The worn valise in my bedroom closet might be mistaken for a used and obsolete piece of luggage. I found it a few years ago, resting on a garbage can. I would have run past it, except I remembered my third daughter, Brianna was into retro, so I slowed down, and decided it was worth…
Author: kevinjyoung
Living in Austin, Texas with the love of my life, Ginnette. Here to bring Jesus to this generation, calling everyone everywhere to get serious about prayer & evangelism.
The Words of Authors In Heaven
To hold an old book, feel it give under my squeeze of affection, to smell it’s pages, and it’s age-scented letters; this my friend is like breath in my lungs. Church libraries entice me to enter their hallowed narrow isles. There I touch dewy decimal spines, looking for familiar authors. Most often though, I come…
An Ember Of A Fire From Another Era
Today students across America got up even earlier than normal, splashed sleep from their eyes, and stood around their school’s flagpole—and prayed. I walked to the high school in our neighborhood, and met my friend, Ms. Rivera, head of discipline there. Her previous job was in a prison. She had invited me to attend See…
What Puff Taught Me About Favor
It was a place off limits to curious fingers that broke vases, and feet that tracked mud. The formal living room, where at times parents and guests would talk. I remember sitting in the stairwell leading up to this sacred place, in my footie PJ’s, listening to the radio play. Where I was in the…
Things Break, Plans Change, Where is God?
The mechanic spoke in whimsical tones, throwing his arms around, and stopping to stare at me when he wanted my reaction. “You ever watch Deadliest Catch?” “Sure,” I nodded. “The reality show about crabbing in Alaska?” “That was my life for 14 years,” he said. “I got out before I died; many of my buddies…
Miracles Don’t Age….25 Years, and it’s Like Yesterday.
On a hitchhiking trip, my friend passed through a camp ground one evening around dusk. He was broke, and hadn’t eaten for some time. Suddenly, his mind was filled with the idea of a baked potato. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted one. So, he did the only thing he could…
A Beggar Offering Bread
Along the journey of 36 years of walking with Jesus, my fondest memories are times where I am simply, as the old adage says, ‘a beggar offering another beggar a piece of bread.’ Before twenty, my life was filled with questions, haunting perplexity, and seeking something I knew existed, but had no idea where to find. A…
Like Two Boys In A Boat
Yesterday, I watched two young boys in a rowboat, Pulling at oars in the stern, Paddling wildly to make progress, Perhaps out for a day of fishing, But fighting hard against the wind To find a place, where the fish might bite. They looked determined, Amidst the choppy water, Unbridled and unconscious strength, Free, Together….
DeJadis, and How Pity Starves the World
Pity may cry, but still walks away… I’m at the grocery store, in the fruit aisle. Returning a rotten pineapple. Behind me, I hear a voice, and turn. His face is pained, frightened like a child’s might be, who’s lost their way. His face a dirty smear, clothes disheveled, hands trembling. “I’ve been homeless for…
I Want to Die Young, at a Ripe Old Age
I want to die young, at a ripe old age. I want to always take new ground, risk new ministry ideas, sow seeds into personal pursuits, and search for creative ways to bring the gospel into our culture. But honestly, it’s not an easy assignment. By natural affect, life tightens around you, constricting interests, suffocating…
Thirty Years Later…
During our first assignment with Cru, Ginnette and I lived in an apartment over a feed store in a cute little town called Excelsior, MN, a western suburb of Minneapolis. Our weekly date night cost three bucks, and very little shoe leather. (Seven steps to the left of our door—dollar theater, followed by a shared…
It’s Time to Re-Enlist!
“Someone pushed her!” The doors to the subway car had just opened. People were screaming, running, and staring wildly under the train. I paused in the midst of it all, not sure why, but then started to talk with a young man. “I was standing right here, and someone pushed her,” he said. He was…
To Sir, with love 