himself.  Enjoy!

The Beauty of the Gospel

The Gospel is beautiful. Incredibly beautiful. It's so beautiful, in fact, that nothing that pleases God has ever been accomplished without it by a human being (Hebrews 11:8).

But I think I often neglect half of it.

I think we tend to see the gospel this way: 

We all have this terrible burden to bear. This burden is sin, and it could be likened to a cup that we carry around. Inside this cup is every gross, nasty, grimy sin from every ungodly act, thought, and motivation we've ever had. And this ungodliness separates us from the Holy One.

This is where the Gospel steps in. Through His perfect life, His death on the Cross, and His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ has taken the sins of those He calls His children upon His shoulders. In effect, he has taken my cup of grime and poured it on Himself. Then He defeated the physical and spiritual death that my cup of grime deserves. By trusting in this Truth, I am His child.

But, if sin removal alone is our view of the Gospel we're missing half of it. You see, I often feel as though Christ has removed my cup of sinful grime but now I carry around an empty up. I'm desperate to fill it with my goodness. Sadly, I often go so far as to try to fill this cup by being loved and accepted by others... even my wife.

But all of my attempts to feel good about myself don't add a single drop of righteousness to my cup. In fact, since they're usually motivated by pride, they only add to my pile of grime Jesus died for.

The Truth of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ's righteous life, undeserving death, and hell-defeating resurrection not only bears my cup of sin-- it fills my cup with righteousness.

That's why the Gospel is so beautiful. God is incomparably Holy. I am indescribably wicked. Of myself, I have nothing to offer Him to close the gap between us. But, in His love, justice, mercy, and grace, God made a way.  

He made impossible demands of us to be righteous, and He beautifully and completely met those demands, in Christ, on behalf of His children.

"For our sake [God] made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might be the righteousness of God." --- 1 Corinthians 5:21

A Page in the Chapter

For those of you who don't know, my brother, Andy, is forgoing his last semester as a senior in high school. Instead, he accepted a job offer to be a page at the Iowa House of Representatives for a semester. That means he gets paid to sit in the House during debates and formalities. He spends most of his time answering phones and running errands around the Capitol Building for the reps. A pretty interesting job, I must say.

He seems to be liking it so far, and has been keeping a daily blog of his experience called A Page in the Chapter. Check it out if you're interested.

Andy also has a sense of humor that, well... let's just say it runs in the family. He likes puns. Here's one of his recent posts on his blog-- it made my day:

"I'd like to share a few observations which have come from attending committee meetings and the like:
1) Agriculture - This committee is a homely bunch because they are so deeply rooted in Iowa.
2) Economic Growth - These are always very stimulating meetings.
3) Environmental Protection - For some reason, topics in these meetings are always complicated.  Almost the whole time is spent clearing the air of confusion.
4) Transportation - To me, it is obvious that the Iowa DOT is in a rut.
5) Veterans' Affairs - People are always trying to sit in on these meetings.  To ensure that no unauthorized persons enter, I am always on Guard.
6) Judiciary - I have never sat in on a judiciary committee because another page has requested all of its meetings.  It's just not fair.
7) Labor - I dread attending these meetings - I always end up doing hard work.
8) Commerce - It's business as usual.
9) Ways & Means - As far as I can tell, this is the committee that finds ways of being mean by taxing Iowans.
10) Education - I haven't really learned anything from this committee.
11) Public Safety - I've only been scheduled to this committee once. Unfortunately, on my way to it, I slipped on a dangerously wet floor."

 

Some Videos From the WWW

[Click into the actual post if you can't see the videos.]

Barrel-eye fish: God's awesomest creation in the animal world?




Chatty parrot: God's second-awesomest creation in the animal world?




Pick-pocket extraordinaire: I'm impressed and scared simultaneously (skip to 2:35, if you're pressed for time)




Jaw-dropping foosball tricks: Someone had too much time on their hands

Neighbor Update

A quick update, for anyone wondering how our ministry to our neighbors is going. (Peruse my older posts if you're curious of what I'm talking about....)

We haven't even seen Esther lately. We figure her mom caught wind of the fact that she was coming over to our place without her knowledge. Definitely a bummer, since we thought she'd be coming to VBS and possibly bringing her family to church with us...

Alan moved away a year ago, so we don't get blessed by his amazing cooking and his available car-port anymore.

Frank and Kevin are almost never around anymore-- which is ok, considering we watched Kevin and Alan get in a fist-fight before Alan moved, and Jerry suspects Frank of stealing his car.

Which actually worked out ok for us. About the time Alan moved (and a new tenant who uses their car-port moved in), Jerry's car got stolen. Since we're friends with Jerry (and he won't get a new car because his health won't allow him to drive anyways) he's letting us use his car-port for Sam's car. Huge blessing.

All that to say: there isn't much going on anymore in regards to ministry with our neighbors.

Not that we haven't tried. This Christmas, Sam had the awesome idea to hand out little baskets of homemade treats to our neighbors. We spent a Saturday in December making our goodies together and giving them to the other people in our building. We also decided to be those super-weird Christian types and include a gospel tract with each box. (It's actually a really good tract that very clearly explains the gospel with lots of scriptural support.) Anyways, we got a few weird looks when we rang the doorbell and said, "We made some some goodies for you because we love Christmas! There's also a little booklet in there that explains why we love Christmas so much." We prayed that our neighbors would come and talk to us about the gospel, but no one has yet. It is (and always has been) in God's hands, I suppose.

Maybe things will pick up when it's warmer outside.  :)

I can't do that...

In no way is this original. I am totally scamming it from Gabe Noll's blog.

Still, it's worth a re-post on my blog. I love being impressed by things, and this is definitely impressive. Especially for me because, if you know me, you know that I have no skating ability whatsoever. Not even on a flat surface at low speeds. Can't do it. So, this amazes me.


Kilian Martin: A Skate Regeneration from Brett Novak on Vimeo.

Weird NFL Season

It's been a crazy season in the NFL. I played fantasy football for the first time this year, so I followed it a little more closely than I usually do. I also did pretty well as a fantasy team manager in both leagues I played in (12-2 and 9-4). Maybe Sam and I will buy an NFL team someday.....

Anyways, I learned some interesting factoids about the NFL playoff picture this year:

1) The Seattle Seahawks are the first team ever to make the playoffs with a losing record (7 wins, 9 losses). They tied for the best record in their division (the NFC West is horrible) and won a tiebreaker game tonight against the Rams to head to the playoffs.

2) The San Diego Chargers have the NFL's #1 ranked defense and #2 ranked offense and did not make the playoffs with a 9-7 record.

3) The Oakland Raiders won every single game they played against their AFC West division foes (2 wins each against the Chiefs, Broncos, and Chargers), but got 3rd place in their division and did not make the playoffs with an 8-8 record.

Murder, Forgiveness, and a Flying Car

This is absolutely one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Not only because something from decades of science fiction might finally become practical, but because the purpose of its development is to serve the Kingdom of God.

The inventor's name is Steve Saint. His dad was new tribes missionary, Nate Saint. Steve's dad, Nate, flew airplanes into the jungles of Equador to bring the light of the Gospel to tribes deep in the wilderness. When Steve was only 5 years old, his father was killed by the Waodani tribe in an attempt to make peacful contact with them. Dispite the murder of Nate, Steve's aunt, Rachel, continued to try to make peaceful contact with the Waodani's. Eventually she succeed and led most of the tribe to follow Christ.

(Steve's journaling of these events inspired the movie "The End of the Spear".)

In an amazing act of forgiveness and love, Steve, at the age of 10, went to live in the jungle with the Waodani's -- the same tribe that had killed his father. After some time learning the jungle way of life with the tribe, Steve was baptized by two of the men who killed his father 5 years earlier.

Incredibly, it is the Waodani people who led Steve to invent such brilliant machine. Tribes deep in the jungle are usually inaccessable by car and by foot due to bridge washouts or impossibly rugged terrain. The Waodani's asked Steve to make something that could help them reach the other tribes in the Amazon to teach them to "walk the trail of God".

Check this out, then buy me one.