Julia Holcomb - the story continues

Today in Life News Julia Holcomb the one time partner of Steven Tyler tells her side of the story to her and Steven's abortion in 1975 and the impact it had for both of them.

May 4th Kevin Burke released an article through National Review outlining the pain of the post abortion trauma of Steven Tyler, front man for the legendary rock band Aerosmith.

In his article Kevin wrote, "Long before he won accolades as an American Idol judge, Steven Tyler was a bona-fide rock star, with all that that implied. In 1975, when he was in his late 20s and the lead singer for the band Aerosmith, Tyler persuaded the parents of his 14-year-old girlfriend, Julia Holcomb, to make him her legal guardian so that they could live together in Boston."

With the next paragraph he then shares, "When Miss Holcomb and Tyler conceived a child, his longtime friend Ray Tabano convinced Tyler that abortion was the only solution. In the Aerosmith “autobiography,” Walk This Way (in which recollections by all the band members, and their friends and lovers, were assembled by the author Stephen Davis), Tabano says: “So they had the abortion, and it really messed Steven up because it was a boy. He . . . saw the whole thing and it [messed] him up big time.”

The article which can be read in it's entirety here outlines the traumatic effect the decision abortion has on a man, specifically on one man Steven Tyler. Kevin does an amazing job at drawing out the full effect so many of us simply want to cover up.

Yet, the story does not end there...

Today in Life News Julia Holcomb, the woman Steven Tyler was with and the one Kevin Burke wrote of tells her side of the story. As we know, there are two sides to every coin.

Amazingly, with both articles you can see the dramatic impact men have in the precious decision for establishing fatherhood.

Please read Julia's response and think long and deep about the impact of men as father's in the lives of women and children and leave with this blog your thoughts on all that God imprints into your heart about men and their role.

Read Julia's response at Life News here.

"As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;" Psalm 103:13(NIV)

Till next time,
Kurt

No way - not the Terminator!

No way. This can not be! Not the Terminator! Say it isn't so Arnold!

But alas, it is.

News reports today reveal that Arnold Scharzenegger fathered a child out of wedlock more than ten years ago with staff member of his.

At the conclusion of his term as Governor, Arnold came forward with this information. That along with his separation from long-time wife Mariah Shriver.

If you're reading this, my gut tells me that questions flowing through your mind are:

1. Why did we not know this BEFORE he was governor?
2. Why is this being revealed now?
   

As Christians loving others and trying to come along side of them we desperately try and understand the motivation of people. We earnestly want to understand their reasoning for why they do things.

Part of that desire is pure - to understand a person's motivation is beneficial to leading them to new life in Christ. If we see the path they've taken, understanding their history, we can lead them to the future.

The other part, if we are really honest is impure - we like gossip, we like drama. For whatever host of selfish desires part of the explanation of why we desperately want to know peoples reasons and motivation for doing things is strictly from a desire to feed our flesh.

Which reminded me of one of God's choice select cuts of scripture "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9

The minute I heard the news about Arnold Scharzenegger, one of my favorite movie icons, I was instinctively bummed - but not surprised.

In my flesh I began to ask the questions, "What if this had come out before the election? How did this stay hidden from all of us? Why is it convenient for him to tell us now after he's stepped down?" Then my flesh plotted evil in saying, "I know why it didn't come out? Because if it had - no way would the people of California have voted for him!"

But the sweet small voice of God was whispering in my ear, "Kurt, remember the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"

And then I knew, even with Arnold's sin, or any sin I see in the life of people around me I can let it affect the way I think about people. I even discount the Gospel and I reduce the deceit in my own heart enough to realize I am worse off for thinking this way.

If you're looking at Arnold's sin, or the sin of people in your life while purposely ignorant of your own sin, deceived into thinking you're ok' and they're not - think again.

You and I need Jesus - just the same as Arnold - pray for the both of you.

Till next time,
Kurt

Getting Your Hat Handed To You

Recently I sat down and began to meet with a new partner to me in my personal walk as a Son of the King, Husband, Father and Ministry Leader. I met with Mark Thom a real life coach. While we we're talking Mark shared something, something that profoundly riveted me to the back of my chair.

After listening to answers I gave of several of his probing questions he just piped up and said, "You know what Kurt? I've come to find out no one really cares what you think."

In our first meeting this new friend had the courage to tell me a truth I instinctively knew, but rarely admitted in my own heart.

To test his theory I tried something this week as a social experiment to prove or disprove his theory.

Using the social network FaceBook three days ago I left a message expressing my opinion on a particular subject. Within one hour I had zero responses. Within three hours I had an amazing repeat of the first hour - zero responses. It's been three days since I posted that message and with not a single comment, my first test is holding up rather nicely - no response at all.

Yet when I posted a benign and endearing message like this on Facebook yesterday:

Most nights I put my son Johny to bed. With my IPhone I look up old shows like The Banana Splits, HR Pufnstuff, Battle of the Planets and Johnny Sokko and his Robot. I can see amazing values and virtues in the shows of my youth but not TV today. What shows do you remember?

Can you guess what happened?

Within the first hour of it's posting ten different people responded with what they remember watching as a child on television. It's been just over twenty-four hours since that post and wouldn't you know, twenty-seven people have responded.

My new friend Mark, with tongue in cheek, quietly and calmly reminded me of the adage, 'People don't care how much you know - till they know how much you care."

This universal truth is paramount to us as people. We all want to be heard, we all want to be affirmed - and our propensity to continually spill out our opinion [regardless the matter, regardless the situation and regardless the tact] is evidence to this amazing truth.

So for us as Christians, investing in the lives of others remember this:

"For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory." Romans 8:14-17 NIV

Everyone, whether Christian or not is constantly in their heart crying out like little children, "Abba Father, see me, hear me - acknowledge me!"

Will you have the capacity to be reminded like I was, that no-one cares what you think and hear them?



Till next time,
Kurt

What would you give up? Really give up.

Rolling Stone wrote writer Stepehn Holden wrote"Phoebe Snow has made it. On a musical level she shows the potential of becoming a great jazz singer. Among confessional pop songwriters she immediately ranks with the finest."

Writing in the Los Angeles Times in 1976, Dennis Hunt said Phoebe's voice had "a marvelous 'cracked' quality" and added she "glides through and glances off notes in an appealing offbeat manner."

This amazing artist Phoebe Snow was a - one of a kind - in more than one sense of the term.

With a music and entertainment industry desperately built on the 'next greatest thing', Phoebe's work was soon to be a purine source of provocative fuel for years to come - or so the industry thought.

That is until she gave birth to her daughter, Valerie Rose Laub in 1975. Valerie was born with severe brain damage and in the eyes of the industry Phoebe was a burden to this up and coming artist. Yet Valerie was not a burden to her mother Phoebe, who forfeited a career as well a marriage to be the sole caretaker of her precious child.

Phoebe made the incredible decision - against the industry - against the norms - against the suggestions of the people to institutionalize her daughter - to raise her on her own. For thirty-one years Phoebe was the sole caretaker of her daughter Valerie Rose till her death in 2007. Phoebe personally shared in 2008 Valerie her daughter had been “the only thing that was holding me together. My life was her, completely about her, from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed at night."

Sue Cameron, Phoebe's manager said the singer “was one of the brightest, funniest and most talented singer-songwriters of all time and, more importantly, a magnificent mother to her late brain-damaged daughter, Valerie, for 31 years." Closing with, "Phoebe felt that was her greatest accomplishment."

Phoebe Snow, one of America's most inspiring singer-songwriters, and more importantly a vision of motherhood, passed away one week ago on April 26th, 2011.

Articles crossing the spectrum of music and entertainment write that Phoebe never quite made it back to that pivotal moment in her career. That despite the attempts since her hits in the 70's, she came up short - insinuating - 'if it just had not been for that child, Phoebe could have been so much more.'

This writer believes Phoebe was more than the sum of her music, the disposable fuel the industry so desperately needs and is not bound by simple earthly accomplishments. Phoebe Snow leaves with us all the thought: "What would you give up? Really give up? To love another, to continue a life commitment, a gift of life - what would you really give?"

"Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." Luke 9:23

Till next time,
Kurt