Category: P A R A D I G M

The Scariest Part of Concealed Carry

Posted on by Kelvey Vander Hart in P A R A D I G M

People have asked if carrying a concealed weapon makes me nervous. The implication is that I must be scared of it potentially going off, shooting myself accidentally, etc. Truthfully, I’m not afraid of anything in that line of thinking. If I was worried about my ability to handle a weapon or its reliability, I wouldn’t be carrying it. 

No, the scariest part of concealed carry is other people. 

I vividly remember when I was first struck with this particular anxiety. I was in Tennessee for a weekend of hiking and relaxation and had flown my handgun with me since I was traveling solo. Definitely a confidence booster when you are in the mountains alone. 

One night out, I was wearing my holster with clothing that was a little tighter than usual. Suddenly, I had a moment of panic. What if people could see the outline of my gun? The rest of the night was spent continuously adjusting my clothing and surveying the people around me to make sure no one was reacting oddly. 

Folks, I am a law-abiding woman who hopes to never, EVER have to dispatch my weapon outside of a shooting range. There is never anything that suggests that I’m a threat to others. 

I should not be worried that someone might catch a glimpse of the outline of a gun and start freaking out. I shouldn’t worry that if an inch of my holster became visible that I could have someone cause a scene, get in my face, and potentially call the police and name me as a threat. But such is the state of gun insanity. 

Many in our nation have linked law-abiding gun owners to those who would commit violent crimes with a weapon. In their mind, anyone who carries a gun is a threat. This mentality is dangerous. 
I’ve written about this before elsewhere, which can be read in full here. Maybe someday our legislators and leaders will stop with the inflammatory rhetoric that turns all gun owners into enemies. Until that happens, to answer my friends, no – carrying my weapon does not make me nervous at all. What makes me nervous are the strangers around me who view me as a threat because I carry a weapon.

Fight For The Lovely, Now More Than Ever

Posted on by Kelvey Vander Hart in P A R A D I G M, S P I R I T U A L

At surface level, there’s not a lot that’s lovely or beautiful surrounding us as we begin 2021.

A global pandemic.

Well-documented racism and corruption. 

Seditious actions and a political sphere in turmoil. 

Division, anger, hostility. 

What’s lovely about that? 

It’s easy to succumb to the gloom and fury that are thrust upon us during this time by our friends and family, our digital landscape, and the media. But now more than ever is the time to resist succumbing to those things, and instead, to fight for the lovely. 

A well-known passage of Scripture, Philippians 4:8 (emphasis mine) outlines the things that should be sought out in this world: 

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” 

It makes sense that these things are not easily seen – we live in a fallen world that is broken beyond belief and corrupted by sin. If we want the lovely, the true, the pure, the just, it must be FOUGHT for. 

Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) recently admonished, “Don’t let nihilists become your drug dealers.” His comment is spot on. This world wants to suck all the joy and meaning away from life, leaving nothing but brokenness. We must push back. 

Fighting for the lovely looks like being kind to your neighbor, even when (especially when) you disagree.

Fighting for the lovely looks like a refusal to allow the agenda of the political class and the media to dictate your life, your joy, your priorities. 

Fighting for the lovely looks like ordering your life according to what really matters – God and people. 

And yes, fighting for the lovely expands to include the grim fight against the abuses of people that break God’s heart. Fighting for the lovely is the fight for justice, for dignity, against abuse and corruption. But loveliness brings happy warriors to these fights, not bringers of gloom and doom.

We are not called to just lay down and accept the darkness of the situation. We are called to be light. We are called to seek the lovely. That is exactly what we must do – now, more than ever.

Retrospect shows how God was working for good all along.

Retrospect Is My New Best Friend

Posted on by Kelvey Vander Hart in P A R A D I G M

I’m a planner. I think things through. I’m not a fan of abrupt life changes. 

So I had to laugh at myself when one year ago, I resigned from my stable job, said goodbye to friends, packed a moving truck, and left Missouri to move back to Iowa. When I got to Iowa, I had a temporary political gig waiting for me. (Side note: this ended up being some of the most challenging work of my life and while I was very happy to say goodbye to it, I’m glad for the growth.) I didn’t even have housing lined up – good thing my parents like me enough to have me stay with them for a few weeks. 

All things considered, the entire move seemed like something I wouldn’t choose to do. But there have been a few times in my life where I have clearly felt the Lord guiding my choices, and in the weeks leading up to the move, His voice was clear: 

“You need to be near your family. You need to be closer to the friends you’ve known for years. You need to leave your comfort zone here.” 

I listened. Through the chaos of the move, the frustration of house hunting, the hard days of work, and the hours I spent on the road away from home for said work, I hoped that God had a purpose in me uprooting my life. 

Retrospect has become my new best friend because, without it, I wouldn’t be able to appreciate the goodness God displayed in guiding my steps. 

I had no way of knowing that God was going to provide a house that would be more of a home than my little apartment in the city. A home that would see more tears, more joy, and more fellowship than that apartment ever did. 

I had no way of knowing that a global pandemic would sweep the world. I didn’t know that my family members would be the only people I would meet with in-person for months and that doing that would have been impossible if I still lived out of state. 

I had no idea that I needed to be close to my family for the storms we would weather. From health issues to hardships, physical proximity allowed me to be there for my family in a way that texts and calls never could have replicated. 

I had no clue what wonderful work and opportunities God had lined up. That my rescue dachshund’s separation anxiety would lessen after he became best friends with my sister’s dog. I didn’t know that God had a church community lined up for me, one where I could grow deep roots of fellowship. 

What seemed like chaos and hardship at the time was God’s design for goodness in my life. Retrospect allows me to praise Him for that. His ways are not our ways. 

What has God done in your life that you can fully appreciate now? Take some time to reflect – He’s working for good even when we don’t fully see it.

Kelvey's book picks from quarter three of 2020.

The Quarterly Reading Roundup: 2020 Q3

Posted on by Kelvey Vander Hart in P A R A D I G M

2020 is somehow both crawling and flying by. I think I blinked and the last three months elapsed. But that means that it is time for my quarterly reading roundup! 

Here are my picks from quarter three of 2020: 

CRAZY RICH ASIANS TRILOGY BY KEVIN KWAN

I was skeptical before I started the first book in this trilogy, but they ended up being fantastic. Kwan transports you into a different culture, one that rattles all our American assumptions about the rich and powerful. Packed with cultural insight, witty commentary, plenty of detail, and eye-rolling dialogue, these fast-paced books are some of the best fiction I’ve read all year. 

ORTHODOXY BY G.K. CHESTERTON

I like the way Chesterton’s mind works. This beautiful, imaginative work paints Christianity in a way that makes the heart, mind, and soul run wild. Below is a quote I loved from the book, one that summarizes the grand perspective Chesterton held: 

“That a good man may have his back to the wall is no more than we knew already, but that God could have His back to the wall is a boast for all insurgents forever. Christianity is the only religion on earth that has felt that omnipotence made God incomplete. Christianity alone felt that God, to be wholly God, must have been a rebel as well as a king. Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator. For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point – and does not break.”

SEVEN WOMEN BY ERIC METAXAS 

Metaxas is one of my favorite biographers, and his Seven Women did not disappoint. These seven, chapter-length biographies cover everyone from Joan of Arc to Rosa Parks. I finished the book inspired and having learned a lot about these seven remarkable women. 

What is the best book you’ve read lately?

Resolutions and restrictions are for seasons, not a whole life.

You’re Not A Slave To Your Resolutions

Posted on by Kelvey Vander Hart in P A R A D I G M

When I was in college, I was determined to never drink a drop of alcohol. Now, I always have a bottle of red wine to crack open when friends come over and enjoy a great cocktail. 

What changed? Did I fail in my resolution?

The first answer? I did. The second? Both yes and no. 

I had very, very good reasons for not drinking back then, ones that I still respect and hold in high regard. Those were protective boundaries at the time. But as I got older, matured, became more disciplined, I didn’t need those same types of borders. While I still have strong restrictions on how often I drink, how much I can consume before cutting myself off, etc., I can now enjoy a glass of wine at a vineyard or a cocktail at a cool new bar with zero guilt. 

Some would look at this as failed resolve. But should we be slaves to the same set of restrictions and resolutions for our entire life? Or, should they grow and change as we do to fit each season? I think the latter. 

Another example is my high school resolution to never watch ‘R’ rated movies. (Note: Unless discussing something that explicitly is sinful, I veer away from the word ‘never’ now when discussing things I will or won’t do.) I still have guardrails on the entertainment I consume (largely governed by what it’s doing to my heart and relationship with Christ on any given day), but that boundary is no longer in place. After all, there are many good, teaching movies that are rated ‘R’ for their own reasons. (13 Hours? Passion of the Christ? Ring a bell?) 

And this is not just subtraction. I have ADDED resolutions and restrictions over the past years. I try my hardest to be off social media at least a day a week and try to keep my phone off for large portions of that day as well. I’ve learned over the years what technology does to me, and that “restriction” is a way of fighting back against it. 

When I became a vegetarian, I added a “restriction” against meat into my life. My life has been a cycle of added and subtracted resolutions and restrictions. Don’t hear what I’m not saying: Guardrails are good, necessary, and Biblical. We just need the right ones to fit each season. 

So I first look to Scripture and attempt to apply the guardrails it contains to my life. Then, where there is freedom in deciding, I try to make the decisions that best fit me in that season. Godly people have a lot of freedom, so lets not become slaves to rigid, never changing resolutions that were never even placed upon us.

What is America the other 364 days a year?

What Is America The Other 364 Days A Year?

Posted on by Kelvey Vander Hart in P A R A D I G M

American greatness is easy to grasp on Independence Day. Displays of fireworks watched among good company encourage nostalgia. You may think deeply of American roots on the 4th of July, but what is the country to you the other 364 days? Continue reading “What Is America The Other 364 Days A Year?” →

Why philosophy wins over political partisanship every time.

Refusing To Be A Partisan Hack Is MUCH More Fun

Posted on by Kelvey Vander Hart in P A R A D I G M

Urban Dictionary is hilariously venerated by a culture that rarely uses the word venerated, but is nonetheless useful when defining phrases like ‘partisan hack’:

“Someone who cares more about supporting a particular party or ideology than supporting what is morally right, or factually true.” Continue reading “Refusing To Be A Partisan Hack Is MUCH More Fun” →

Why it's okay to be absolutely hooked on a fictional story.

You’ll Get Hooked On The Story – And That’s Okay

Posted on by Kelvey Vander Hart in P A R A D I G M

Have you ever lived a day without actually living YOUR day?

And by that, I mean have you ever lived a day where you were so wrapped up in a story that it didn’t seem like you were actually in your own life? Continue reading “You’ll Get Hooked On The Story – And That’s Okay” →