I need to slow down

I am a busy person, I have to admit. Or maybe I am not so busy but I make myself busy. When I have "spare" time, I feel weird. Literally, I will feel like something is wrong and I get restless. Sadly I am a person who cannot relax.
This may be surprising to you, but even though I do lots of volunteer work, and occupy most of my time preparing or doing those work, deep in me I know that I am serving myself much more than I do other people, especially those who are the closest to me. God reminds me of this all the time, but I close my ears and am unwilling to change. My ego keeps saying that I do not have time for others, instead I have to finish this and that--all that are about my stuffs.

This time, I think God calls me loud enough that I pay attention. This story is quoted from "the naked soul" by Tim Alan Gardner. It actually came from a university commencement address that Fred Rogers (PBS) addressed in 2002. It is a beautiful story and really knocks on my heart.

* * * * *

For a long time I wondered why I felt like bowing when people showed their appreciation for the work that I've been privileged to do. What I've come to understand is that we who bow are probably--whether we know it or not--acknowledging the presence of the eternal: we're bowing to the eternal in our neighbor. You see, I believe that appreciation is a holy thing, that when we look for what's best in the person we happen to be with at the moment, we're doing what God does. So, in loving and appreciating our neighbor, we're participating in something truly sacred....
      I wonder if you've heard what happened at the Seattle Special Olympics a few years ago. For the 100-yard dash there were nine contestants...and at the sound of the gun they took off. But one little boy stumbled and fell and hurt his knee and began to cry. The other eight children heard the boy crying. They slowed down, turned around, saw the boy and ran back to him--every one of them ran back to him. One little girl with Down syndrome bent down and kissed the boy and said, "This will make it better."
      The little boy got up, and he and the rest of the runners linked their arms together and joyfully walked to the finish line.
      They all finished the race at the same time. And when they did, everyone in the stadium stood up and clapped and whistled and cheered.... Deep down we know that what matters in this life is much more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too, even if it means slowing down and changing our course now and then.

* * * * *

I spent most of my time for myself. Even when I am sleeping in the train, I can not really sleep because of thoughts about happenings at work, home, with friends, and everything else. In many occasions, I personally avoid going out with friends or visiting them because of the need to manage my personal matters. On top of all that, my thoughts are mostly about problems and pains, instead of gratitude to God. At night, I can easily ask God for help relieving my anxious heart, but will stumble to say, "I am thankful for.." I got to think for that!

I remember one day in the office, I did not say hi nor greet the cleaning lady who was washing the many dishes from my team's potluck. I usually chat with her a bit but that time I was hurrying to get to bus and to the train station, so I purposely avoided meeting her. The plan went well, but I was very unhappy with that decision and felt guilty afterward. Here is someone who washes my lunch containers everyday, is nice to everyone at the office, yet work alone all night. She deserves to a hi and chat for a few minutes the least. I was so selfish.

I definitely need to work on managing my time better. I do want to pursue my interests, but that all means nothing if I do not care for the people closest to me: my family and friends. I pray also that God will give me the heart and compassion to see their needs, and be of help in those areas.

And Your Dance Will Dazzle the World..

How do you know if you are watching a good movie? Reading a good book? What makes a good story? A good story typically involves a character that wants something and overcame conflicts to get it. “Luke Skywalker was living a boring live in a dessert planet and he wants to have significance in his life. So he joined a rebellion against an evil empire, rescued the princess, fled from the evil empire, destroyed the Death Star and saved the planet.” That’s a story that inspires people, empowers people.

Have you ever sat through a movie which when the end credit rolled, you were saying: “so…, that’s it?? What’s the point??” and yet most people go through life like that. A story about someone working at a grocery store for few years just to save up to buy a used Volvo is not inspiring, at the end of the story when that man brought his savings to a Volvo dealership and drove his car out of the parking lot, that scene won’t brought tears in our eyes. All of us want to live a better story, we need a better story.

Christians sometime think that when we received Christ, that was the climax of their life. That’s not true. It’s only Act I, the Beginning of the story. Our life here on Earth is Act II of our story. Apostle Paul said it best:

“I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (Philippians 3:10-14)

Conflicts in life can be blessings. The bigger the conflicts the character overcame, the better the story, the more inspiring the story. We inherently hate conflicts, but God wants to teach us something in our conflict, don’t miss this. The sooner we learned, the sooner God will move us from that conflict. God can take that conflict and make something good out of it.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8: 28)
A story of someone who planted water filtration system in Africa despite the challenges is inspiring, a story of a worker stopping human trafficking brought a sense of relieve in our heart, a story of faithful wife who is taking care of her disabled husband to the end brought tears in our eyes, and a story of forgiveness of a betrayal makes us believe in the power of the Holy Spirit.
So live boldly, love boldly, and leave a good legacy.

The final act usually occurs a few minutes before the story ended. Luke blew up the Death Star, Rudy made the Notre Dame Football team, and Harry finally kissed Sally.
Act III, the Final Act of our story has been written. Our story will end with a wedding feast, with Jesus as the groom and the Church as the bride.
“I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."” (Revelation 21: 2-4)

So I will close with this quote from Robert Mckee, he is not a theologian by any means, he’s actually an agnostic, but he said it beautifully.

"Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully, but write boldly. Then, like the hero of the fable, your dance will dazzle the world."

Inspired by Donald Miller at WCCC
Recommended readings:
“Blue Like Jazz”
“A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”

I read this story of faith in the book "Live Like a Jesus Freak" by dc Talk. I am sharing this story with you, as it relates to what we are currently studying from the book of Romans.

The Cigarette Sermons
Linh Dao, Vietnam, 1991

Four police officers suddenly burst into ten-year-old Linh Dao's home. They forced her father, as underground pastor in North Vietnam, to remain seated while the authorities ransacked the home, searching for Bibles.

"I remember when the police came," Linh Dao recalls. "They searched around the house all of that morning and asked many different questions. It was scary to talk to the policemen, but I knew what they were looking for, so I concentrated and tried my best not to be scared or nervous." As the police questioned her parents, Linh courageously hid some of the Bibles in her school knapsack.

When the police asked her about the contents of the knapsack, Linh simply replied, "It is books for children."

Linh Dao's father was arrested that day and sentenced to seven years of re-education through hard labor.

"When the policemen decided to take my dad away, all of my family knelt down and prayed. I prayed first, then my sister, then my mom, and last of all, my dad. I prayed that my dad would have peace and remain healthy and that my family would survive these hard times. We were all crying, but I told myself I have to face what's happening now."

Word quickly spread about the arrest, and neighbor children began to ask Linh about the crimes her father had been arrested for. She told her friends, "My father is not a criminal. He is a Christian, and I am proud of him for not wavering in his faith!"

As each day passed, Linh Dao made a mark on her wooden bookcase as she prayed for her father. She remembers, "I cried almost every single night, because I worried how my father was doing in prison and how the policemen were treating him."

"Before my dad was in prison, I was just a child. I didn't need to worry about anything. It was a lot different after my dad left. My mind got older very quickly. I told my sister that we had to help Mom do the work around the house, so she could continue to do my dad's work in the church."

"I prayed every day and every night. My faith grew very fast. I knew one thing that I had to concentrate on, and that was spending time learning from the Bible so when I gre up, I could be like my dad, sharing and preaching. When I think about this, I feel my heart burning inside me, pushing me, telling me this is the right thing to do."

Finally, after more than a year, Linh, her mother, and her sister were able to visit their father in prison. When they reached the compound, they were separated by a chain-link fence. Linh quickly discovered that she could squeeze into the prison yard through a chained gate. She ran to her father and hugged him tightly. The guards watched the little girl but, surprisingly, left her alone. What harm can a little girl do? they must have thought.

Little did they know! Armed with innocence and a childlike faith, children are a secret weapon against the kingdom of Satan. During that first visit to her father's prison, Linh was able to smuggle him a pen, which he used to write scriptures and sermons on cigarette paper. These "cigarette sermons" traveled from cell to cell and were instrumental in bringing many prisoners to Christ.

Linh Dao's prayers were answered. Her father was released early, before he had served all seven years of his sentence. "It was a big surprise when I came home from school one day and saw my dad had been released from prison. I ran and then gave him a big hug. We were so happy. I was proud of my family, and I wanted to yell and let the whole world know that I wasn't scared of anything, because God always protects each step I go in my life."

Linh Dao is now a teenager. She wants to follow in the footsteps of her father and be a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She knows firsthand the dangers of sharing her faith in Communist Vietnam and remains determined to obey Christ rather than men. In spite of a "grim future," she spends her time in intense Bible study.

Don't underestimate what you--as one person--can do. God will work through anyone--of any age--who is submitted to Him, to accomplish His will on earth. One man or woman willing to obey God can change the destiny of millions.

But the Greatest of These... is Love...

1 Corinthians 13:13
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Why love is the greatest?
I was told because love is everlasting. Love is something we carry to the other side after we've gone. Faith and hope only exist here on this world. Faith fixed on devine revelation that God exists, after we're gone and met God, we would not need faith because we will be standing face to face with God. Same with hope, we have hope here on this world that there are wonderful things waiting for us in heaven, and after we're gone, the book of Revelation said that God will wipe every tear from our eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever. Hope will be fulfilled in heaven. There is no room for faith and hope when we see and enjoy.

But love...love is everlasting, for apostle John said that God is love, and where God is seen face to face, love is at the highest, made perfect and love will last forever for God is everlasting.


1 Corinthians 13:1-3
1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying

I went to a coworker’s spouse’s wake last Friday. A wonderful life cut short by a tragic accident. Nothing gets you thinking about your own immortality than going to a wake or a funeral. There were a lot of people there, friends and family were there, viewing and saying goodbye to the departed. Of course, my brain starts spooling, wondering if I would have this many people show up on my own “event”. We are all someday will be “the center of attention” whether we like it or not. And if this tragedy reminds me of anything, it could happen to anybody, at any age, at any time. Am I ready? Are you ready?

The apostle Paul warned the Ephesians Church about this:

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

So let’s examine our life, refocus our priority, figure out what are the important things and what are the trivial things in life. Don’t waste your life on the trivial things. Cherish every moment and don’t take your love ones for granted. Have we loved enough in our lifetime? Have we forgotten offenses in our life? Have we lived a life worthy of our calling? We who had put our faith in Christ Jesus have been paid with high price. Have we done good works in this earth to return the favor? Not to be saved, because we are saved by grace, not by our works, but because we are saved, we do good works.

I am reminded with a story of a lady who is terminally ill. As she made the funeral arrangement with her pastor, she asked to be buried with the favorite bible in her left hand and a fork in her right hand. The pastor asked, “What’s with the fork?” She said that when she finished a meal at a function or at a dinner, the server would ask her to keep the fork. She knows that something better is coming, dessert…a cheesecake, peach cobbler or crème brule…Good stuff. She said to the pastor if anybody asked about the fork, tell them that something better is coming…

A life with Jesus in Heaven.

Where can I go from here?

Do you ever thought, "Ugh, if God was there (in that situation / event) in the past, things would not have turned the way it was! It would have had a good outcome." And now you are going through the pain from the consequences of your action, somebody else's actions, and the wrong decisions. You know now that you should have consulted God in the past, or listened to Him, but it's too late now and you just have to fight this storm alone.

Or, say you have consulted God in the past, but either you did not get any answer (yet), or you did not like the answer you got. "Why did God give me this? Why do I have to go through this problem?" Life issues, big or small, are a pain. And we usually ask God's help to avoid it or to fix it soon.

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There was a similar experience with Mary and Martha, as told in John 11:1-44. The life issue here is: Mary and Martha's brother, Lazarus, was sick (and died). The outline of the story is like the following. As you read through, put yourself in Mary's and Martha's position.

1. Mary sent the news about the problem to Jesus
2. Jesus heard the problem. He knows God's plan, and decided to wait in responding and making actions.
3. Jesus finally came to meet Mary and Martha
4. Martha was sad by then, wishing Jesus would have been there earlier. She thought it's too late then.
5. Jesus assured her about His power, and asked if she believed
6. Martha accepted and believed His word
7. Jesus asked Martha (and some people on site) to do some actions
8. Martha was confused and unsure
9. Jesus reaffirmed His promise
10. The people did what Jesus asked them to do, and Jesus made a miracle

Seems pretty common. I experience that sometimes. I hoped for something, got no answer, and.. that's when I started to branch out, not following the pattern of "going back to Him" + "trusting His plan" + "see the good result".

• Can you identify yourself in the story?
• Can you think of an experience like this in the past? or one that you are going through now?
• At which point did you find it the most difficult? or at which point are you now?

Now let's go through the storyline again, this time with the verses that tells what actually happened.

1.
³So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick."

2.
⁴When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." ⁵Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

3.
¹⁴So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, ¹⁵and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."

4.
²¹"Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

5.
²⁵Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; ²⁶and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

6.
²⁷"Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

7.
³⁸Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ³⁹"Take away the stone," he said.

8.
"But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."

9.
⁴⁰Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

10.
⁴¹So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴²I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."
⁴³When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" ⁴⁴The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

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Things work out best in God's timing, in God's way.

If you are at point 4, you think it's too late to fix something, too late to make a change --> go back to Jesus and invite Him to be involved.

If you are at point 5, doubting God's power and plan --> read verse 25-26. God's promise does not fail. He has a plan for you (and your situation!) and will carry it through, regardless of however far you have turned.

If you are at point 8, saying no or delaying to do some things that God has been asking you to.. make more effort to complete the task. A change, or even a solution might just be around the corner.

God bless you.

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE

My family bought a house in the city of Roselle about a year ago. Driving to downtown Chicago, if not accompanied by traffic and at the speed of 75mph, only takes a mere 40 minutes using Hwy 290. It's not too bad; an added bonus is that my house is really close to the hwy as well.

Driving to work is quite a pleasure. I don't get stuck in rush hour traffic like most Chicagoans. One day I decided to time myself - it took me about 15 minutes to drive the 7 miles distance from my house to my office. Not too shabby, I'm not complaining.

While driving every morning at 8.30am using the same road to get to the major streets, I happen to keep noticing this older man walking on the sidewalk alongside my car. He's probably in his late 60s. White hair, hunched back, and always with his cane. The first day I saw him, I forgot about him as soon as his reflection was gone from my rear view mirror. The fourth day I saw him walking at 8.30am, I was intrigued. After 10 months of seeing him and his beloved cane everyday, I just want to stalk him, find out where he lives, and spend a couple of hours talking to him.

This mysterious old man is always wearing his favorite blue windbreaker jacket. Wearing a hat, I saw that he has his headphones on, too. I wonder what he's listening to. Is it a radio? It could be a radio receiver in his pocket. Or is it a CD? What kind of music does he listen to? Classic? Jazz? Country? Wouldn't it be a riot if he listens to hiphop? Ooooh, so many possibilities.

I've started to learn his route as well. He doesn't go to the little streets/alleys; from my house to the next major intersection, I'd say it's a good 0.8 mile. That is the route he takes; to the intersection and back. Before 10am, this man has walked 1.6 miles. On some days, I don't even walk 1 mile! What a way to start the day, don't you think?

I remember one day it was raining. I woke up late because the alarm clock didn't go off. I was thinking in the back of my mind: "My old man is not going to take his walk today. I wouldn't! It's raining! I'd be lazy and go back to sleep." But boy, was I wrong! While turning on my wipers, I saw him walking with an umbrella over his head, already on his way home. He was almost done with his walk. I suddenly felt ashamed. I was running late. The old man? He was walking on time.

And that is almost the case everyday for the past 10 months. I purposely look for him whenever I drive to work. Never has he missed his walk. From Monday to Friday, at 8.30am (I don't know if he walks on weekends). You can find him walking; whether it'd be a clear day, a rainy one, a very sunny morning, or a gloomy sky. He's there with his music and his cane... and occasionally, his umbrella.

It got me thinking; shouldn't I be like that when it comes to my spiritual life? Shouldn't I read His Word everyday, pray everyday, be kind and joyful everyday (among many others), irregardless the "weather" the world has for that day? If it was a happy day, shouldn't I not forget to give praise? It it was one of the sad days, shouldn't I still be faithful to Him? I need to walk with God everyday, just like the old man. Rain or shine.

I need to be more like you, my old man...
And while on that note, I need to know where you live as well.
I would love to spend one Saturday morning with you.