Men really hate solitude

Posted on: 04/11/17 3:30 AM | by Jonathan McKee

This week as I read about Jesus’ final hours, I can’t help but notice how often He went alone for some time of solitude to pray.

Men hate getting alone to just be quiet!

I think you’ll be surprised to discover exactly how much they hate it.

I’m co-writing a book right now with my friend Curt Steinhorst about capturing attention in a world full of distractions, and we devote an entire chapter to finding solitude, turning off the noise and actually allowing ourselves to process.

Men don’t do this naturally. Continue reading “Men really hate solitude”

Media Fast

Posted on: 03/1/13 3:02 AM | by Jonathan McKee

No TV, no music, no texting, no movies, no Facebook, no Instagram, no Tumbler…

Sounds like teenage Hell!

Some teenagers might describe it as that, but about 100 kids at our church have opted to do this for 25 days. It’s a media fast that is preparing them for a missions trip they’ll take during Easter break.

The kids aren’t embarking on this fast alone; most the parents are doing the fast with their kids. Our house has committed to it, and it’s been Continue reading “Media Fast”

My Baby in Uganda

Posted on: 02/15/13 3:01 AM | by Jonathan McKee

As I’m stepping on a plane to NC today for a weekend of teaching, it’s actually my second trip to the airport within the last 24 hours. Yesterday Lori and I dropped off my daughter Alyssa, my dad and my mom at the airport where they joined a team of 21 people from our church who are going to Uganda to serve for two weeks.

I’m so excited for Alyssa… and a little scared.

I know I shouldn’t be worried. Our church has sent teams to partner with these Ugandan churches for years now. It’s an amazing time where Christians from different countries learn from each other and worship alongside one another. My dad is going to be training hundreds of Ugandan pastors, my mom (a CSUS professor) will be teaching at a women’s conference, and my little Alyssa (17) will be helping where needed and using her awesome photo skills to Continue reading “My Baby in Uganda”

Eye Stitches

Posted on: 05/16/12 5:26 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Sounds painful, huh?

This Thursday I go in for the third attempt to motivate my right eye to better take correction. That means a couple stitches, this time, with a day or two running start of antibiotics.

Many of you remember what happened last time we tried to do this… I got Zombie Eye! (not an official diagnosis… just what I called it). This time… I expect much better!

The worst part about it is the fact that I’m awake when they put in these stitches. They have this cool little gadget that pries open my eye, they numb me up, then they tell me, “Look forward… now a little to the left…” then they put in the stitch why I hold still! (Yeah… no pressure!)

If all goes well, I’ll be fine 24 hours later. Appreciate your prayers!

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Doctor’s Provide First Sign of Good News

Posted on: 03/11/12 2:38 PM | by Jonathan McKee

On Saturday I went to my eye doctor’s for my 6th day in a row… but for the first time heard a piece of good news! “I think the meds are working! No surgery needed for now.”

As the doctor moved me from one room to the other to hook my head up to yet another colossal machine, I caught a glimpse of my wife Lori in the hallway and gave her a quick thumbs up. She later told me that that little gesture was the first relief she felt in a week (Up to this point, the week had been full of nothing but thumbs downs, sad-face emoticon texts, and a frequent use of the words, “not good.”)

Apparently the multiple eye injections, my regular doses of 4 oral meds, and my four sets of eye drops are finally working. “We’re not out of the woods yet,” the retinal specialist said. “But if your eye progresses like it has in the last 24 hours for the next 24 hours, it looks good!”

Today (Sunday) we went in again and her projection was correct. The antibiotics are doing their job and now we are focusing on the prednisone to get my eye to try to take care of my cornea graft (my cornea transplant from over a decade ago). I go in again tomorrow morning (yes, my 7th day in a row) to see my cornea specialist to try to get a grasp how much damage has been done (I went from complete snowblind on Thursday to now reading three lines on the eye chart).

Bottom line: More drops and meds this week, plenty of rest… and I can slowly get back to writing, AND I shouldn’t have to miss any of my upcoming workshops I’m teaching in the next few weekends. (Do you hear that MI and NE!)

Wow! What a ride!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and kind comments in my blogs the last few days (even James… you turd!)

Tonight I’m going to take my own advice from my current Youth Culture Window article and rent the new Footloose, watch it with my daughters, and ask them those discussion questions the article provided about dancing! (I think my eye patch makes either makes me more intimidating or gives me sympathy points.)

Zombie Eye

Posted on: 03/9/12 12:50 PM | by Jonathan McKee

I just arrived home from my 5th day straight of my right eye being poked and injected by the doctor. I’m drugged up pretty good right now, only hurts a little to look at the computer screen. I thought I’d jump on really quick to keep you all posted. Thanks for your prayers!

In short? I’ll attach a picture for you visual learners.

Yeah… eew! You can’t see the infection in the eye with your naked eye (I always found that term intriguing… I mean… when does your eye actually wear clothes???), but you can see the redness around it, plus the black and blue from all the injections around the eye—i.e. “zombie eye,” as we call it around here.

You also can’t see the rush of white blood cells clouding my vision. My vision in that eye is still a pure white fog. Been about 36 hours without it now. Doctors are continuing to try to fight an infection that started shortly after getting a couple stitches in my cornea a week ago. The infection has gathered around the bottom of my cornea near one of the stitches. The doctor pulled out the stitch today but wasn’t happy with the progress of the antibiotics they shot directly into my eye yesterday. They made some progress, but the whole debate is whether to go in and do a “punch graft” today at 3PM, which would be a whole new transplant around that section of the eye. That kind of surgery means finding some donor tissue, sewing it in, then long recovery.

They opted to wait on the surgery (whew), keep doing antibiotics, add steroids, waiting til tomorrow to see if they’ll operate. So they shot me with another needle to the eyeball today (so fun), and I’m back home now with my “zombie eye.” Tomorrow (Saturday) I’ll go in for either surgery, or more injections. (Hmmmm… which is the lesser evil at this point?)

Lori said that many of you had commented and emailed. Thanks for praying. Right now I’m praying for this specifically:

  • That they don’t have to do another surgery- that means long recovery
  • That I don’t have to miss my next few speaking engagements. I’m already missing a cool LifeWay event I was to participate in this coming week in Nashville, I’m hoping to not have to miss my training workshops the weeks to follow.
  • For my family. Lori has done two nights of “drops every hour or two” with me, she’s taken me to the doctor daily, stood in pharmacy lines, etc. It’s been insane. She’s amazing. My girls are real troopers too. Alec comes home from college today to see his “zombie eyed” dad. Probably not what he expected to come home to.
  • Our ministry’s finances. If we miss a few of these upcoming speaking trips, this will set our ministry back thousands. All may speaking and training money goes directly toward our ministry, paying for my writers and web staff to keep the resources free on www.TheSource4YM.com and www.TheSource4Parents.com

God’s in charge. I always look back and see how he worked, in hindsight. So I trust him, looking into the future.

Eye is stinging again… I’m going to call this a wrap! God Bless!

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blog silence

Posted on: 03/8/12 3:46 AM | by Jonathan McKee

I’m sorry for the blog and email silence.

In short, having some eye problems that started from cornea transplants a decade ago. The last few weeks I’ve had more stitches put in my right eye to try to correct vision, and starting late Sunday night, bigger problems.

Now trying to recover from an infection… doing special antibiotic drops every 30 minutes waking, every 1 hour sleeping (or more accurately “not sleeping”) Tonight, as I write this, my vision has grown cloudy… no answers yet. Very hard to look at glare.

Please keep this in your prayers… don’t know what the future holds.

God’s in charge.

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Pre-Blessed Food

Posted on: 08/17/11 6:46 AM | by Jonathan McKee

It’s funny how this generation of young people actually will just sit around and watch You-Tube videos. My daughters will frequently just hang around the computer with their friends saying, “Oh wait, have you seen this one!” And then they click another video.

YouTube has created quite a few “celebrities” that are known… just for being funny YouTube video creators. One of these is a guy named Julian Smith. This guy, growing popular from his “Hot KoolAid” video, has become quite an internet sensation. My girls find him hilarious. And I gotta admit, he’s pretty funny (and has kept it clean as far as I have seen).

Here’s one of his videos that I’d actually show at youth group to kick off a talk on prayer. Funny stuff:

Side note: apparently he received a little negative feedback from some about this video. Here’s his personal response to that feedback– a little insight.

Pray for Us

Posted on: 04/15/11 2:06 PM | by Jonathan McKee

I’d really appreciate your prayers for my family, especially this weekend. All five of us are doing ministry in different directions… and one has a 103.5 temperature! (More on that in a minute)

Last night I dropped off my wife Lori and my 8th grade daughter Ashley at the church, and they embarked with our church’s middle school group for a three-day missions trip to the poor areas of San Francisco. They’ll spend the next three days helping out the homeless, the addicted, as well as aids victims. My other two kids have done this trip in years past—amazing. Imagine a junior high student literally washing a homeless person’s feet. It’s a life-changing experience. Lori has gone with our church for the last 3 years.

This morning, I left for Kansas to teach one of my CONNECT workshops, and my son Alec left for his weeklong trip to Southern California where he’ll be working with the homeless, engaging conversations with people on the street, and serving the poor—another great missions experience. As a senior in high school, he leaves early (today), where my daughter Alyssa leaves Sunday—then they both minister for the week.

As of last night, Alyssa had a high fever. She’s missed two days of school so far. She’s so bummed… she’s been looking forward to this Easter Break missions trip all year. She’s hoping to get better by Saturday night so she can leave with the rest of the high school team (about 70 kids) Sunday a.m.

So Lori and I left my parents with a sick kid. Nice, huh?

Please pray for my little Alyssya’s health (okay… she’s 15… but she’s still my little Lyssy).

I also appreciate your prayers for Lori and Ash in SF, me in KS and Alec in Southern CA. I look forward to what God is going to do!

Thanks for your prayers!

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David’s Debate Results

Posted on: 04/8/11 9:49 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Well, David has finished his pornography debate at the University of South Florida. Late last night, he emailed me to let me know of his immense gratitude for the prayers from The Source’s users. He also gave me some details about how the debate panned out. I’ll let him describe it to you in his own words.

Jonathan,

The porn debate is over, and I’ve got great news!

But first, thanks again for all the prayers. I received emails, text messages, and Facebook comments from all over the country thanks to your previous blog about the porn debate. I cannot describe to you the incredible amount of support I sensed from knowing people all over the country were praying specifically for me during a specific timeframe. Leaders from churches I’ve trained at or spoken at over the years – who are also users of The Source – were also chiming in with Bible verses and prayers. In short, incredible! I jokingly told our student body I wanted to face another tough task this coming week just so I’d have this much prayerful support.

And now, time for some good news. To begin with, we had a record-setting attendance. Close to 200 college students poured out to hear the debate…and eat free 5 Guys Burgers and fries. Our facility had students jammed into every corner, with standing room only, as well as a lobby (used as spill over space) crammed full of bodies. Great crowd!

More importantly, that crowd allowed each of the three panelists the opportunity to share their perspective on “the effects of pornography.” (Yes, that’s right; three. At the last minute, a third panelist, the General Manager of The Todd Couples Superstore, a local adult retail store, joined our discussion.)

Because I come from a generation that actually kept score, we passed out tally sheets at the end of the night to gauge where students were at, what they thought, what they learned, and how the debate had impacted them. We asked 4 simple questions that allowed students to describe (1) what they thought about porn BEFORE coming to the debate, (2) what they thought about porn LEAVING the debate, (3) what they were going to do about porn AS A RESULT of the debate, and (4) who WON the debate.

I’m quite pleased – and very humbled – to say that I won the debate. Scratch that; God’s truth won the debate! Without even letting our regular students participate in the tally, our position was found to be “the most compelling” by 52% of the students in attendance. The second place position secured 28% of the crowd’s support, and the third place position garnered 20% of the students’ support.

Even more exciting, we’ve got score cards essentially saying, “You guys have helped me understand I cannot live with the effects of porn any longer. I want help.” Because of this ministry event, we now stand poised to help dozens of young men and women who silently struggle with this serious issue. Praise God!

But, it gets even better! Several of our board members – myself included – strongly believe the young man who participated in the debate (from the adult retail store) is open to further discussion about the effects of the products he sells at his store. I have lunch planned with him next week. Our board is already praying about that conversation over BBQ.

Please join our leadership in praying for Shayne. He was raised in a Catholic household and knows the truth…even though he doesn’t live it. Pray the Gospel is clearly communicated to him through me. Pray that he receives Christ as his Savior…and Lord. Finally, pray that his lifestyle mirrors his newfound faith.

Thanks so much for all you’ve done, and for all you’ll do. You’re an incredible blessing to me.

Like David, I want to take a moment to thank you for praying. He and I travel all over the country and we speak on behalf of God’s truth several times each month. It’s great knowing that you are praying for us. In this blog, I just wanted to update you guys about the effects of your prayers: they worked because God is good, all the time.

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