Isaac Franklin

Moving

2011-03-16T17:48:00.000-07:00

I've moved to a new blog called Edited by God.

See you there!

"Like a rocket shooting up to the sky..."

2011-03-06T22:38:00.000-08:00

Just a random assortment of pictures :)

Idaho Impromptu Finals

Adam practically tackled me after I got 1st at Puget Sound :) Love that guy so much.

Bremerton Round-Robin, debating with Alex Hayes

I show this picture to point out (though blurry) the small ducky on my table. He was found in the lost and found at my church (complete with basketball stripes) and he has since become my mascot. I don't debate without him, he's a symbol of motivation and encouragement, among other things :) Anyway, thought you'd like to know ;)

"...she's got me burning up inside..." (Can't get this song out of my head)

welcome home :)

Another update :)

2011-03-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

So sorry for the delay. Here's a quick life update:

1) So yeah, remember that sore throat I had? Well, after I recovered from it, I discovered it was actually Strep throat. So here I was, running around preparing for a tournament thinking, "Man, this is a really bad sore throat" and it turns out it was a little bit worse than that. Go figure.

I'm all recovered now though, besides just an occasional twinge in my throat, but that's to be expected. Strep is no fun. Very painful.

2) The Puget Sound Qualifer: Originally I was planning on competing with my dramatic interpretation here, but because of my strep which knocked me out a couple days, I had to drop the event. Also, once I got there, my voice was threatening to give out on me, I dropped my persuasive as well ::frowns:: sad day. So I went into the tournament competing in Team Policy, Humorous, and Impromptu.

The weather was crazy! The night we got there, it snowed, and in the morning, there was ice under the snow. The whole entire tournament schedule got rearranged and turned upside-down, and we ended up having to drop a speech round, so everyone only competed in two preliminary rounds.

Team policy went pretty well, but not as well as I would have liked. Some strange stuff happened in prelims with some.... interesting judges, but I've come to expect that. Right now, I'm just waiting and trusting in God's timing, so that when the time comes, we'll get favorable match-ups :) Ben and I ended up placing 14th. So okay. ish.

Humorous went very well, I got very positive feedback, and I had a blast competing. In the final round, I was matched up against Creighton Deems, Stephanie Emmons, Devin Kruse, Harrison Scott, and many other excellent interpers. The finals was AMAZING. The audience came ready to laugh, and they packed around 50+ people into the room. We all had so much fun, and all of the competitors were together, cheering one another on and praying for each other. I truly enjoyed that round, and I ended up placing 5th.

Impromptu also went very well. I can't really remember all my draws, but I remember one of my preliminary draws was "A great city is that which has the greatest men and women." For that speech I talked about the three ways that is proven to be true, through 1) architecture, arts, and creativity, 2) integrity, and 3) the greatest city of all.

In semi-finals I drew the word "Oblivious" and I shared about how 1) it can be humorous, 2) the impact it can have on real life situations/the importance of understanding the implications of our decisions and 3) being oblivious when it comes to an eternal perspective.

In finals, I drew a quote from Bertrand Russel that says "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." For this speech I shared the three things that keep wise people/people with great potential from contributing to society, which is 1) Complacency 2) Confidence and 3) Simply a lack of action.

I was so blessed to remember a Teddy Roosevelt quote that said:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

This speech went incredibly well, and I was able to use an excellent closer (that I remember five seconds before I had to close). I ended up placing 1st in impromptu with this speech.

3) Now, I'm back home, and I'm working away at school, and some side-projects, some graphic design and such, and preparing for the next tournament :) Life continues.

Right now, I'm rather hungry. :)

schatzi

Late-night thought

2011-02-20T21:45:00.000-08:00

Sore throats are bothersome. Sore throats that last more than three days are even more so.

In other news, I'm nowhere near ready for the Puget Sound tournament, but it will be a blast nevertheless. :)

Hope everyone is doing well, especially those of you who are far away. :) Through rain, and shine... and my personal favorite, rain and sunshine :)

Goodnight!

Pictures from Idaho

2011-02-18T15:09:00.000-08:00

Life goes on. What a bother.

2011-02-17T15:26:00.000-08:00

There's nothing more entertaining than having to continue through life when you want to take a breather. Unfortunately life never gets tired or wants to take a break. It's rather inconvenient.

Right now, I am writing two debate briefs for our club, researching for my affirmative case, creating a logo for a friend, writing a dramatic interpretation, trying to decide whether or not to compete in Apologetics at the next tournament, and sadly turning down a skiing/snowboarding trip tomorrow in order to finish it all :P Such is life.

Idaho Tournament: It went extremely well! This was the first tournament I truly competed in speech events, and I had a lot of fun. I competed in: Team Policy Debate, Persuasive, Humorous, and Impromptu.

After an exhausting 3 day tournament, my final results were: 8th in Team Policy, 8th place speaker, 7th in persuasive, 2nd in humorous interpretation, 2nd in impromptu, and 5th in sweepstakes. I've discovered I truly enjoy speech events.

The club as a whole did incredibly well, and though I don't have complete postings, I do remember a rather large amount of Rainmakers being called up for awards :)

Now, I'm preparing for the Puget Sound Qualifier up in Washington, and I have a lot of work to do before then :) So farewell for now, I miss you all.

Happy Anniversary

2011-02-16T12:49:00.000-08:00

I’m a hopeless romantic. I’m pretty sure you all know that by now. Love fascinates me, it captivates me, and yes, it can be rather distracting from other important things in my life.

When I think about love, and romance, and marriage, I think about reaching that moment where you never have to say goodbye. Where you never have to let go, where you have each other forever and ever.

In 1973, a love story was born. A hippie musician. An aspiring ballerina. Sparks flew, and a romance was kindled. Infatuation turned into dedication. Dedication, not simply to one another, but to their Lord and Savior, dedication to the ministry He called them to, dedication to the children He blessed them with. Dedication through the blessings and success He gave them, and dedication to the trials and pain He tested them with.

This was a true love story. Complete, not just simply by the feelings toward one another, but their love for Christ. Christ was their first love, though they loved each other ferociously.

I think it’s easy for us to say that Christ is our first love. I think too easily they become but words, practiced until they roll off the tongue with ease. It’s simple to make this claim until it’s truly tested.

After 37 years of marriage, my father had to do the unthinkable. He had to say goodbye. Goodbye to a wife that had loved him, cared for him, encouraged him, and even scolded him when necessary. Goodbye to his help-meet, his #1 fan, his best friend.

Goodbye to a marriage that had encouraged and saved lives and families in generation after generation. One that had earned the respect, not only of the world, but of their own family. One that had raised up their children to take their place as leaders of their generation.

He had to say goodbye. And as we stood by her bed, as the life of the woman we all loved fiercely slowly faded before our eyes, my father leaned close, tears whelming in his eyes, but his voice toned with quiet resolve,

“It’s alright, Sono. You can go home now.”

My father let her go. My father surrendered her to her first love. To his first love.

Every Sunday, I watch as my father lifts his hands and blesses his Lord. Every Sunday, I watch him exhort others to surrender themselves and live for Him. The one that saw it fit to take his wife to heaven. Unhesitatingly, he carries on. Why? Because God is his first love.

This picture shatters the image that I have of love. Forever and ever? It’s not to be. It questions what I put as first in my life. I watched a marriage, strong, passionate and loving, give way to something greater.

Today, so close to Valentines, we celebrate a marriage. A true love story. It’s success, it’s beauty, not because of the love between the two individuals but because of God’s love for them, and they for Him.

Happy 37th anniversary, Gregg Eugene and Sono Sato. Your story, and your lives will never be forgotten.

Your son,

Isaac

1 John 4:19 - “We love because He first loved us.”

Tournaments Begin

2011-02-01T17:16:00.000-08:00

I apologize for not posting sooner, but I've been rather swamped. In fact, come to think of it, I'm pretty much always swamped. So we may have to get used to this :)

Last wednesday I drove down to Medford with the Davis family for the Clarion tournament. We stayed at the Eddy family's house, which was a great blessing as I had the opportunity to re-unite with my old friends.

The tournament itself was a lot of fun, but it definitely felt different for a multitude of reasons. Change is always very strange, but God is always good.

I competed in my very first speech event with a persuasive entitled "The Crisis of Christian Teen Relationships." Drawing from personal experience and insight, I reveal how damaging the relationships that we allow in our Christian culture can be.

In the three times I shared it, dozens of teens and parents came to hear the message. I'm forever grateful for the opportunity to share, what I believe, is an incredibly important message. In addition to the people that came to listen, a couple very dear friends stopped by to hear it, which was an incredible blessing, though it was a bit nerve-wracking at the time :) It was a gratifying reunion, and some of what was shared was both surprising and encouraging. I'm grateful for friends that never give up hope :)

As I prepare to take the speech to other tournaments, several of the speech coaches at the tournament told me they were very shocked that it didn't break, and felt that, with a few minor tweaks, that it will be headed for Nationals. And while this is definitely encouraging, I pray that God will allow me to focus purely on sharing the message and not on the success of competition.

Now, I'm preparing my reformatted persuasive, a humorous and dramatic interpretation, impromptu and debate for the Idaho tournament that I'll be leaving for in exactly a week. Should be fun :)

Hope everyone is doing wonderfully.

Remodeling pictures

2011-01-20T17:47:00.001-08:00

Christian was an awesome help with everything :)

Building the desk

Resting :)

Thus is my new room. minus a chair, a bean-bag, a few bookshelves, plus a new paint job and a new carpet, soon to be added. :)

Of boxes, suits, and old papers

2011-01-13T13:17:00.000-08:00

The last few days I've been working on renovating my room. The plan is to replace the carpet, paint and get all new furniture... Since we haven't painted or redone much of anything in there since we moved in... like 20 years ago ::grins::

So my days have consisted of cleaning out my closet, and desk. I'm rather proud of my closet right now. It has my suits, overcoats, vests, ties, and dress-shirts in order of color, and it looks rather awesome :)

While I was rooting through my desk drawers, I found some interesting things in there (for example, an old hidden recording pen) including an old crumpled paper with the words written backwards: "It isn't working. Let me restart real quick :) :) :)"

It was such a blast from the past, and it made me smile :)

On schedule for today, I have to finish cleaning up, and then start getting ready for the debate RR on Saturday up in WA :) Should be interesting, Alex Hayes and I will be the only team heading up there from Rainmakers.

Well, I suppose that's all for now.

Isaac Franklin

Clarification :P

2011-01-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

It just dawned upon me that the bi-polar friends comment may have been taken by some particular person to be directed towards them. I wasn't trying to reference anyone in particular, just a few interesting encounters with some of my friends recently :) Just so no one freaks out.

Alright, that's all :)

The ups and downs of my life

2011-01-09T19:07:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update...

I've been extremely tired lately, probably due to the fact that I've been staying up till like 2am every night :) The time has been spent on my persuasive, duo, and debate. Lots and lots of debate :)

Friday afternoon Ben, Christian and I went to Imago Dei church in Portland to help the team get ready for the Round Robin. Ben and I had a short worship practice and then helped set up the debate rooms, and the student lounge in the gym.

The next morning, I woke up at 5am to get ready for the day. At around 6, Mr. Edmonds picked me up, and then we swung back by the Edmonds before heading back to the church for the tournament.

I have NEVER been so tired at a round robin... After the first round, I just realized I couldn't keep it up, so the rest of the tournament I kinda just focused on making the arguments, and not putting a whole lot of effort into presentation.

The tournament for Ben and I went like this: We hit Placzek/Placzek going AFF (won), then we hit Hofsommer/Travis going NEG (won), then Tardy/Li going NEG (won) and finally Baxter/Walsh going AFF (won).

We ended up placing 2nd place, right behind Chris Riegg and Liz Wolcott, and right in front of Rachel Aldrich and Shelby Bennet, completing a nice Rainmakers trio :) Over all, I believe Rainmakers took 5 of the top 8 slots.

Today, some of the Whatcom debaters came to church at Gresham, so it was nice to spend some time with them away from the tournament setting and just relax. The coffee I got was pretty much the only thing that made me through the day :) I need a lot of rest... like a lot a lot.

On an unrelated note... some friends can be very bi-polar and confusing. They do things that make you stop and wonder if you did something wrong, and have no idea what it might have been. I guess such is life :-/

I'm tired, but happy (for the most part), unsure of how I'm going to make it through this next crazy month, confused, tired and tired. Yep.

Hope you're all enjoying yourselves.

Another day, another... um....

2011-01-03T16:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not posting for a few days, I've been kinda busy. Let's see.... where to start...

Thursday night I went out and watched MegaMind and RED at Mt. Hood theater, along with the Roger Family, some of the Fala family, the Cools Family, the Edmonds, and an assortment of other odds and ends of friends ;)

MegaMind was brilliant! Very entertaining, very cleverly made. I was impressed. RED was a shoot 'em up, lots-of-explosions movie. Not great story line or script, but entertaining nonetheless :)

I was dropped off at the Edmonds, and we decided to just have me spend the night there...

Friday morning, I woke up at 5:15am for the prayer meeting, and then we prepared for our trip to Mt. Hood. At around 8:00am Brett and James arrived and Mr. Edmonds, Ben, Christian, Simon, Brett, James and I took the 2 hour drive to Coopers Spur to go snowboarding. After waiting an hour in 15 degree weather, we finally got our equipment and headed up.

I'm very proud to say that I did quite well. I fell down a few times my first couple runs, but my last five runs were made without any tumbles. I had a lot of fun, and we all had a great time together.

On a related note, I'm really looking forward to learning to ski someday. Hopefully. God willing :) In the meantime, snowboarding will have to do.

Saturday I was out cold for quite a bit of the morning. The afternoon was spent mainly (I think) working on debate and such. Saturday evening we had the Maynard wedding. Unfortunately, Portland traffic was so bad that we arrived right at the pronouncement and kiss, but we stayed for the reception. I spent the night dancing to LadyGaga, and an assortment of other artists I don't support with Quin, Justin, Lucas, and Greg :) quite entertaining.

Oh, that reminds me, my little brother James is an amazing dancer. He literally cleared a circle on the dance floor when he started dancing. He was so awesome. :D

Sunday was another crazy day. I woke up early for worship practice, in desperate need of coffee. After the service, Dad and I went to Nordstroms to check in on my suit again, but it turned out they needed to do one more small alteration (Dad's picking it up as we speak). However, I'm really excited about the suit :) It's really comfortable, and very nice looking. ::is excited::

From there Dad and I drove and met Brett, Sarah, and James at the Lucas Family's Swing Dance party. Brett, James and I were only able to stay for about 30 minutes or so before we had to go pick up Jon Winslow and head to the Blazer game with the Barclays.

I'm so glad I was able to make it to at least on Blazer game this year! It was a lot of fun, and the Blazers won easily, but it was still an entertaining game. They also scored 100 points, which means we all got a free chalupa at Taco Bell :) I also won free cinnamon twists on the little change platform..... game.... thingy :P You know what I'm talking about.

Today I have spent dedicated to working on debate, especially on club briefs. I'm in charge of research and coordinating students to compile research on a certain debate case. Today is the final deadline, so I'm receiving, editing and compiling their evidence into a final brief. They've done a great job, I'm really proud :)

That's all for now, I'm praying for all of my friends, I know many of them are busy and overwhelmed right now. But I'm so proud of what they are striving for, and what they are accomplishing. ::smiles::

That's all for today!

Isaac Franklin

Visiting with friends

2010-12-28T17:54:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, a quick recap:

Monday morning I woke up and set about cleaning up the kitchen/dining room/living room area. Most of it consisted of putting all of James' new presents into a box for him :)

After finishing, Quin swung by and picked me up from my house, and we drove over to Clackamas Town Center to meet up with the Reich sisters, and Lydia Neumann. We ate lunch at Chipotle, and after about two hours, comprised of conversation about Teenpact, Worldview, and life plans, were joined by Rachel Aldrich and Shelby Bennet. We spent another hour or so there, and around 3:00pm, we spent some time in the mall browsing through various stores.

Shelby, Rachel and Lydia had to leave, so Quin, Betsy, Molly and I drove back to my house where we made dinner and then played Quelf with the family. If you haven't played Quelf, you need to. It's pretty entertaining :)

This is just to give you a little idea of how awesome Quelf is :)

Today has been very relaxed, and I've spent a good deal of time working on debate. Really looking forward to this next year, it's going to be great. We'll see how everything unfolds :)

For now, I am going to watch the Blazer game, listen to the rain falling heavily outside, and finish up some debate research :)

Hope you're doing wonderfully,

Isaac Franklin

...And a happy new year

2010-12-26T23:07:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas week. I'm doing well, just trying to remember what I need to recap.... let's see....

Well the days leading up to Christmas were spent working on debate (surprise!), spending time with Alex, Courtney, and Brett, and doing a ton of dishes. Like a lot. Like a lot a lot. You never truly realize how much dishes baking creates until a holiday comes around. So the combination of Courtney and Sarah's baking made it rather... a lot. I did 5-6 times in one day. And I swear, I washed the same pan like 15 times in two days. :)

Christmas was actually really nice, Sarah did an incredible job. Among the gifts I got was a wallet, a shirt and tie, and a switchblade. Which is really cool. My brothers know how to give gifts :)

I also was able to give my gifts, which were as follows: to James, the Settlers of Catan expansion: Seafarers. To Sarah, a silver necklace. To Brett, a leather messenger Fossil bag. To Alex and Courtney, a gift-card to Fossil, and to Dad, an iPad leather carrying sleeve.

The Edmonds came over in the late afternoon and stayed for dinner. We spent the evening eating, talking, playing interactive games on our iPhones and iPods. It was a blast. (Ben and I also squeezed a little debate in there as well ;) ) We wrapped up the evening by watching an episode of Ben's christmas gift, which is the new Sherlock Holmes series from BBC, which is actually set in modern day. It's BRILLIANT, and very, very well done. I'd encourage you to go watch it :) (please note, it is a little dark, so it may not be suitable for young children)

Today, Alex and Courtney took off for Colorado, just a little while after the church service. I spent the time at church talking politics with Ben, Christian, and Judah Rancourt, and playing Encore with a group of young people. That's a very stressful game :)

Later in the afternoon, dad took me to Nordstrom for my Christmas present and we got a new suit! It's really awesome, it's a three piece (coat, vest, and pants) and it's a really dark navy blue with not-quite-pin-stripe lines running down it. It's really sharp, I'm so excited. I'll try to get some pictures as soon as we get it back from the tailor. The prospect of having two suit options now at debate tournaments makes me happy. And I know that's sad, but that does make me happy :) I'm weird like that, I guess.

After that, my dad and I watched Tron. I actually was very impressed, it was well done, nothing cheesy. There was a couple character development weaknesses, but not very much to complain about. I think most people would enjoy it.

So now, I am home. And tired. And ready to face a new week. We'll see how it unfolds :)

To a new day, an unfading hope, and a never-ending assurance.

Isaac Franklin

Late nights and debate seem to go hand-in-hand

2010-12-22T10:52:00.000-08:00

Well, quite a lot has happened since my last post, so let's see....

Saturday: Saturday night was rather long, I was playing on the worship team, and because of this crazy new sound system at church, we've been practicing on Saturday nights. However, because there was a lot of Christmas songs, there was only four songs that I really played on, so much of the practice was them working on technical issues, and me waiting for my song to come up. Thank goodness for my iPhone. :)

Sunday: Sunday morning we had church, which went very well, over all, and even though the sound system was complaining the whole time. After the shared meal we watched this incredibly documentary on the Star of Bethlehem which actually shows scientific proof of it's existence. It was really incredible, I was quite struck.

At around 3:30pm, I left with my dad and Colton Best for the Rainmakers Christmas party. It was really awesome to be able to sit down with all my club-members in a setting outside of debate where we're rushing around getting ready for a round, or researching something. That said, we still talked about debate ;)

We left at around 8:30pm, and came home where dad and I cleaned up the house for Alex and Courtney's arrival. They landed at about 10:30pm and went to bed pretty soon afterwards.

Monday: Monday was a rather low-key day for the most part. Mainly spending time with Alex and Courtney, wrapping presents and making food. At around 3:00pm I left for the Edmonds where I got a much needed haircut, and then Ben and I rode with Quin and Kenny to.... the Rainmakers Christmas party.

Allow me to explain: Rachel and Ted decided that they all missed last year's Rainmaker's club so they had a Christmas party for the 2009-2010 Rainmakers. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone again, and we spent the evening watching Lucas and Justin rap, playing Debate Jeopardy, singing Christmas carols, drinking Henry Weinhard's root beer, and doing the white elephant gift exchange. All in all, a great night.

Tuesday: I slept in. A lot. When I got up, Alex, James and I played Risk, which didn't go too far because it was James's first time and he wasn't prepared for the high-intensity environment :) Instead we opted for some games on the iPhone, since Alex always brings back some nifty game for me to download. It's very distracting. :P :)

Tuesday night, after dinner, we went with the Edmonds to Lloyd Center to go ice-skating, which I have only done once before in my life. It was really fun, and I'm pleased to say that I did not fall down, not even once. I just had to get that out. I was very proud. However, my toes did not fair as well. My skates were made of some very rough leather, and the tongue wasn't wide enough, so the edge rubbed against my small toe, so after about 30 minutes of skating, it felt like it was on fire. :P That aside, we had a great time.

In other news: Ben and my case to ratify START has reached it's end. Tuesday afternoon, Senate passed cloture on START (which essentially means they're bringing it to a final vote) and the consensus is it will pass by this afternoon. So while we're sad we lost an incredibly strong case, we're happy that this policy has been passed. Now, I know there's a lot of disagreement on this issue, but I have spent literally months dedicated to research on both sides of this issue. In the end, I have to side with US military generals, and the expert analysts and negotiators that are actually working with the treaty, as compared to Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney. I understand the concerns, but I believe they are unmerited.

So, back to debate. Knowing that we had to find a new case, Ben and I started research at around 11pm last night. And by 4am, we had a complete 1AC and 8 pages of back-up for our new case. We are very proud of the accomplishment, even though it meant a late night.

So that's all for now, I'll post again soon. Love you all :)

Isaac Franklin

A title? No thanks...

2010-12-17T20:50:00.000-08:00

Life really is one large roller-coaster. Perhaps not quite the same adrenaline rush and joy-ride as most of them are, but a roller-coaster all the same.

Instead of updating you on everything that's happened since my last post, I'm just going to review the last day or so, and try to keep up to date from there :P

Yesterday I finished the last of my Christmas shopping (yay!) which was a tremendous load off my back. It's really strange how the presents you buy change as the years pass. Now, James is pretty much the only family member we get toys for.

I drew Brett's name for a gift, which means I get him something extra special. The annoying thing about shopping for Brett is that we both like the same things. So I find myself wanting the gift I bought for him, but I probably never will because I wouldn't spend that much money on myself :P Oh well.

Yesterday evening was also the Christmas party, and to make it crazier, we were arranging to do some filming at the party for my dad's new project "Household Embassy." So for preparation, I was helping light candles, set up video equipment, render video files, and load them onto a hard-drive for our web guy to take back with him the next morning. It was quite the experience.

Besides that, the party seemed to go very well, from my perspective. My sister Sarah did a lovely job of playing hostess and everything looked absolutely beautiful. Some guy is going to be very lucky someday.

Looking ahead, I'm planning out Christmas break, and trying to figure out how I'm spending time with the family, as well as make sure some important conversations get factored in. Prayer would be appreciated, as this is a really important time.

That's all for now, I shall work very hard to post again soon.

Isaac Franklin

Starbucks and more

2010-11-28T15:32:00.000-08:00

Today was a happy day. I got my first Starbucks card! Looking back, and find it odd that I never got a Starbucks card before, considering that I've been an avid Starbucks drinker for 3+ years, but nevertheless, I'm satisfied to have my first :)

Pictures will come, I'm sure.

Thanksgiving: In the morning, I came downstairs, and not too long afterwards, was engaged in an intense game of Settlers of Catan with Brett and James. We played until around 12pm (we've been playing this game... like a lot) until Joel, Kimi, Elena and Aria arrived.

After that, I spent about an hour holding my new niece Aria as she fell asleep. She's an angel, and I rejoice as we add new members to our family. Bittersweet memories are made.

A little while later, the Fala family came over and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner. Sarah did an EXCELLENT job, with the help of Kimi and Mrs. Fala, and the whole family felt quite stuffed by the end. We ended by watching one of my favorite movies, "It's a Wonderful Life."

Yesterday morning, our family went over to the Edmonds house for breakfast, and afterward went Christmas tree hunting. We now have a beautiful, 13 foot noble fir tree in our living room. But we still have to decorate it.

In other news, I'm planning out an intensive school schedule to get my school work out of the way as soon as possible. My goal is a little intense, possibly impossible, but I'm trying to see if I can get everything out of the way to be ready by... Fall of 2011. We'll see. I have some praying and some planning to do :) Further bulletins as events warrant.

For now, Brett, Sarah and James are challenging me to another game of Settlers of Catan, so I must go and defend my dominance in the land... once again.

That's all for now! :)

Isaac Franklin

I feel like I'm always saying this...

2010-11-24T21:29:00.000-08:00

But so sorry for not posting for so long! I've had a crazy last few weeks, so please forgive me.

Since the film festival, debate and speech have taken over a large percentage of my life. I'll recap a bit:

On the 13th of November, we had the first debate round-robin of the year (hooray!). All but 2 Rainmaker teams were present, but out of those teams, only Ben and I were a varsity/varsity team. Pretty crazy. The tournament was held in Seattle, near Shoreline, and was just one day.

We (The Edmonds. Stephen Hellweg, Matthew Riegg, and myself) decided to be crazy and drive up the morning of, and drive back that night... Not a good idea.

We arrived about 15 minutes before the first round and scrambled to get ready in time.

In the end, the whole tournament was a great blessing, and Rainmakers placed in the following:

Novice Teams:

Cannon/Cannon: 8th place novice team

Cools/Winslow: 4th place novice team

James Moller: 1st place novice speaker

Varsity:

Edmonds/Harris: 2nd place team

Isaac Harris: 2nd place speaker

----

Since then, just a whole lot more debate!

Yesterday my brother Brett got in from school, and he'll be visiting for a week. He was rather tired yesterday and headed to bed early (while I was at debate giving a lecture on flowing) but today we were able to spend together talking and playing games: Quelf (which I horribly failed at) and Settlers of Catan (24 victory points! And all three metropolis's! :D)

This evening we followed our old family tradition of cutting apples for pie and listening to Oscar Brand's First Thanksgiving tape. The family is smaller, and in some ways it seems a little empty. But times change, and new memories will be created.

More to come!

Isaac Franklin

Picture Update #7

2010-10-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

(l to r) Geoffrey Botkin, Jeff Moore, and Doug Phillips discussing new HeuMoore production "Ace Wonder"

George Sarris retelling the biblical story of Naman, cured of lepresy.

(l to r) George Escobar and Doug Phillips previewing Advent Film Group's latest project "Alone Yet Not Alone"

Picture Update #6

2010-10-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

George Sarris

Ace Wonder-ful: (l to r) Johnny Reighard (intern), Joshua Hedrick (intern) David Moore (actor), and Phillip Haumesser (intern) get into the spirit of the movie, along with the rest of the enthusiastic audience.

Joshua Phillips, being interviewed

Interviewing Joshua Phillips

Isaac Botkin networking with filmmakers.

Picture Update #5

2010-10-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

(l to r) Jeff Moreland (actor), Robert Grossman (actor), Ben Botkin (composer), David Bowman (special effects artist), David Heustis (producer)

Full Q&A Panel: (l to r) Doug Phillips, John Moore, Jeff Moore, Gator Moore, Derek Moreland, Jeff Moreland, Robert Grossman, Ben Botkin, David Bowman, David Heustis, Nathan Webster, and Geoffrey Botkin

Family collaboration: (l to r) John Moore, Jeff Moore, Gator Moore

Ben Botkin

Geoffrey Botkin

Picture Update #4

2010-10-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

Mr. Phillips listening to Q&A answers

(l to r) Derek Moreland (actor), Jeff Moreland (actor), Robert Grossman (actor), Ben Botkin (composer), David Bowman (special effects artist)

(l to r) Doug Phillips, John Moore (director), Jeff Moore (actor), Gator Moore (actor)

(l to r) John Moore (director), Jeff Moore (actor), Gator Moore (actor), Derek Moreland (actor)

Becky Morecraft singing "How Firm a Foundation"

Picture Update #3

2010-10-29T07:03:00.001-07:00

Municipal Auditorium

Auditorium Hallway, busy during a break

Doug Phillips casting vision for the festival

Geoffrey Botkin presenting on how to evaluate secular media properly

Video Update #1

2010-10-29T06:14:00.001-07:00

Video quality will improve over time, the video is still currently re-rendering itself online.

Picture Update #2

2010-10-28T16:36:00.001-07:00

Christian and myself, busily live-blogging

Video editing

Picture Update #1

2010-10-28T15:33:00.001-07:00

John Clay Burnett collaborating with fellow filmmakers

Semi-Finalist Filmmaker, Jerica Henline

SLR videography: The filmmaking of the (not so distant) future.

Greetings From San Antonio

2010-10-28T14:15:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Wanted to give a quick update on the festival: Registration was up and running smoothly but with an unexpected plot twist (at least to me). Part of the viewings for the festival have been moved to the Municipal Auditorium, approximately a mile away from the Convention Center. This makes it rather difficult for Christian and me to tote our equipment back and forth.

Other than this, however, things are running wonderfully. So far we've previewed "Live to Forgive," a overwhelming story of a young man's journey through anger towards his step-father for killing his mother, forgiveness, and re-unity by God's grace. The story was incredibly powerful, leaving us to wish only that they had more money (and thus better equipment) to tell their story with. Sadly, this is the case with so many aspiring Christian filmmakers.

Speaking of aspiring Christian filmmakers, Right now Christian is previewing some short films. It's exciting to see these initial efforts made by budding filmmakers, and we look forward to seeing how they grow and hone their talents and gifts in the upcoming years.

A quick look forward: Hopefully sometime tonight we'll be posting a "recap of the Academy" video. Since we weren't able to be present for the academy, we're taking some insights and opinions from fellow filmmakers and attendees as to how they felt like the Academy went, and why they would encourage others to attend. Stay tuned for that, and more photos and videos.

And please, follow our twitter account so that we know that we aren't just tweeting into some abyss ;)

God bless!

Isaac Franklin

Live-Blogging: SAICFF

2010-10-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

In the past my brothers and I have live-blogged the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival (SAICFF) through their website therebelution.com. Realizing that while many readers enjoyed the live-blog updates, the area of filmmaking is not one that applies to their members as a whole. So for that reason, we decided to move the live-blog here for this year, and simply re-direct people.

Christian Edmonds and myself are flying down this morning to live-blog the festival, and we'll be posting quite regularly here. For more immediate updates, please check out our twitter feed here.

Hope you you enjoy the updates, and I'll talk to you all again soon!

In Christ,

Isaac Franklin

Painting!

2010-10-22T00:27:00.000-07:00

We spent a good part of today painting the kitchen. The living room, dining room and upstairs aren't finished yet :) I apologize for the mess, everything has been moved around and out of the way.

Aria Sono Harris

2010-10-21T13:21:00.000-07:00

A relieved and tired mother :)

She is so precious

Welcoming the newest member of our family

Thank you God for this incredible gift.

The Days Are Crazy!

2010-10-20T21:55:00.000-07:00

Wow! My days are so whacky and busy. Running all around, researching like crazy, but still finding time to check in on special websites.... or blogs ::smiles::

Yesterday was debate club, and the first time that everyone in club debated, so there was a lot of really nervous novice students :) But they all did amazing!!!! I was so proud of all of them. It wasn't perfect, but that can't be expected. They all did a great job of filling their speeches, I was very impressed. Ben and I debated negative against Joseph Cannon and Henry Frame (two awesome new students), and Ben was a beast :) It was so awesome, he was smooth, polished and eloquent. Really great round for him.

Next week Ben and I are both Ironmanning against other teams, because Chris and Liz will both be unavailable. I'm really looking forward to being responsible to cover all the speeches, something I've never done before. It's going to be a blast.

Tonight was Apologetics (our second meeting) and I was in charge of making sure each room had judges, time-keepers, and a correct list of student cycled through on time. Talk about crazy :) I have a new-found respect for hall-monitors and tabulators. Besides the hectic environment, it's really cool to see new students studying Apologetics. Crazy to realize this is my 4th year.

In other news....

I'M AN UNCLE!!!! (again)

My brother Joel and his wife Kimi had a baby girl last night, Aria Sono Harris. It totally made my week. Tomorrow I get to visit them and meet her. I can't wait to have kids :) :) :) I'll be posting pictures soon, hopefully.

Random thought: It's funny how crazy your life can become. Between Debate, and Speech, Apologetics, and other events going on in my life, there's really very little time for anything else. But I always make time to keep up with my dear friends, far and close (but mainly far) away :) Just a thought ::smiles::

Oh, and I can't wait for surprises :P :) ::laughs:: I'll stop confusing you now.

Happy 56th

2010-10-17T15:18:00.000-07:00

Today is my mother's 56th birthday. Over the past years, there have been times when some of the family hasn't been around to celebrate it, but this is the first year that she isn't around for it either. Knowing that we'll never get the opportunity to celebrate it with her again weighs heavily on each member of the family.

Birthdays are funny things. When you're young, you eagerly anticipate becoming a year older. But as you get older and older, birthday's become more of a realization of your gradual approach to the end of your life. My mom didn't care. From year to year, nothing changed for her. Every year was dedicated to raising her children, loving and supporting her husband, glorifying God, and eagerly waiting for her true home. My mother wasn't concerned about age or beauty. Her eyes never strayed from those eternal rewards.

She's been gone for awhile now. In many ways, it's still very surreal. I swear sometimes I can hear her from my room, working in the kitchen, counseling my brothers, teaching James math, or helping Sarah pick out an outfit. Sometimes I can visit her in my dreams, and sometimes I make her live through my memories of places; sitting on the couch giving her a shoulder rub, looking through photo albums together, or taking walks with her after her varicose-vein surgery.

Sadly, at the end of the day we're all faced with the reality that it will never be quite the same here on this earth. She was God's gift to us. She was the reason to our madness, the caution to our adventure, the comfort to our pain, the order to our chaos, and the string to our kite. She supported everything, strengthened everything, held everything together, and without her, our family would not be who we are today. Life is different, life is hard, but God is so good.

I thank God every day for the hope that I have in Christ. Because of that sacrifice, I haven't lost my mother forever. She's simply waiting for me. In the meantime, I'm constantly reminded of her memory, especially on days like this, her 56th birthday.

My mom isn't celebrating her 56th birthday though. You know why? Human birth doesn't matter anymore. Neither does age. Guess what does? Re-birth through the blood of Christ, and eternal life. Happy 105th day in heaven, Mamma. We miss you.

Yay! Debate!

2010-10-12T22:49:00.000-07:00

Tonight I finally got my wish: I got to debate! Man, I've missed it.

Ben and I got to debate Adam and Luke tonight, our team going Affirmative. It was a Start-Stop round, meaning that in-between speeches Mr. Wolcott would make commentary, give some critique to help the new debaters that were watching get an idea of how the round would work.

The round itself was awesome, we had a blast. Lots of jokes were cracked, analogies were made, and then turned upside down, and the turned upside down again. Great memories :)

Tomorrow we're having our annual Harris Family Cider Press Party, so I'll hopefully get some pictures from that :)

Bonjour!

A thought :)

2010-10-08T22:13:00.000-07:00

You know what's funny? How useful your own advice can be. There have been so many times where I've been struggling with something, or confused about a choice, and my own words have come back to help resolve the issue at hand.

Recently, I've been unsure about some of the choices that I'm making about my life in the next couple of years. I've been confused about what God is doing and why He's doing it.

Then, I found one of my own quotes.

"Life is like one of those connect-the-dot puzzles, and we're the line. From our view, we see the closest dot and want to get there as quickly as possible. But God holds the pen, and He sees where the next dot truly lies, and, while it may confuse us at the time, His choices are the ones that will turn our lives into the beautiful picture it was meant to be."

Keep those dots comin', God.

:P :)

2010-10-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

So I have these inspiration points... And they usually come late at night. Whether that's good or not, I have to take advantage of them, and it usually doesn't keep me up that late. Last night I only stayed up till 1am, in my defense.

But I got 10 more pages of evidence completed! I know have 35 pages of back-up evidence (which is more than I ever had last year) and a complete 1AC for next Tuesday's start-stop debate against Adam and Luke.

It'll be a lot of fun :)

And everything is good because I was able to sleep in. So anyone who is worrying about my amount of sleep per night doesn't need to :) "I'm fine"

Homecoming Fun

2010-10-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

So to start out, I know these posts are extremely short, but right now I unfortunately don't have enough time for full recaps. I will provide one when I get back home though :)

In the meantime, I participated in the most awesome game of Ninja: 40 college players, with probably another 200 spectators. I only played one round, but I ended up advancing all the way to finals and winning :)

Thanks to Rebecca Turner for capturing all the festivities on camera.

Final Round

:) :) :) :) :) :) :)

2010-09-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

Two words: Ocean Kayaking.

This is pretty much the most amazing thing I've ever done at a beach.

Quick Update

2010-09-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

We arrived at Bethany Beach, DE last night and headed to bed. In a few hours the Klicka family will arrive and we'll be staying with us for a night.

I'll post pictures and news as soon as there is some. Love you all :)

"And she turned lemons into lemonade and water into wine... only by the power of her little smile..."

Praise God!

2010-09-26T12:28:00.000-07:00

We were so blessed to end the 2010 Rebelution conference tour on an incredible note here in Washington DC. During the altar call following my brother Brett's gospel message, between 150 and 200 people stood to receive salvation.

We do altar calls a little differently. Generally the speaker will ask everyone to bow their heads and close their eyes. But we ask people to do the hard thing. So with every head up, and every eye open, we ask them to stand and proclaim to those around them that "Jesus Christ is Lord!"

Why do we do it this way? Because we don't believe that you should be able to "sneak" into the Kingdom of God. If one isn't willing to stand and acknowledge Jesus in a room full of believers that will be supportive, how are they to stand out in the world where people will mock and laugh at them? And the second reason we do this is because the Bible tells us that it pleases Him when we acknowledge Him before men (Matt 10:32).

Thank you God for using this conference to bring more precious children into your family.

Teens

Children

Parents

Soli Deo Gloria

Emails, Emails, Everywhere :)

2010-09-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

The last two days I've been running around texting and emailing a dozen people, trying to get letters of recommendation as I apply to staff.... Oh come on, y'all can guess what it is ;)

Pray for me as I finish that up in the midst of gearing up for the conference this Saturday, spend time with my nieces and nephew, and continue to stay up to date on my debate club, from the other side of the country.

What a crazy, wonderful, stressful, and sometimes unexpected life I live. :)

More and more pictures!

2010-09-23T14:20:00.001-07:00

I just started an album on FB with pictures from the second stage of my trip (At the Harris home in Maryland) and I figured that instead of uploading all of them here, I'd just include the link.

So here they are.

The current pictures are all of some fun I had with my nieces and nephew. Having an iPhone has been such a blessing in such situations :)

Pictures (Part 3)

2010-09-23T10:47:00.001-07:00

There are no words to describe the awesomeness of this picture

Great friends :)

Pictures (Part 2)

2010-09-23T10:42:00.001-07:00

I'm telling you, Ben and I were homies with Abe.

The question is, which one of us is the President, and which one is Vice-President?

...Obviously a difference in a opinion.

Pictures!

2010-09-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Christian and I should have been Minute Men

Lincoln Memorial at Night

I don't think there's anything to say about this one...

Oregon Students!

Capitol Rotunda

Back to Blogging..... Again.

2010-09-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Right now I'm resting and recovering from a week at Back to DC. I had an incredible time, met some really neat friends and enjoyed touring all over the city.... er, district.

I've also become rather proficient on the Metro system, to the point where I was helping direct other people as to where to go. I am very proud of that fact ;)

I have another two weeks left of my trip, and I thank God for everything; He gives me just enough strength to make it through each day.

:)

2010-07-22T19:04:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

I don't have much to say, but I just wanted to let you know I had a far better day today, and so thank you for the prayers. God Bless!

Can we not ever have today again? Thanks...

2010-07-21T21:14:00.000-07:00

Today was stressful, and long.

Nothing turned out well in a way that could make you happy, and enough things were mediocre to make things difficult. It was long, with large spans of time left to just thinking. Things happened that shook my trust, and that caused smaller things to frustrate me greatly.

To top it all off, additional bits of news made the next couple of weeks something not to be looked forward to.

I really, really hope today is done.

Prayer would be appreciated.

The days in review...

2010-07-19T16:58:00.000-07:00

Well the last few days can really be boiled down into two things:

Speech + Debate, and Church picnic :)

Speech and Debate has been going pretty well. I've been spending a lot of time recently working on my duo, which is coming along really well. The story is very clever, which makes it difficult to interpret, but the payoff should be really good. It's an entertaining story :)

I think the part I'm looking forward to is teaching Christian how to speak with a british accent :D

Other than that, debate research is more of a study day-to-day thing. I'll add a couple pages to the brief every couple of days, when I get a chance to sit down and focus on it.

Apologetics has been neglected for awhile :P Which means I probably should get back to it... it's so hard juggling six events because you get into duo-mode, or debate-mode, and you don't want to break out of it, but you must :P :)

Funny realization: Sometimes, just the knowledge of someone important in your life being closer to you is enough to lift your spirits. Even if you don't get the see them :)

The SDA church that our church rents from needed to use the facility on Sunday afternoon, so we moved the shared meal over to the Ko's house. Besides a good lunch (which is appreciated after no breakfast) the young people spent several hours playing volleyball, another sport I really enjoy.

May I just say real quick that the combination of Ben and Isaac is the bomb. Do not mess with us ;)

I just finally got around to listening to the song "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol. I really, really like it. It's a very... fitting song :)

As I type this, I realize I have a lot of planning for this late summer and fall (debate stuff, possible Teenpact trips, and Film festival stuff) so I'm going to go figure out what my life holds for the next few months :)

I don't have a title for this one :)

2010-07-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

I don't suppose I have much to say.

But I really felt like I should post.

Tuesday: The beach! :) I haven't been there in quite awhile. Tuesday morning our family (Dad, Sarah, James, Alex, Courtney, Joel, Kimi, Elena, Tani, Zach, and myself) made the 2 hour drive to Cannon Beach.

I enjoy the beach, but it's so much more meaningful when you get to share it with someone special. I'm looking forward to going there again :)

Alex, Courtney, Sarah and I arrived at the beach a few minutes before everyone else, and so we walked down to the beach for 20 minutes or so. Alex and I spent that drawing pictures in the sand, and doing cartwheels to entertain Courtney.

We then walked into town to take care of my hunger headache (12pm, and nothing to eat that day) and we ate some really good pizza from a pizza parlor that is apparently rated in the top 50 pizza parlors in the country. Alex and I then went into a clothing shop and picked out the funniest shirts. I wanted to buy one that said "Real Men Wear Pink" but it was 18 dollars :P

We then walked across the street to the candy shop and I bought some saltwater taffy, and split a bag of cotton candy with Sarah (she's only had it once before in her life).

The rest of the day was spent on the beach jumping over waves, (I got soaked from my waist down, and I forgot to bring a second pair of jeans :P) stopping in the various shops, flying kites, etc.

That night we drove back, stopping for dinner at Camp 18, which used to be a logging station thing-whatever-you-call-it :)

The last couple of days have been laid back, and I've mainly worked on video editing, as well as speech and debate. I have some literature for my Humorous interp on hold at the library which I'm really excited about :)

The rain has been amazing. It's turning into an enormous flood, I've never seen it rain so hard :)

A wonderful day

2010-07-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

I'm so thankful for today. I've been needing a solid day out, completely away from the house.

This morning the whole family went to Edgefield and ate breakfast at the Black Rabbit restaurant. Edgefield is beautiful, an old building turned into a hotel and restaurant, huge, beautiful gardens, vineyards, and a 3 par golf course.

I would love to take my future wife here sometime :) Random fact.

After breakfast, the family headed off to Multnomah Falls for a while, but Alex and I stayed back and decided to play the 3 par course. We both are rather bad at golf, but it was fun, and we enjoyed heckling each other as we played. In the end our scores were nothing to brag about, as expected ;)

We came back home at around 3:00pm, and I took care of some emails. At around 4:30 we all hopped back into the car and headed off to India Oven, one of our family's favorite restaurants. I ordered Chicken Makhanwala (kind of a curry chicken served over rice). We ate and talked for over an hour, and then all caravanned over to Papa Haydn's for dessert. They have AMAZING desserts. I ordered Boccone Dolce, which is meringues layered with whipped cream and fresh berries. It's like eating heaven, I swear :)

We ate our desserts outside and then said goodbye to the Josh Harris family (they're leaving tomorrow morning.

After getting home, I spent the evening on Gmail, facebook, and getting my daily dose of NBA news :)

As well as talking to a dear friend.

All in all, a wonderful day :)

And a wonderful day is never without bucket loads of rain.

::laughs a little::

2010-07-11T16:39:00.001-07:00

This week has been extremely emotional.... like nothing else I've ever experienced. From the tears of loss, to the joy of memories and family and friends.

I have reached a time in my life that is so confusing, a time where I'm sometimes unsure as to what is real and certain. And among the many things I have learned is, when everything is shaky, I must remember that this time is difficult for others too. So when they make mistakes, I cannot judge them, because the pain they are experiencing is great as well.

Rain is an interesting thing. It can be light and almost cheerful, the kind that you want to run outside and dance in. It can also be heavy and dreary, rain that drops your spirits, that seems to whisper hopelessness. But there is one thing that always remains the same, regardless of what kind of rain it is.

It's always rain.

It will always be raining. Just today, the dreary rain stopped, and the refreshing shower started again. The most wonderfully refreshing rain I have ever known. :)

Leave your umbrella inside, it's better that way :) :) :)

An Update

2010-07-09T12:55:00.001-07:00

I felt like I should post an update.... sorry it's been awhile, I wasn't really sure what to write, I didn't really have anything to say.

The last couple of days relatives have gotten in. Grandma, Uncle Steve, Aunt Susan Aunt Tani, cousins Annie, Joe, and Lisa. It's been wonderful to get to see them again :)

Preparations for the memorial service continue, Alex is creating a slideshow, we have guys from the church cleaning the decks and getting everything ready. Ties are being bought, suits are being dry-cleaned, and everyone is doing very well.

Thank you all for your prayers. They have been felt and appreciated.

::taps:: Is this thing on?

2010-07-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

::smiles::

::smiles wider::

::smiles really big::

I'm happy. And I really don't know why. There are things going on in my life that, for most people, would be considered one of the biggest trials you could go through. But (if you saw my last post) I have this.... calm surrounding me. I know everything is going to be okay :)

The last few days have consisted mainly of writing my persuasive, hanging out with the family, spending time with Ben and Christian, watching Toy Story 3.... which was amazing.

Pixar, it's almost unfair. It's unfair that a production company can be so good that they can take one of the greatest animated films of all time and make it into a trilogy that's 2nd and 3rd film are just as good as it's 1st. Then doesn't happen. Like ever. Pixar is amazing at creating a human connection. Creating animated moments that are so realistic that you connect with the characters. Whether it's a plastic space ranger, a cloth cowboy doll, or an animated teenage boy.

Pixar, I love you. Please never change.

Speaking of movies..... though I haven't seen it yet (and still plan to) The Last Airbender was a major flop (9% on Rotten Tomatoes :P). This made me incredibly sad. Way to ruin a great TV series, M. Night. By the way, if you haven't seen the anime TV series, you need to :) It's called "Avatar: The Last Airbender." You can spend hours watching them. Seriously. Be careful :P :D

Wow, this post actually turned into a post of reasonable length. ::gasp:: I AM a debater. I'm able to talk about nothing for extended amounts of time :P

Before I bore everyone, I shall leave. Hope you're all having a wonderful time, wherever you are :)

I'm just here enjoying the rain.

Isaac Franklin

Peace

2010-06-29T18:15:00.000-07:00

God has given me incredible peace.

I don't know why.

Those things in my life that were so confusing and hard are still there. Right in front of me. But I feel at peace. I don't understand it, but everything is calm.

Thank you, God for this gift. May I always rest in your peace. May I never try to carry my own burdens, but rely only on you.

Mmmm.... cookies and lemonade :)

Looking Forward to This Fall

2010-06-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

I'm the kind of guy who looks forward to the future. Like a lot. Like a lot a lot. And while there are many different areas of my life that I look forward to (:) ) There is one area that I have been focusing on.

Speech and Debate.

People told me before I joined debate last year to not measure what I thought of debate on my first year. This confused me because I loved debate. More than I can describe. So, needless to say, I can't wait for this year. I've already seen the improvement that being a.... ::tries to think of the title:: a "not novice" gives you, and I know that I can do well this year if I set my mind to it.

I figured out that Ben and I did reasonably well, considering our circumstances. Let me explain:

Ben and I qualified to Regionals at the Clarion Qualifier in Medford, OR, placing 5th out of the top 8. Of the top 8 at Clarion, 7 of them went on to break to outrounds at Regionals.

At Regionals, Ben and I were 1 of only 3 novice teams to break to outrounds. We had a 4-2 record in preliminary rounds, losing in octafinals. Out of the 3 teams that we lost to, all 3 went on to place in the top 5 at Regionals (5th, 3rd, and 1st respectively). Also, the team that eliminated us in octafinals went on to place 1st place at Regionals.

Then, out of the 3 teams that beat us at Regionals, 2 of them went on to place in the top 3 at Nationals (3rd and 2nd respectively). It would also be good to note that all three teams that beat us are graduating this year.

Needless to say, we feel that, barring similar (and unlikely) circumstances, we can do very well this upcoming year.

In addition to debate, I'm planning on participating in speech events. Right now, I'm planning on doing at least Apologetics, and impromptu. I also hope to do a duo, and persuasive. That would be 4 speech events in addition to debate, so I thought I might as well add on a 5th event (Humorous?) and just Ironman.

So I'd love your opinion. Do you think it's a good idea ironmanning? If so, why? Do you think it's a bad idea? If so, why?

I look forward to your feedback!

Returning to Beaver Country

2010-06-27T18:12:00.000-07:00

Why hello there. I'm back, and I feel like I'm relearning how to type on a keyboard... amazing what one week of no technology can do.

The trip to Survival was great. Off the top of my head, I can think of awesome card games in the car, drinking Redbull and then taking a nap, listening to Human by The Killers, ganging up with Quin to tease Lindsey, reuniting with old friends, meeting new ones, gathering the guys together in the cabin each night for devotions and discussion, hiking to the top of a mountain, building shelters, climbing over huge walls, singing songs, cooking breakfast, and much, much more.

This week was also great in that it gave me time to think. Think about all that was happening in my family, and trying to learn how I can best serve them through this hard time.

One of the biggest things I learned though was that I don't need to be in control. I've kinda grown up my whole life having control, but this week, I stepped back and realized that even when things are out of my control, God takes care of me, and all my circumstances. I wish I had learned this lesson much earlier, but now is as good as time as any.

I still have so much to learn, and in so many ways I need to grow. But God doesn't grow someone up all in one day. It's a process. And though it's usually not fun, it's for the best. It's best for my own future, and for everyone close to me.

Prayer is always appreciated, your love is always felt :)

Isaac Franklin

Here we go! :)

2010-06-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in the Cool's living room, luggage surrounding me, preparing to head off to Survival NW. I'm looking forward to the week. Reuniting with old friends, meeting new ones, laughing in the car, debates, listening to music, etc. I'm mostly looking forward to growing more. Much more. I'm praying that I will.

Any prayers would be appreciated, we have a long trip in front of us :) Life isn't perfect by any means, and this time in my life isn't right now either :P But God is good, and I am learning to trust, in God and in others :)

God bless,

Isaac

My life on "paper"

2010-06-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know. I'm pretty much the least consistent blogger on the face of the earth. But I am making (another) conscious effort :)

Life has been crazy, yes. For those of you who don't know, I was recently in Tennessee for nearly four weeks working on a feature film with John Moore and HeuMoore Productions. Returning home, I was faced with the reality of my mother's diagnosis of stage IV colon cancer. And while we all pray for a miraculous healing, we are all aware of the fact that if it is God's plan to take my mother home, we have no say in when or how He does so.

Right now, a good deal of the family is here: Mom, Dad, Brett, Sarah, James and myself (all of those living at home) as well as Alex and Courtney, Joel, Kimi and Elena, Josh, Shannon, Emma, Joshua-Quin, and Mary-Kate. My grandmother (on my mom's side) is flying in tomorrow, along with Uncle Steve, Aunt Tani, and Uncle TJ. We're thankful that Mom will be reunited with her siblings and mother again.

I'm also preparing to attend Survival NW, a Teenpact alumni camp in Montana from the 21st-26th of this month. Last year it was an incredible growing experience and I pray that God will do the same work in my heart this time around.

In addition to all of that, I'm preparing for next years speech and debate season. That includes me finishing over 20 apologetics cards in the last two weeks, and preparing and researching debate. It's amazing what a difference one year can make: Last year, I hardly knew how to research by September. This year, I already have a case and it's only June.

Prayer for our whole family would be appreciated. This may very well be one of the toughest trials we go through as a family together. Prayer specifically for me would be that I continue to lean on God. You never realize how much you've been leaning on something or someone until it's taken away from you.

Random thought for the day: I love golf. Although I really stink at it. I guess that means I'll have to stick with one of my favorite past-times of just watching it :)

Filming, Day 5

2010-05-15T11:19:00.000-07:00

Greetings fron Wears Valley, Tennessee.

Today our call time was at 12:00, so (though we had stayed up till 2:30 the previous night) we got to sleep in reasonably.

After a quick breakfast we were off to set where I spent the first couple of hours recording times for when the actors arrive on location, in make-up, on set, etc. I also played a quick game of pool with Marshall ;)

Just before 2:00pm, we started filming the first scene. Today we'll be filming three scenes: 102, 56part, and 58. All of the shots are interior shots of the Morton home. A location we'll be filming at for the next couple of days. It's a beautiful log cabin at the foot of the Smokey Mountains. A place like this could easily cost a fortune (and then some) to purchase.

Since we started shooting at 12pm, that means we'll wrap up filming tonight at 12am. Shooting always goes 12 hours, so if they need to film at night, call time (when we have to be on set) is later in the day.

Other than recording acting times, I'm also keeping track of when we move onto the next scene, make sure nothing disturbs the filming, and run various errands for the director, producers, and crew when they need it.

I'll try to keep updating about what I'm doing, but it may be the same thing for quite awhile :)

Random thought for the day: It's amazing how even when you're incredibly busy, when you go without something vital, you feel like your day is empty.

My Day, April 29th, 2010

2010-04-29T22:11:00.000-07:00

Today started by waking up at 6:15 to get ready.

Dress shirt on,

Dress pants on,

Tie on,

Vest on,

Suit jacket on,

Glasses ;)

I then headed over to the Edmonds and we drove over to the Riegg's house and rode with them down to Salem for Teenpact graduation day. The rest of the day was spent filming Teenpact from every angle possible. The result? 24GB of footage. Fun to film, not so fun to load onto your computer.

Quick humorous story: I walked to the capitol building to get to the cafeteria to get some lunch, went up to an entrance, and pulled on the door. It was locked, and there was a sign saying "Public use other door." I turned around, and started walking away, and a security guard standing outside said "Hey, you need to get in?" I nodded, and he swiped his card and opened the door and said, "You look like you belong here anyway"

It's amazing what a suit, tie, and glasses can do :) So now I've been mistaken as a Senator, lawyer, and a lobbyist. Booya ;)

It was good to see some friends there though. Joe Radcliffe, Jimmy Brazell, Brianna Walden, to name a few. I'm hoping to see them all at some Teenpact alumni event :) We'll see.

We said goodbye to everyone, and drove back to the Riegg's house. The guys walked down to Thriftway and we bought some ice-cream cones, then we sat in on a debate theory discussion with Mr. Pipes and Chris. Some interesting things were said, good things to ponder. :)

After that, we headed back home, and had dinner (Mexican) and I checked my email till Joel and Kimi came over, and we just spent some time talking.

So now, here I am. Sitting here. Waiting. And wondering :)

Life isn't bad. It's not absolutely fascinating or anything. But not bad :)

Random thought for the day: Funny how when you tell about your own boring day, you can't see anything interesting in it. But when you hear about the day of someone you really care about, every word is incredible, breathtaking :)

My Day, April 28th, 2010

2010-04-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

Meh. I really hate colds. I hate having to concentrate on breathing. It's.... pretty darn annoying :)

Sadly, the majority of my day consisted of me gradually recovering from my head cold. But I think I've mostly beaten it. So we shall see :)

Today I read a little more of my book (see last post), made some lunch, created a campaign logo for a friend, cleaned up some HTML and other things on my blog, and cleaned out all of my CF memory cards so that they're ready for filming tomorrow down in Salem (Teenpact).

Yes, not much in one day... but colds really slow one's productivity. It's quite sad.

Tonight I watched a basketball game, and talked to Brenna for awhile, just catching up since we haven't talked for awhile :) I miss a bunch of friends from Medford. Hopefully someday soon I can visit.

Random thought for the day: It is amazing to stop and realize how much one person can change your life. Even if a very short span of time. :)

My Day, April 27th, 2010

2010-04-27T16:09:00.000-07:00

So last night was the cast party for Estranged Identity, which was nice. Spent the night in conversation with various people. Everyone under 20 ran down the street though to watch a building that was on fire. Only the second fire I've ever seen, so it was quite fascinating.

Exhausted, I didn't get back till nearly 11:00 and hit the hay at around 11:45.... Long day

Today I woke up late with a stuffy nose and a small headache as a consequence. I really hate colds, but when I have them, I just try to ignore them and continue on with my day. We'll see how that goes :)

Today has consisted of figuring out what to eat, eating, and trying to organize my summer schedule.... trying to figure out for the life of me what my summer schedule actually is. Prayer would be appreciated, it seems to be shaping into a pretty full one.

Other than that, I talked to my good friend Meghan, started a book called "How to Read a Book", and reviewed some old videos from last year. Life is. And that is all :)

Random thought for the day: I really like pictures. Lots of them :)

My Day, April 26th, 2010

2010-04-26T17:53:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up and after breakfast, I got the debate bug and started researching a few different debate cases, mainly for fun.

At around 11:45, Jed Ko picked me up and we headed over to Team Quest, where we're taking self-defense class and we worked on throwing punches and blocking while moving. It seems trivial, but throwing two technically correct punches while keeping your legs spaced and making sure to keep your hands up to protect your face is hard :P :)

Next we began to review different grappling techniques, the main one being a way of flipping a person who's on top of you off and into a triangle lock, basically cutting off the blood flow to their brain, and knocking them out.

To wrap up we spent 15 minutes practicing punches and kicks, alternating between the punching bag and our trainer.... I was dripping sweat by the time we were done.

I got back and spent some time reading over old emails and conversations that made me smile. There are days when pleasant memories are all that keep me going.

At 7:00, I'm heading off with the family to the cast party for Estranged Identity. Obviously, I can't write about something that hasn't happened :) But either tonight or tomorrow I'll write about it :)

It's raining cats and dogs out here... and the dog is on the table :) :) :)

Oh dear....

2010-02-10T19:38:00.000-08:00

I realize I have not posted for awhile. But I promise you, I will.... Just as soon as I decide on what to post about :) Perhaps some ideas? Until next time,

Isaac Franklin

Resolved...

2010-01-27T12:18:00.000-08:00

Quick update: Ben Edmonds and I are heading down with our debate club today to Medford for the Clarion Qualifier.

Please pray for the safety of all the teams traveling down, and that we would have an incredible, God-glorifying time there, as we sharpen our debate and argumentation skills.

I'll try to post pictures and/or updates if and when I can. Thanks!

Isaac Franklin

And Many More....

2010-01-17T23:42:00.000-08:00

Birthdays are such strange creatures.

I suppose everyone believes so, in one way or the other, but I have decided to bore you with my own personal reasons.

Now, you may be wondering why thought of this in the first place, and why in the world I would waste the time to write a paper about it. That is an excellent question, and I suppose the answer is that writing down a fragment of an idea often helps you grasp the rest of the concept. I write this for my own benefit, and hope you learn something from it.

My Birthday is March 26^th. That is the day it will be this year. That is the day it was last year, the year before, and every year for the past 15 years. But the funny thing about my birthday, is every year, once it is past, my next birthday seems ages away. In April it seems ages away, in May as well, June and July pass, same result, August and September, October and November, and finally December goes whizzing by, and then, BAM!

It’s January.

Holy cow, it’s two months till my birthday.

Every time I have a birthday, I recall moments where I would fantasize being the age that I had just become. Turning 10, and finally having a double digit age. Turning 12, and finally being able to compete in speech and debate, (which actually didn’t happen till much later) 13, when I became a man, 15 (at which age, when I was 10, I hoped to be married) and now, 16. And honestly, I don’t remember what I fantasized about being 16, mainly because I’m too afraid to try to remember.

But the funny thing about turning each of those ages, is it was never what I imagined. And it never felt different.

People often joke on their birthdays that they don’t feel a year older. That’s probably because they’re not. They’re just a day older. “Yes Isaac, everyone knows that,” you say. Yes, I know. But it makes me think. If the aging happens every day, than growth does too.

No, I don’t mean physical growth, though that may very well be the case. I mean maturing. When I was younger, I looked forward to reaching certain ages because of the man I envisioned being then. I thought there was a connection between the age, and the maturity. But the truth is maturity is just like aging. It happens every day. Or it doesn’t. Aging happens whether we like it or not, but maturity is something we must strive for. If I dream of being 18, I must grow in maturity to become the man that I want to be at that age. Every day, I am becoming the person I will be in the future.

By God’s grace, and perseverance, we can become the men and women that we hope and dream to be at 18, 21, 30, 40, 50, or 80. By making the most of the day before you. After all, days become weeks, weeks become months, and months become years. I want to go to bed every night and ask myself, “What did I do today to become who I want to be at 18?” God can make it happen.

Happy Maturing Day.

::sitting::

2010-01-17T22:21:00.000-08:00

Pardon this random note, I wrote it during church.... and no, I didn't know what I was writing when I started :)

Today, I sit. Thinking, pondering, wondering, hoping, remembering, fantasizing, dreaming, planning, persevering, wondering, listening, breathing, smiling, twitching, twiddling, shifting, tapping, and relaxing.

I am sitting. Simply sitting. And yet, so very much more than that.

But then again, I am just sitting here. But now I will stand.

What a busy life I lead.

Isaac Franklin

::thinks::

2009-05-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

Today was a slow day, so I took some time... And just thought. I love days like these. To just be able to sit back, and think about everything that is going on, everything that will go on, and everything that could go on, is good thing to be able to do. Though, you shouldn't overdo it, or so Lauren tells me :)

Life is weird. Especially now. Right now, summer is coming up, and I'll be working, I'm finding opportunities to work on films, I'm starting to consider some speaking opportunities, my feelings and emotions towards significant people in my life are changing, friends are changing, people I grew up playing with are getting married, and I'm trying to decide about countless things. Mainly, I just wonder what will happen? In a year, what will I be thinking, where will I be?

.......Do you take time......to just think?........

Franklin

Ohio: The Buckeye State

2009-05-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
I'm here in Ohio, and we just saw our cousins. Below is a picture of James and Zach, who have found a common interest in science :)

I'll try to post again soon, it was a long plane trip, which it wasn't supposed to be. God Bless,

9-5-09

2009-05-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

Updates:

I'm attending a Pro-Life workshop (Friday-Saturday) hosted by a family in our church. They started out manning the refreshment table at our Portland Rebelution conference, and now they're organizing events to save babies lives. Pretty incredible.

This guy is awesome: White leather boots, and a sweet mullet :) Pretty much awesome.

Gotta run!

8-5-09

2009-05-08T11:40:00.000-07:00

Couple new things:

1) This Fall I'm going to be filming a short film with Austin Kearney and the Walsh family down in Florida. I'll keep you updated.

2) This upcoming Wednesday I'm heading out to Ohio for my cousins wedding. Everyone's getting old. It's scary :P

3) I'm going to Montana in June! :) Seriously, I am. It's for Teenpact Survival and it's going to be a blast. Check it out at teenpact.com (click "Alumni" on the navbar)

4) It would be awesome if you guys could be praying for me: There's a couple things going on right now that I'm rather unsure about. A lot is changing :) Any prayer would be appreciated.

God Bless!

SAICFF

2009-01-02T11:28:00.000-08:00

This Sunday I'm heading off to San Antonio for SAICFF (San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival) for a week. I'll be working at the Film Academy, and then attending the festival. It should be informative, and pretty fun. I'm also going to be live-blogging the whole thing for Alex and Brett on The Rebelution. So if you guys want to keep updated, you can check in there. I'll see you around,

'Butterfly' Song Lyrics (and a picture of me)

2008-12-16T22:31:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite songs (and an absolutely random picture of me):

Like a butterfly up in the air
She's taking me somewhere new
Every time she looks at me with those eyes so blue
Like a rocket shooting up to the sky
She's got me burning up inside
Like a fever that just won't break
Like a dream while I'm awake

I can't believe I keep falling deeper
Falling in love as hard as I try
I can't get her off my mind

Like a firefly burning in flight
A shooting star inside of my mind
Is racing every night
She's over run my life
Like a carousel spinning around
She dances till the sun goes down
I'll take her tiny hand in mine and leave the world behind

I can't believe I keep falling deeper
Falling in love as hard as I try
I can't get her off my mind

Like river running out of control
She floods into my heart and soul
And see beyond who I have been and lets me love again

I can't believe I keep falling deeper
Falling in love as hard as I try
I can't get her off my mind

Check out the band Issakar. Awesome Christian band.

The iPod Never Lies

2008-12-08T22:30:00.000-08:00

Here's an... interesting thing you can do with your iPod:

1. Put your iTunes on shuffle.
2. For each question, press "Next".
3. Write the song title in for the answer!

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OK?" YOU SAY?
The Solid Rock

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Doxology

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
You are My King

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Gifted Response

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Three In One

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Someday

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
God of Wonders (::cracks up::)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Lovers in Japan

WHAT IS 2+2?
One Pure and Holy Passion

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
We Might As Well

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Sunshine (that one actually makes sense)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Ritual Dance (:D)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Cry For You

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
The Way You Want It

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
This is the Last Time

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Butterfly (I actually wouldn't mind dancing to it...)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Moonlight Serenade

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Bedshaped

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
The Wonderful Cross

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Your Love

WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Hunter

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Viva La Vida

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Brighter Days

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Thank You

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Don't Leave Home

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Yes (I know, it was perfect)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
Enough

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Prospekt's March

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Contempt

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Wake Up

An Apologetics Card (Put onto Paper)

2008-12-07T23:38:00.000-08:00

“Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty. God in three persons, blessed Trinity.”

Many people have never understood those lines. How could God possibly be three persons, but yet one God? When I was young, I didn’t understand those words either. However, now that I am much wiser in matters such as doctrine, I still don’t understand! The Trinity is a mystery to all of us, not because we don’t know what it is, but rather because our frail human minds cannot grasp how it works. I am, of course speaking on the Trinity.

I would like to show the evidence I have found that supports, and is supported, by biblical teaching. This is my belief: That God exists as three persons, that each person is fully God, and there is one God.

Here are my points: 1) God exists as three persons, 2) Each is fully God and there is one God. And finally, I will end by explaining why this is so important to Christians.

The fact that God is three persons means that the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit; they are distinct persons. We are told in the bible that Jesus is our High Priest and he will advocated for us before God the Father.

1 John 2:1 “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” so in order for Jesus to intervene of our behalf, he would have to be a distinct person.

Jesus is also distinct from the Holy Spirit; He says in John 16:7 “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor (speaking of the Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.“

Jesus is telling his disciples that he will send the Holy Spirit when he gets to Heaven, the Holy Spirit and Jesus must be separate persons!

One of the very first places that suggests the presence of the trinity is in chapter one of Genesis: Genesis 1:26-27 “Then God said, Let US make man in OUR image after OUR likeness… So God created man in his own image, in the image of GOD HE created them.” Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the Trinity. But we know this was before creation. "Us" and "Our" is being said to some super being. I personally believe this to be the Trinity. This would explain the plural, ‘Let us make man in our image’, and the singular, ‘in the image of GOD HE created them’!

Another example of the Trinity at work was when Jesus was baptized. When He was baptized the Spirit of God descended on him in the shape of a dove, and a voice out of heaven proclaimed him as his Son. Again, three persons involved.

Three persons, plural. One God, singular. This brings me to my second point:

Each of the Trinity is fully God, and there is one God. Humans were made in the image of all three members of the Trinity, they were made in the image of the one God!

Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!” We have to remember that it isn’t saying “Three persons in one person”. It’s a mystery about a God whose ways are higher then ours. It is saying, “Three persons in one God”.

While each of the Trinity is fully and totally God, they have different tasks. A good example of that is our salvation: God the Father planned it, God the Son came to complete it, and God the Holy Spirit descended to dwell in us. But salvation was accomplished by God!

But why is this significant to us as Christians?

The Trinity is significant in all areas of life, but I will share two:

The most important area is this: If the Trinity did not exist, that would mean that Jesus Christ was not God but simply a created creature, like you and me. He would be sinful, unable to do anything with our sin. Unable to save us from our sin. Therefore, we could have hope only in doing Good works, but that itself will not get us to Heaven as the bible says.

The second area is this: When we pray, we pray to God the Father, in Jesus’ Name by the Power of the Holy Spirit. If the Trinity does not exist, then we would be performing idolatry!

Without the Trinity, Christians could have no hope of life after death. We would be “Most to be pitied” as the Bible says.

This is why we must not neglect this beautiful doctrine of our Triune God. Although it will always be, in a large part, a mystery to us.

Even though we don’t fully grasp the Trinity, we can know that God exists as three persons, that each person us fully God, and there is one God.

As Dr. Wayne Grudem says, in his book Systematic Theology, “It is spiritually healthy for us to acknowledge openly that God’s very being is far greater than we can ever comprehend. Thus humbles us before God and draws us to worship Him without reservation.” I think God delights in revealing a bit of his splendor to amaze us. I look forward to finding out how the Trinity works when I get to heaven. We will have eternity to learn.

He's Back... (Kinda)

2008-12-07T20:40:00.000-08:00

At the request of Y'all, I decided I'd post. And try to post often. If any of you still pay attention to this blog. ;) The following is an article that I wrote for a webzine. Hope you enjoy it!

---------

Two Different Love Stories

All of the following article was written for and directed to young men. The ladies are welcome to read it, but keep in mind who it was written for.

I think any sensible person over the age of thirteen can agree that love has to be one of the most peculiar things that God ever created. In this article, I'd like to focus on one "type" of love. I guess we could call it "young love". You know, that emotion that leaves you either constantly babbling, or absolutely speechless, legs shaking, or stiff as a beanpole. Some unlucky ones experience all the symptoms at once. You have my condolences. If you're fortunate, you may have mastered the art of being able to act semi-normal around the object of your love, but even then, you have your limits. Somewhere around 3 minutes is usually the breaking point.

Seriously though; I often wonder, was God laughing when he created love, knowing how much it would confound even the most brilliant of philosophers? I'm one of those people who believe that God truly does have a sense of humor, and I think he must have at least been smiling during that period.

Yes, young love is truly remarkable. I've seen it motivate young Christian men to strive for excellence. I've seen it give them a sense of direction, and plans for the future. I've seen their eyes shining as they talk about that "certain someone". But sadly, I've also seen it take over people's lives. I've seen it ruin friendships, and break hearts.

So what's the difference? Why does the same thing cause polar opposite results?

Well, actually, it's not the same thing, though it may appear to be. I like to divide it into two categories. Selfish love and True love.
Selfish love means exactly what it’s name implies. It's centered around you. That goes against every definition of the word "Love". "Love… is not self-seeking" (Cor. 13:5) Selfish love can often look like many teenage crushes do. They simply want to get as much as they can for themselves during the relationship.

So how do you as a guy handle a relationship with your love interest? Well, let's look at what true love looks like.

True love is the total opposite of selfish love, if you didn't already guess that. It requires everything to be done in thoughtful consideration of the well being of the other. It must respect the parents’ wishes, and work to not commit each other's hearts and emotions. It recognizes and acknowledges that such a relationship might not be God's plan for them.

Having a realistic view of what's going to happen is key. Chances are, you're not getting married for awhile. And when you do, she may not be the one you marry. It's in the best interest of both that you handle the relationship with care. If you really love her, wouldn’t it be better to spend this time preparing yourself to be able to support a family? Spend your time investing in preparation for the future and the Lord’s service, instead of in romantic feelings for someone, and you and she will be spared much pain and will be better off in the long run.
I've witnessed the fruit of several young men who have taken this challenge, and it's been amazing to see them excel at their studies and work and see them grow in their relationship with God. The results are drastically different from the hurt and pain selfish love has caused others.

Above all, be sensitive and obey the will of God in your life. He knows better than anyone what's best for you. As long as you are striving to do God's bidding, you'll be fine. A good relationship will be the result of a good relationship with God. If you respect the wishes of your parents, then you’ll be obeying the command to honor your father and your mother (Ex. 20:12) and you’ll be better off for it. Trust me on that one. If you work to be careful with your emotions and the girls, you’re obeying the verse where it says “Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”

My brother Josh, in his book I Kissed Dating Goodbye shared a story of a girl's dream:

"It was finally here—Anna's wedding day, the day she had dreamed about and planned for months. The small, picturesque church was crowded with friends and family. Sunlight poured through the stained-glass windows, and the gentle music of a stringed quartet filled the air. Anna walked down the aisle toward David. Joy surged within her. This was the moment for which she had waited so long. He gently took her hand, and they turned toward the altar.

But as the minister began to lead Anna and David through their vows, the unthinkable happened. A girl stood up in the middle of the congregation, walked quietly to the altar, and took David's other hand. Another girl approached and stood next to the first, followed by another. Soon, a chain of six girls stood by him as he repeated his vows to Anna.
Anna felt her lip beginning to quiver as tears welled up in her eyes. "Is this some kind of joke?" she whispered to David.
"I'm…I'm sorry, Anna," he said, staring at the floor.
"Who are these girls, David? What is going on?" she gasped.
"They're girls from my past," he answered sadly. "Anna, they don't mean anything to me now… but I've given part of my heart to each of them."
"I thought your heart was mine," she said.
"It is, it is," he pleaded. "Everything that's left is yours."

How much of your heart will be left for your wife?

james_part_three

2008-08-21T22:14:00.001-07:00

james_part_two

2008-08-21T22:09:00.000-07:00

james_part_one

2008-08-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

outside_the_office

2008-08-21T21:52:00.001-07:00

a_doctors_door

2008-08-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

A big Camera

2008-06-17T22:16:00.000-07:00

The slightly shocked look is from playing with a superbly nice 70,00 dollar camera for twenty minutes. :) I need to get one of those.

Lights, Camera, ... Actors?

2008-04-03T00:24:00.000-07:00

Scripts, Screenplays, Sides, Lighting, Cords, Tape, Locations, Crew, etc.

My life is hectic trying to get all that and more together. Yes, I'm making a movie. It's a short film, we're aiming for about an hour. Here's a bit of the screenplay. At least, what we have so far:

Rachel quickly wakes from a dream. She gets up and heads for the kitchen. Lane is sitting hunched over at the table with a half filled glass pressed against his temple. A bottle of liquor and a game of chess is on the table. Lane notices Rachel and quickly puts the bottle on the counter.
Rachel: Don't you ever sleep?
Lane: No.
Rachel: Does it work? (Rachel glances at the bottle)
Lane: What do you mean?
Rachel: Why are you so sad?
Lane: (no response)
Rachel: That's why you act the way you do, isn't it? You're trying to hide your emotion.
Lane: There's no room for emotion in my life.
Rachel: But it's there. That's why you have nightmares. That's why you can't sleep at night. That's why you drink. That's why you keep us at a distance.
Lane: Speaking of which, you should be in bed.
Rachel: No.
Lane: No?
Rachel: No, I will not take orders from a man I don't know. I've been doing that for most of my life, and I'm getting tired of it.
Lane: Your father.
Rachel: (hesitates) Yes...my mother ran away with another man when I was barely six. After that, my father became a workaholic, and when he ran out of work to do he went on road trips. He never really talked to me except when he wanted me to take care of something for him.
Lane: You remind him of her.
Rachel: Yes. Same story with you?
Lane: Not really. I'm just good at reading people: what they're like and what has made them who they are. For instance, I'm guessing that you are the popular girl at school, because of your attention deficiency.
Rachel: I knew it! You ARE sensitive!(Lane rolls his eyes and shakes his head) So what happened to you then?
Lane: (sigh) Fine...I'm an orphan. My parents died before I was even a year old. I never had a true family; I was just passed on from one foster family to the next. I joined the marines when I was seventeen; my foster parents at the time didn't really care. Over there, the men who fought beside me became my family. Those of us who were exceptional were recruited into a special forces unit. We made a name for ourselves, my brothers and I. After a few years of perfect service records, we were contacted by a nameless, high government official. He said we and other such soldiers of extraordinary skills were needed elsewhere in a multi-functional agency division and in an international assassination and espionage agency division.
Rachel: The Watchman and the Pantheon.
Lane: Correct. We were assigned to the two agencies according to our skills. A close friend of mine joined Pantheon. I haven't seen him since. I still miss him. Ever since we joined the Watchman, my brothers have been dying, one by one (he knocks down a pawn with each “one”). In fact, I became the last of the originals on my team not too long ago. I'm not expected to last much longer myself. I've lived past the agent life expectancy.
Rachel: (puts her hand on his shoulder) I'm so sorry, Lane.
Lane: Thanks (takes her hand off his shoulder and lets it drop), but no thanks. Sorry never changed anything. Otherwise, my friends would still be alive, and I wouldn't be all alone.
Lane gets up, grabs the bottle, and escapes into another room.

So... yeah. :)

Right now, we're trying to find some people for the different parts. Some of you who read my blog, we're considering asking. :)

Anyway, I have to go considering it's 12:30

Random Quotes

2008-04-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

"Silence is Golden, But Duct-tape is Silver"

"If it wasn't for physics and law enforcement, I'd be unstoppable."

Happy April Fools Day!

New Film Editing Suite

2008-03-31T14:17:00.000-07:00

I just rearranged my room so I can fit in my film editing computer and all. Take a look. And yes, that's my Toshiba Blue Ray HD Screen for Editing. :) I love it.

00:00:38:23

2008-03-25T23:21:00.000-07:00

That's exactly how much time is left before my birthday. Tomorrow, I will be fourteen.

It sort of odd how birthday's work. Every day, you get a day older, on your birthday, you gain one more day, but you didn't age anymore than you do any other day. Yet we celebrate. It's a milestone.

Sometimes I wonder who got to decide how long a year is. I mean really, think about it. It would be kind of cool to know. I guess we'll know someday. :)

Anyway, another post from another very-close-to-fourteen year old.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Catching Up

2008-02-28T23:42:00.001-08:00

Well, as usual with most of the blogs I've started, I haven't posted for a long time. I am quite jealous of some people who find time to post every day! I keep telling myself it is just because they have way too much time on their hands. In some cases, it's true. But they have something else I don't have: Routine. :P

Well, some of you know that I'm involved in a film club. We've gone through four half day sessions on camera techniques, lighting, editing, directing, producing, etc. It's been so much fun especially with my new camera. Tomorrow I'm going to shoot three promo spots for a musical that is debuting this spring. And then on Saturday I'm going to shoot some clips as a add on to the documentary that's being made by my "mentor". Life may be busy, but by golly, it sure would be boring without all this stuff.

I'm also a Cameraman for the Rebelution Conference that is coming to Portland. I'm probably going to shoot all four sessions.

If you noticed, my life seems to be revolving around film. :)

Hoping to post again soon,

Isaac F. Harris

Snow and Birthdays

2008-01-28T11:57:00.000-08:00

Today, it snowed for the second time in two days. I believe that's a record for the Portland area. (pretty whimpy record of course) Of course, it wasn't very much snow. But hey, any snow, even if it doesn't stick, creates quite an excitement around here.

Yesterday was Danny's birthday. He's not supposed to be fourteen! :sigh: Well, it just acted as a reminder that I'm gonna be fourteen in less then two months. Yeah. As I said, Life Goes

Anyway, I just got back from Apologetics, and hardly anyone was there. Lauren, I can tell you're feeling guilty right now. :)

I have my revised omniscience card today. I did it in front of David Knopp. Let's just say his comments were.... interesting.

I shall now go work on the film club. And try to win that fifty dollar prize.

Clicking "Publish Post",

random quote:

Being of member of a family is something we pay nothing for but love.

Life Goes

2008-01-24T14:52:00.000-08:00

It goes slowly, sometimes quickly, but it goes. It seems that in the last week, life moved from a 'snail's pace' to 'hectic' in a day. After an exhaustive weekend of Mission ConneXion and Apologetics, I find myself not doing anything at all, but not wanting to do anything that I should do. Such as work on Apologetics. Or prepare for the film session. Or finish a bio for my civics class.

Boredom is a peculiar thing.

I meanwhile face the decision of whether I enter speech this year, knowing I will not be ready with my Apologetics, or wait till next year, when I will have plenty of cards, and I will be cramming debate into the bundle as well. So in short, the question is do I take hectic one year at a time, or take it all next year. I might want your feedback on that. :)

So for now, I will try to stay out of trouble (which isn't too hard) and probably fool around with Photoshop. Signing off,

random quote:

Love is a treasure for which we can never pay. the only way we keep it is to give it away.