Joel Young Blog.com

Tonight I had the rare opportunity to go golfing with my buddy Ryan. At one point in time golfing was one of my main focuses in life and my hope for a future profession. I played almost every day back then, and now, even though he season has not turned completely it’s pretty much over and I only played twice this year. That’s an all-time low for me. Yet, in spite of that fact I played better than I had in years tonight. I was one under par and I only missed one green in regulation all evening. Kind of bittersweet that the game I practiced towards all those years just fell out of my pocket tonight. Makes you wonder if practice does really make perfect.

My real point is to say that life is always changing. What was at the top of your list 10 years ago might not even be an integral part of your life today. It’s hard to believe that things change this much, but it’s cool to think about. Think about the things that you might be doing in 2, 3, or 4 years. The possibilities are really endless. Two years ago I would have never guessed that I would be ready to follow God’s call to move to an unknown location to start a church, but here we are.

Even when things change I can honestly say that God is good. Cliche I know…but so very true. What a great night and a great perspective He gave me tonight.

Today was my first experience as a substitute teacher in Campbell County. So, as I usually do I thought I would share some of my thoughts from the experience.

1. Ipods are TOO convenient. I would estimate that over 75% of all the kids at school had an Ipod or some other kind of mp3 player in their ears at all times. It was a struggle to get them out of their ears for even a 45 minute class. I no longer wonder why there are some many socially awkward kids in today’s society.

2. I cannot, nor will I ever be able to, conjugate a french verb.

3. If your school mascot is something as strange as a camel, don’t post signs all around school saying, “be a camel!”

4. There is a big difference between Freshman and Sophomores. We should extend middle school to the ninth grade because most freshman aren’t ready for the real responsibility of high school.

5. I get nostalgic when I get around teenagers. In my heart, I am still in high school and I sometimes I long for the days of little responsibility and “easy living” that I had when I was in high school. I had a great childhood and a great pre-adulthood (is that a word?) and I’m thankful that I can look back on my life like that.

6. Last but not least…Ms. Hornback needs a more comfy chair!

Last week at my community group a friend mentioned that she saw this sign on the East side of Cincinnati, and I was in such disbelief that I had to find out if it was actually true. So, I did a search and I don’t know if this is the exact sign, but the wording is exactly as my friend said it was. I’m so disturbed by this sign that I’m not sure what to say. All I think to do is apologize on behalf of the marquee man who thought that he was conveying a Biblical truth. Ridiculous!

I know my blog has been slow in the last week or so, but believe me I have good reason. I don’t think that I’ve ever been busier that I have been the last couple weeks working toward Horizon’s official launch. We got off to a great start with 30 in attendance after a long, hard, complicated week of high winds and no power. This delayed EVERYTHING, but God still put it together and showed up in a big way on Sunday.

Though it has been a stressful time of 70 hour work weeks, and crazy deadlines it has also been a very encouraging time. I got about thirty phone calls, no exaggeration, on Sunday afternoon from people telling me that they were praying for us that morning, and the whole week leading up to Sunday. You have no idea how much that kind of support will encourage you until you experience it. It was humbling to know that there are so many people in my life that care that much about not just my family, but our ministry at Horizon.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us in our endeavor to start this church. We appreciate your prayers.

Well, last night the meaning of those words we’re truly realized as Northern Kentucky was pounded with winds equaling that of a category one hurricane. If you know me, you know that I have an deep desire to avoid natural disasters. I don’t ever want to live on the coast where there are hurricanes and typhoons, I never want to live out west in the flat land of tornado alley, and you will certainly never find me living in the shadow of a volcano. You would think that in Midwestern America one could find refuge from all those things, but think again.

My family, along with like half a million others, were without power for nearly the entire day. My one year old son was pretty freaked out when the sun went down and we had no power, but in his defense so was his 19 year old uncle who was waiting out the insanity with us. So, last night at about 9:30pm we all decided to give up living like primitives and make the drive across the river to my other bro’s house where they were they had TV and AC.

Then, just as we went to walk out the door, with a pop and a bang the power came back! You would have thought we had won the lottery we were so excited. The funny thing is that we knew the power would eventually come back on, but we couldn’t handle the uncertainty of when.

Obvious and profound spiritual parallel for this week of my life: Waiting on God’s timing is hard to do, even for ministers, but when He makes things happen they seem perfectly planned form the beginning.

Sorry for the blog silence, but it’s been a long couple weeks for everyone at Horizon. Deadlines are here and things are getting done, but as you can imagine it is a crazy time. We are preparing to having our second of two practice services this coming Sunday, and we are still busy tweaking almost everything in hopes to get things just right.

I don’t ask for this much, but if you could make the time to pray for our team and everyone involved in the days leading up to our launch on the 21st we would really appreciate it. We understand that now more than ever the devil will be active, trying to undo all our hard work, and we have confidence that prayer will pull us through. If you would like specific things to pray for, go to our website and download the SHIFT daily focus guide. Even if you are unable to do the daily reading, there are specific prayer focuses for each day leading up to Sept. 21.

More details will come as they happen!

Exactly one year ago today I became a father. I was totally blindsided to how much Reed would change my life, but our little family has changed forever. He struggled through his first few weeks of life, anbd gave us all quiet a scare, but he’s made up for lost time and become a true boy.

I can’t tell you how much my life and my sense of life has changed in that year, but I can show why. Here are some pictures. I think they will show you why it’s so easy for me to be a proud papa.

Here’s cowboy Reed’s picture that was on his birthday invitation. Yes, he is a great shot. (In case you can’t tell, this is a doctored picture. I didn’t give my one year old a set of six shooters and ask him to point them at the camera! You would be surprised how many people can’t tell.)

Here’s Reed with his favorite birthday present; a foam sword. He didn’t put it down all day, and he even tried to sleep with it, but mom slipped away with it when he finally dozed off.

Here’s Reed driving Grandpa Sam’s boat. He really gets a kick out of steering wheels. It’s even more fun because it makes mom nervous.

Here’s Reed in a small shopping cart at Hobby Lobby. Even though it looks like he’s playing, he’s actually mocking a kid in the next isle over who was throwing a royal fit. Ahh…to raise a mockingbird. He pretty much looks like a giant.

Well, the last 6-18 months of my life have pretty much been a blur of activity with everything moving towards the goal of being prepared to launch Horizon Christian Church in September of 2008, and Sunday evening I finally got to see exactly what that will look like. Sunday night was our facility open house and it was the first time we had actually set up all of the equipment, media, and lighting that we have been purchasing and developing. It was pretty exciting.

Horizon peeps, you don’t want to miss our first couple weeks of services. Not only are we in the middle of a really cool series called SHIFT, but just to have the time to appreciate all of our hard work we have done together before we publicly launch on the 21st will be awesome. Plus, it is amazing how this space has been transformed by all of the elements that are being used. I think you will be blown away to see how it has all come together!