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...