Mandated STD Vaccine for Preteen Girls?

I'd like your reaction to an article I recently read in the New York Times.

Here is a short summary:

- TX State Governor, Rick Perry, attempted to push a mandated law stating that girls 11-12 years old would be required to get vaccinated against HPV.
- HPV (Human Papillomavoirus) is a sexually transmitted disease which research has shown to cause cervical cancer.
- His proposal was overwhelmingly vetoed by state legislature and will be revisited in 4 years.
- Parents could opt to allow their daughters to not receive the vaccine.
- The Center for Disease Control has described the vaccine (Gardasil) as safe and effective when given as directed for girls aged 9-26.
- The vaccine is given in 3 shots over 8 months.

What are your thoughts/reactions? Read the article, let me know what you think!

~JK

Mandated STD Vaccine for Preteen Girls?

Spiritually Unemployable?

There are some people who are totally unemployable in the spiritual realm. They are spiritually feeble and weak, and they refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that our relationship is right with God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.

~Oswald Chambers

Every now and then I will read something that gets me charged. It may be a daily devotional or passage from the Bible. I feel that I can run marathons for God because of this newly inspired self. To be honest there are times when I feel like hiding from people and ministry and feel that I cannot do it. If you ask Krista, she will say that I am more introverted than extraverted. I do not feel that introverts cannot be good ministers, but in many ways I like myself better when I feel I am the "inspired, go-getter, people person." I sometimes feel that I am disappointing God if I am not.

Oswald Chambers says that some people are "unemployable" in the spiritual realm. I think by this he means that the people who always feel the need for "inspired, go-get-em, spiritually supercharged," revelations are unreliable. In fact I think sometimes I look for opportunities to serve where, to be successful, that is the type of power I need. Instead, I think I need to find ways of serving where I feel empowered regardless of any inspiration I may or may not have received. Then when I do get a charge, that area of service can receive a boost and be blessed even more.

~JK

Spiritually Unemployable?

A Filtered Life

Friday is my last day of work. I have been thinking a lot about the 8.5 months I have worked here at Hope for Tomorrow. HFT is a foster agency which services all of Texas and is about to enter Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mexico. My job has been Clinical Director for half of Texas' 10 regions.


I was not too excited about my actual job description when I began. Basically, I was to read and correct treatment plans on children making sure that all the necessary components were included and that the grammar and spelling, etc. was correct. Interacting with children and foster parents was not in my job description. Despite not being the kind of guy that really likes paperwork, I found a certain joy in my job.
In a lot of ways I had a filtered glimpse at the abused lives of the children we serve. Every child placed with HFT is removed from their home by the state due to abuse or neglect. Some cases are much worse than others but what I see is only words on a page. Those words are descriptive of actions and behaviors that are the result of the shattered lives these kids have lived. They only describe in a simplified way the beatings, verbal attacks, sexual invasion, and abandonment these kids have experienced.


Sometimes I was glad all I saw was a filtered glimpse of their lives.
We do not like to think that these things happen. We think it is atrocious when they do. We may offer a prayer over lunch for the kid we heard about on the news, but then we often go back to our filtered lives.
On the rare occasion that I have gotten to interact with a child that has come into the office, I am sometimes shocked by how "normal" the child appears given his/her history. Sometimes I even get uncomfortable because my life is not so filtered anymore. There is now a face to put with the name.
How close can I get without getting hurt? I want to help but not at the expense of my own comfort and well-being. I would like to do something for these kids but I am afraid I might get too invested and then experience loss when I (or they) move on. These are some thoughts I have had since I began working here.
Now I am transitioning into children's ministry. Can I be invested without risk? My time at HFT has shown me that I cannot. When I attempt to keep safe my filtered life, I sacrifice relationships that could grow. Kids do not receive the care they need when we do not put ourselves 100% out there for them. Unless we are willing to become vulnerable to the hurt they feel, we will not be doing them good. Their lives have been plagued by "caregivers" who held back love.


I hope that the children I work with in Mesquite will find that I am someone who does not hold back and is willing to live a life unfiltered by my own self-preservation. I hope that I am able to make them feel that when I am with them, they are cherished by God. I hope they know that there isn't anyone who can love them as much as he.

~JK

A Filtered Life

The Brick Testament!

I found this cool site throgh another friend's blog. This guy has created thousands of scenes from the Bible using leggos. He took pictures to create a Leggo story book of various Bible stories.

Try and guess the stories below!

This one's a toughie!



This is a little easier!


Check it out here!

(Permission granted from "Brick Testament" creator for use of all pictures)

~JK

The Brick Testament!

A Minister of Pain

Here is an interesting quote from My Utmost for His Highest.

Never be afraid when God brings back your past. Let your memory have its way with you. It is a minister of God bringing its rebuke and sorrow to you. God will turn what might have been into a wonderful lesson of growth for the future.

Sometimes the hurt from our past is something that we try to stifle and push down so its harm can no longer, "have its way with us." What vivid imagery to describe the effects that our shame and hurt possesses sometimes. Chambers says this is a minister of God. Its difficult to think sometimes that any minister of God would want to surface some repressed hurt from our past. But, at times, this is necessary. When God brings back your past, let your memory have its way with you. How is God trying to minister to you through the pain, the hurt, and the shame which you have tried to suppress?

~JK

A Minister of Pain

It Was The No-Armed Mom!!

I love being a dad! Sometimes I complain about somethings but this puts me in my place and lets me know how easy I have it.

It Was The No-Armed Mom!!

Children with Cell Phones!?!

I just got done reading this article that was discussing how having a cell phone is becoming more and more popular for the tween age (ages 8-12). On the one hand I find this disturbing. Do we as parents feel so insecure about our children's safety (when they should be supervised by adults who likely have cell phones of their own) that we need to cave into their desires for a techno-tool that will likely lose its appeal after a day or two? On the other hand, I think it could be a good way of teaching responsibility if the parents are going to use it as such. According to the article, 90% of all calls are not necessary. "Fluff" as the author says. If a child wants the cell phone as a status symbol why not use it as a chance to teach about earning the $50 gadget plus the whopping $25 charge for each 200 minutes. This didn't seem to be an issue 5 years ago. It makes me wonder what Miriam is going to be wanting 5 years from now. She will probably need a lap top for her pre-K class. Who knows.

~JK

Children with Cell Phones!?!

Children's Ministry!!!!

Here's the latest:

• I have accepted a job as Children's Minister at the Mesquite Church of Christ in Mesquite, TX. Our first Sunday will be May 13th, 2007.
• I have given my notice with Hope for Tomorrow. My last day will be April 27th, 2007.
• We put our house on the market March 13th, 2007
• We received an offer on our house by the second looker on March 20th, 2007
• We will be moving out of our house April 20th, 2007.
• The Mesquite Church of Christ has a house they will let us live in and we will be able to use the garage as storage as they repaint/refloor.
• Our good friends Doug and Linda Foster & Dannie and Shelley Rio have offered for us to stay with them after we move out until we officially move into our home in Mesquite.

We are extremely excited about this move, yet we will miss our friends in Abilene terribly. We are looking forward to the possibilities that the Metroplex has to offer for Krista as a Nurse practitioner. It will be very exciting to watch Miriam grow up in the context of a Children's Program where I am the minister. Please keep us in your prayers as we make these life transitions!

~JK

Children's Ministry!!!!

Fan the Flame

There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passersby only see a wisp of smoke coming through the chimney, and go along their way. Look here, now what must be done? Must one tend the inner fire, have salt in oneself, wait patiently yet with how much impatience for the hour when somebody will come and sit down - maybe to stay? Let him who believes in God wait for the hour that will come sooner or later. ~Vincent van Gogh

This was quoted by Henri J.M. Nouwen in The Way of the Heart. He is talking about silence. He uses this quote to reflect on how we seldom tend the inner fire of our souls. We want others to be warmed by it so badly that we stand with the door open saying, "Come inside and get warmed!" Yet, all this really does is cool the inside which was once warm. Instead, we ought to stoke to fire and get it roaring. You can tell about the warmth inside by looking at the chimney. A wisp of smoke means a weak fire.

Henri Nouwen says that, "The word is the instrument of the present world and silence is the mystery of the future world." By choosing not to speak, we keep the door closed and wait patiently for the hour to come when someone will see the billows of smoke escaping from our chimney, and then - sooner or later - someone will knock on the door and find warmth inside.

~JK

Fan the Flame

My Clinging Fears and Single Minded Attention to Christ

"Only in the context of grace can we face our sin; only in the place of healing do we share our wounds; only with a single-minded attention to Christ can we give up our clinging fears and face our own true nature. As we come to realize that it is not we who live, but Christ who lives in us, that he is our true self, we can slowly let compulsions melt away and begin to experience the freedom of the children of God."

~Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart

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I saw this painting, Mathias Grünewald's Isenheim Altar, a long time ago. I did not realize what it was until reading Nouwen's Way of the Heart and googling it to see what he was talking about. It illustrates the above passage. It seems we often try to fight our "demons" in a context where there is no grace and forgiveness. I often will ask for forgiveness knowing that I do not deserve it but also feeling like I cannot really have it. I am not sure why I do this, perhaps because I often fail repeatedly and do not want to feel that the grace being offered is cheap. I think it probably cheapens the grace even more when I do not ask for forgiveness in a context of grace with only Christ in mind. If I could think about Christ and becoming like him when I am in need of forgiveness, then perhaps I would not feel that the grace being offered is unattainable. In Grünewald's painting, St. Anthony is in need of help and Christ is right there to provide it.

~JK

My Clinging Fears and Single Minded Attention to Christ

Godly Husbands: Reflecting the Image of Christ for our Wives

This past weekend I did my first workshop for a church. I was asked to do a workshop for newly married husbands. When I arrived I found that there were only 3 (out of 11) who had been married for less than 3 years. Some had been married for nearly 60 years! It was incredibly humbling to hear the responses from the men who have been married for so long. They were so eager to learn and continue to work on their marriages.

We focused primarily on Ephesians 5 and what exactly it means to love our wives as Christ loves the church. We discussed how we are wired differently to show love and accept respect. I feel the discussion went very well. Preaching there Sunday morning was also a pleasure. The topic of faithfulness and commitment is always something I enjoy preaching about. "God is more faithful than we are." It sounds like a no-brainer but the implications of this for our relationships seems to be far reaching and at times quite difficult. I look forward to opportunities in the future to do similar workshops.

~JK

Godly Husbands: Reflecting the Image of Christ for our Wives

Young Husbands Workshop

I have my first weekend seminar lined up! Sometime in January, I will be conducting a 6 hour Saturday workshop with the Northwest Church of Christ in Abilene. The tentative plan is for the workshop to be for young (by young, I think the church means newly married) husbands! I am excited to begin this aspect of my ministry. I hope that this will only be the start of a variety of similar weekend speaking engagements I am asked to be a part of.

If you have any suggestions that you think would be valuable for this workshop on young husbands, leave a comment.

~JK

Young Husbands Workshop

Does God Always Get What He Wants? part 2

There was a resounding (if all 5 comments can be considered resounding) no to this question when I first posted it. It seems that the common thread behind the answer was that because God's plan and ours, i.e. eternal life, not to perish, seek him, are not always the same. That is pretty much the answer I expected to hear.

Let me ask a follow up question.

If God does not always get what he wants, why do we so often attribute the good and/or bad things that happen in our lives (or someone else's) to God not wanting or wanting it to happen? I hear all the time, "I guess that just wasn't what God had in mind," or, "Maybe that just wasn't in God's plan." Do we really mean, "Since things didn't work out the way that I thought they should, I will say it was God's idea" - so that we will feel better about the circumstance?

Is saying, "God didn't want such and such to happen," our way of not throwing a temper tantrum?Or is it possible that God really didn't want things to turn out the way that they did, or that God wanted things to turn out how we did not want?
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Tell me your thoughts. Leave a Comment.
~JK

Does God Always Get What He Wants? part 2

Good Advertising?

I came across this interesting article the other day. Entitled, "Are we sinning yet" it talks about one Canadian website's attempts to create spiritual dialogue about subjects that perhaps non-Christians do not often think about. I am interested in this because the website has placed ads in magazines in newspapers which take a different approach to advertising. I will let the ads speak for themselves below. What I want to know is would this approach be tolerated in the Bible-Belt, where it seems that advertising tactics have mainly included quippy sayings on marquee boards. Tell me what you think. I included the picture and cited the caption underneath because the font text is too small in the picture!

-Would you still take your kids? After all, isn't Christmas supposed to be about Him, not the guy in the red suit? Or can it be about both? Share your opinion at http://www.wondercafe.ca/, the home of lively discussion on spiritual topics, moral issues and life's big questions.

"Does anyone object?" - What do you think? Let us know at www.wondercafe.ca, the home of lively discussion on spiritual topics, moral issues and life's big questions.

Green Tag " __ Agree", Red Tag " __ Disagree" - Want to explore your spirituality in a place that's as open-minded as you? Drop by www.wondercafe.ca and join the discussion.

"How much fun can sex be before it's a sin?" - Moral issues, spiritual topics, life's big questions - they're all up for discussion at www.wondercafe.ca. So drop by and pull up a chair.

On tag, "WARNING: some re-assembly of priorities and beliefs may be required." - Parenthood changes everything - including how you view the world. Every day at www.wondercafe.ca people like you explore and discuss spiritual topics, moral issues and life's big questions. So drop by, pull up a chair and join the discussion.

"__ Funny, __ Ticket to Hell" - What do you think? Let us know at www.wondercafe.ca, the home of lively discussion on spiritual topics, moral issues and life's big questions.

.

Tell me your thoughts.

~JK

Good Advertising?

You Complete Me, My Better Half.

"You complete me." I remember when the movie that popularized this phrase came out. I don't think I was allowed to see it (I still have only seen the first few minutes). I have seen the scene where Tom Cruise says this line to Renee Zellweger. Since then, I have heard people say this or similar things to it over and over again. I have often wondered what exactly it means. Even though it was meant to be romantic, I think it portrays an incredibly unhealthy way of interacting in a relationship. When one person is so dependent on another that when they are not together, they cannot function, there is a problem. This is no different than saying, "She is my other half." I am guilty of saying this. Usually in the form of, "She is my better half." Its a nice flattering thing to say but is it really the way that we should establish ourselves within our marriage union?

There are a lot of fancy psychological words used to describe this idea. Differentiation of Self, Undifferentiated Ego Mass, Internal Locus of Self. All of them are basically describing one thing. A confidence in one's self that is so solid that if one was separated from any other particular person or group of people, they would still be able to function in a healthy way. We are of course not talking in spiritual terms here (There is a whole additional blog post devoted to differentiation and spirituality). Its a wonderful thing when two people can come together not because they need each other but because they want each other. This deepens the relationship to a level that is more voluntary and vulnerable.

What would marriages look like if instead of being with someone because they met a need and filled an empty void, we entered into these relationships because there is something about the other that is so desirable that (I almost said, "we can't live without") if they felt the same desire and passion for us, a glimpse of heaven on earth would be seen. I don't want to live in a world where I need things. I don't want to live in a world where I am needed. I want to live in a world where those in relationship with me are there because of desire and admiration.

~JK

You Complete Me, My Better Half.

Does God Always Get What He Wants?

Leave a comment.

A follow-up will be posted soon.

~JK

Does God Always Get What He Wants?

Perfect!

Does this picture really need an explanation?

~JK

Perfect!

The Face of Christ

This song has struck me pretty hard a few times this week. Maybe I am becomeing more aware of the poverty around me because of various things happening at church or interacting with the shattered lives of children who have been the victims of poverty related lifestyles. Its amazing how viewing the world with the lenses of this song have caused me to rethink what is important and how I react to the "crises" in my own life.

Face of Christ, by Chris Rice

He shares a room outside with a dozen other guys
And the only roof he knows is that sometimes starry sky
A tattered sleeping bag on a concrete slab is his bed
And it's too cold to talk tonight
So I just sit with him instead and think

How did I find myself in a better place
I can't look down on the frown on the other guy's face
‘Cause when I stoop down low, look him square in the eye
I get a funny feeling, I just might be dealing
With the face of Christ

After sixteen years in a cold, gray prison yard
Somehow his heart is soft, but keeping simple faith is hard
He lays his Bible open on the table next to me
And as I hear his humble prayer
I feel his longing to be free someday

How did I find myself in a better place
I can't look down on the frown on the other guy's face
‘Cause when I stoop down low, look him square in the eye
I get a funny feeling, I just might be dealing
With the face of Christ

See you had no choice which day you would be born
Or the color of your skin, or what planet you'd be on
Would your mind be strong, would your eyes be blue or brown
Whether daddy would be rich, or if momma stuck around at all

So if you find yourself in a better place
You can't look down on the frown on the other guy's face
You gotta stoop down low, look him square in the eye

And get a funny feeling, ‘cause you might be dealing

...How did I find myself in a better place
I can't look down on the frown on the other guy's face
‘Cause when I stoop down low, look him square in the eye
I get a funny feeling, I just might be dealing
With the face of Christ

~JK

The Face of Christ

I No Longer Live

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." Gal. 2:20

What does this mean?

I am laying my life down willingly.

I am not going to choose to be rescued.

I am going to forgive others.

I am going to depend on God.

I am going to suffer.

I am worth death on a cross.

I am going to rise again.

I am eternal.

~JK

I No Longer Live

S.O.A.R. - Spotlight On A Relationship

Soar: To rise or aspire to a higher or more exalted level.

Today is my parent's

Wedding Anniversary!

Mom and Dad (Jeff and Terri Kellar) have been married for 27 years. They have 3 kids and 3 grandkids! Dad serves as the Worship Minister for Kingwood Church of Christ and Mom works for The Mudpie Company, a paint your own pottery studio. Mom and Dad have been an example to me of what it means to be committed through thick and thin. I look up to them for their dedication to each other as well as their devotion to the Lord. As they become more experienced in ministry, it is incredible to see how God is using their experiences to bless those around them.

Mom and Dad, I'm proud of you!

~JK

S.O.A.R. - Spotlight On A Relationship