The Blessing is Not the End

March 7, 2012
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Finally, after waiting 10 months (10 months too long, if you ask my wife), we finally had our first child. Finally the blessing, the gift, that we had been–sometimes anxiously–waiting for has finally arrived.  But now what?  Do we just receive the blessing and then that’s it?

No.  Fortunately, now that we have received the blessing, it’s just the beginning.  In other words, the blessing is not the end, but rather the beginning of something much bigger than we could fathom in our own thinking.

I think this is what Paul meant that we are moving toward ever-increasing glory (2 Cor. 3:18), or from “glory to glory” as it is more popularly known as in the New King James.  If that’s the case, we can’t stay put.  We can’t just live off of past blessings, and we can’t see our blessings as ends unto themselves.

Blessings are just instrumental–they are for our good, but only if we see them as a way for us to glorify God, to draw nearer to Him.  Once you receive the blessing, you are now responsible.  What you do in response to the blessing is probably more important than the blessing itself.

You got into that grad school that you wanted.  Now what?

You got that job or promotion that you wanted.  Now what?

You finally met the love of your life.  Now what?

You haven’t arrived.  You haven’t done anything.  After that is where the plot thickens.  After that is where things get interesting.

You didn’t earn or deserve the blessing and yet God graciously gave it to you.  But will you squander this gift, focusing so much on the blessing itself and not on the Blesser?

The blessing is not the end.  It can’t be.  Because if it is, then it’s idolatry.  It’s placing something else where it shouldn’t be.  I think perhaps this is why many are unfulfilled in their lives.  Living for blessings is tiring, selfish, and empty.  We’re living our lives too small.  We have to see blessings as a part of a much larger whole, one of epic proportions.

One that has no end…

Linsanity, Asians, and Racism

February 19, 2012
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Alright, everyone knows who Jeremy Lin is.  I’m not going going to lie:  I have a man-crush on him (he’s right there on my man-crush list next to some guy named Tebow).  Not only is he the feel-good story of the year, he’s also actually pretty darn good at basketball.  But most of all, he’s Asian American.  And not just half-Asian, half-something else like other athletes out there (ex. some guy named Tiger, or Hines Ward), he’s full on Taiwanese American.

I’m pretty sure, though, that no one knows who Jason Whitlock or Max Brestos is, out of context.  Whitlock is the Fox Sports columnist who tweeted something inappropriate in regards to an Asian stereotype regarding Lin’s anatomy.  Brestos is the ESPN sports anchor who said an unfortunate pun when interviewing someone about the Knicks.  But the kicker was when ESPN released a story online with the same pun in the headline, “A Chink in the Armor,” and had to issue an apology.

Any Asian knows that “Chink” is not a term of endearment for someone of Asian descent.  And many are asking or commenting on it, like, “What’s the big deal?”  Well, I’ll tell you what the big deal is (as a blogger it’s my “duty” as any blogger will tell you…):  It’s racist.  If you aren’t Asian you don’t have a say.  Let me say that again:  If you aren’t Asian, it doesn’t matter what you say–it’s still racist.

Saying “Chink” to an Asian person is tantamount to saying the “N” word to an African American.  Sure, you hear the “N” word a lot, but if you aren’t black you shouldn’t be saying it, singing it, writing it, even thinking about it.  No matter how “street” you think you are, or how many black friends you have, it’s never appropriate, if you aren’t black yourself.

The same thing should be said about derogatory names for Asians.  Other non-Asians shouldn’t be using those names.  Why do people think that it’s O.K.?  If it was against a black person or against a Jewish person, people would be up in arms demanding the heads of those journalists (or at least their jobs).  But since it was just said about an Asian, people are saying it’s “no big deal,” and the offenders just apologize like it’s nothing.

As an Asian, I have serious problems with this.  First of all, racism against Asian Americans is real.  I’ve had to experience it firsthand as part of the Asian minority in the town I grew up in.  In elementary school, I would get called “Ching Chong,” “Chink,” “Slant Eyes,” “Bruce Lee’s son,” (O.K. I guess that last one could be worse, but you get what I’m saying…) and so on.  Of course, no one understood that I wasn’t Chinese, but that didn’t matter.  What mattered was that it was wrong, it was racist, and it hurt no matter how much I told myself it didn’t.

These journalists are not just the run of the mill, ignorant Americans.  These are highly educated (I would hope) columnists/reporters, for premier national sports news outlets.  They should know better.  Their employers should know better.  I know that if they had said something about blacks, or Jews, they would have been fired or forced to resign.  I’m not asking that they be made an example of, but racism is racism, and they need to be dealt with accordingly.

So, ESPN and Fox News, do the right thing.  Don’t let racism, especially in this case, racism against Asians, go unpunished as if we don’t matter.  Just because we don’t make a fuss, and are the “model minority” doesn’t mean that you can treat us any differently.  Remember:  There are far more of us in the world, so do the math.

And if you have trouble with math, we can help you out.  Apparently, it’s something we are good at.

Occupy

November 30, 2011
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Tonight they are going to evict Occupy L.A. from in front of the City Hall building.  My wife and I are sitting here watching the live telecast, and hearing the helicopters overhead.  I have largely kept my opinions to myself concerning this movement, but I feel that I need to say something especially since it’s coming to a crescendo here tonight.

First of all, I feel for the movement, because I am no where near the 1%, and am solidly within the 99%.  There is something wrong with society when the rich keep getting richer and the poor, poorer.  I think whether we realize it or not, deep down, we all long for Jubilee.  We long for that day when debts will be forgiven, when slaves will be set free, when wealth will be redistributed, and so on.  As someone, shackled with tens of thousands of dollars in debt (from seminary, no less) these principles resonate with me.

Justice is something that we all long for.  We yearn for it with every fabric of our being because things are not as they should be.

However, I don’t believe that this movement has been all that effective:

1)  There is no unifying cause – Everyone that the newscasters have been interviewing has their own version of why they are occupying.  There really is no unifying principle.  What is it that they want?  I agree that we need systemic changes, but unfortunately that requires the 1%.  It requires 100% of the people, rich and poor, coming together to change the system from within.  But it also requires knowing what that change needs to be and then to tackle that.  I see this as the biggest weakness of this movement.  Numbers mean nothing without direction, vision, mission, goals.

2)  We are all to blame – These things didn’t occur overnight.  We didn’t just wake up one day to find politicians in the hands of special interest groups and lobbyists.  We allowed this to happen.  It’s funny, but when things are fine, when everyone’s doing well, gainfully employed, and able to spend at will, no one complains, no one protests.  But when the economy is bad, everyone else is to blame except ourselves.  I’m sorry, but it’s not the banks, it’s not the Fed, it’s not even politicians (although I personally think the needle points in their favor…), it’s not Obama and his administration.  We are all culpable for what has happened, and we must all face the consequences of our actions, of our corporate (collective; not Corporate) greed.

3)  Ironically costing everyone more – The money spent on extra police presence is in the millions, and for some it’s preventing them from getting to work.  If you aren’t working, you aren’t paying taxes.  Therefore, we who pay taxes are funding them to occupy, and I don’t think that everyone has agreed to let them do so…

4)  The movement is not representative of everyone – Where are all of the Asians?  I just have to ask that, because the movement is largely a white movement.  The typical occupier is a white male.  It’s misleading then, because the movement is not representative of the whole 99%.  Do these people even vote?  If historical polling numbers are any indication, then the answer has to be “no.”

These are just some of the things that I see as major concerns/objections I have with this movement.  I realize that things are not good right now, and probably won’t be good for a long time.  But in this life we will have trouble, as Jesus warned.  Things unfortunately will not be set right–fully–on this side of Christ’s return.  That doesn’t mean that we stop trying, stop obeying, stop loving, stop championing for justice.

The reality is though that no matter how hard we protest, sin is something that cannot be defeated in our own strength.  No matter how loud we shout, ultimately people are selfish and will naturally lean in that direction: greed begets greed.  But thankfully, Jesus showed us another way to be human, the true way to be human, and that can only come in and through Him.

We must be occupied by Him.

This is a message that is very clear.

The World is a Scary Place

November 16, 2011
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Tonight my wife told me something that made me shudder.  Without going into too much detail, let’s just say that people are capable of the most horrible evil.  Things are happening all the time that are so heinous that you can’t even imagine them if you tried.  Crimes against children of the most atrocious, as portrayed on the hit show, Law and Order: SVU.  But the stories there pale in comparison to the real ones my wife has to deal with on a daily basis.

What do we do with people like the one she told me about?  Can they be redeemed?  Are they supposed to be redeemed?  Are they any worse than anyone else?  Than you or I?

Even if you don’t believe in God, I think that there is a universal sentiment that this place, this World in which we find ourselves is not right.  There’s definitely something “wrong” with it and everything that exists in it.  Something or someone needs to make it right.

But we can’t do this on our own.  We definitely need help.  How can we conquer sin and defeat evil, present and future, by ourselves?  Can we will it away?  Or somehow, randomly, vanquish it through kindness?

No, we need something more.  

We need Salvation.

Redemption.

Faith.  Hope.  Love.

All of these absolutes make no sense apart from God.  Only He can make it right.  He has and He will.

Only then will the senseless make sense, even when it still doesn’t make any sense at all.  What we see can’t be all there is.

It’s that belief that allows me the peace of mind to bring a child into the world–the same world where children are victimized every single day.

Someday, somehow, everything will be made right, in the right way.

I Want to Die

November 9, 2011
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I was reading about the life (and death) of Stephen in Acts 6 and 7, the other day.  And I thought to myself,  ”I want to die…”

Now, before you try to stage an intervention, don’t worry,  I’m not going to jump off a bridge or anything.

But one thing I know for sure:  No one wants to kill someone for upholding the status quo.  Those who don’t rock the boat, the compliant, the “nice,” the butt-kissers are the ones that survive.

But I don’t want to survive.  I want to die.  I want to be someone who others don’t like.  Not because I’m a horrible person, but because I’m exactly the opposite.

In other words, I want to be, and do, and say things that make people want to kill me.  Why?  Because darkness cannot exist in the Light.  Lies cannot persist in Truth.  Death cannot reside where there’s Life.  The Kingdom does away with any and all previous kingdoms.

The World doesn’t like to be told its reign is over.  So it gets rid of the “trouble-makers,” the “truth-tellers,” the prophets.  Like Stephen.  Like Peter.  Like Jesus.

I wonder what it would be like to have real persecution in this country.  Would my faith be/look any different?

On The Church

October 30, 2011
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Ideally, then … the church, the community that hails Jesus as Lord and king, and feasts at his table celebrating his victorious death and resurrection, is constituted as “the body of the Messiah.” This famous Pauline image is not a random “illustration.” It expresses Paul’s conviction that this is the way in which Jesus now exercises his rule in the world—through the church, which is his Body. Paul, rooted as he was in the ancient Scriptures, knew well that the Creator’s plan was to look after his creation through obedient humankind. For Paul, Jesus himself is the Obedient Man who is now therefore in charge of the world; and the church is “his body, the fullness of the one who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). It is this vocation that gives the church courage to stand up in the face of the bullying self-appointed masters of the world, to resist them when they are forcing their communities to go in the wrong way, while at the same time demonstrating, in its own life, that there is a different way of being human, a way pioneered and now made possible by Jesus himself.

~N.T. Wright, excerpt from Simply Jesus, reprinted in Christianity Today

The world needs the church.  For all of the crap that people can pin on the church, the church has been and still is a source of much good in the world.  And I’m not just talking about the global, catholic (small “c”) church, but also and especially the church in its various local expressions.  As you can see here, I’ve been seeing this talk about the necessity of church, the community of faith, in a lot of the things that I have been reading lately.

I don’t think that this is a coincidence because people still think that they can flirt with the notion of church, and still be included in the body of Christ.  Basically, if you’re apart, you can’t be a part.  It’s that simple.

To put it another way, no matter what your theology is, God has chosen, for reasons beyond all comprehension, for the church to be his representative upon the earth, embodying and announcing the Kingdom to the rest of the world.  If you think that you can follow Jesus without the church, think again.  Read what the Word says.

Suicide

October 23, 2011
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“To cut yourself off from a local church with a sense of self-sufficiency is, in the long run, suicidal.”

~John Piper, The Pastor as Scholar

God, help us to learn that we need You, and we need the church.  The church that is perfectly imperfect in every way, filled with hypocrites, liars, adulterers.  The church that you love.  So much, in fact, that you gave her your Spirit, ensuring that you would return for her.  Outside of that would be foolish: no Spirit, no power, no life, no love.  Suicide.

Moneyball

October 20, 2011
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I love baseball.  Growing up, I wanted to be a professional baseball player, and I collected the cards and everything.  I think I would have been pretty good too, if not for a certain incident that happened while playing in Little League…

Anyways, it’s fitting that I’m writing about Moneyball, which I saw this past weekend with the wife, as the World Series started today. [Warning: Potential spoilers below.]

This was an atypical sports movie, in that it wasn’t so much about what happened on the field, but rather about the things that happened behind the scenes.  Brad Pitt stars as Billy Beane, the GM of the Oakland Athletics, agonizing over the seemingly impossible task of rebuilding a team, after they lose several star free agents, with a paltry budget to that of the New York Yankees’.  He meets Jonah Hill’s character, Peter Brand, who helps him to use statistical analysis instead of relying on traditional scouting reports to pick the best undervalued players on the market, focusing on nontraditional statistics such as on-base percentage to fill out the roster.

A theme central to the movie is how success is measured, through flashbacks to Billy Beane’s own (unsuccessful) playing career.  Scouts kept telling him that he would be a star in the majors, and so he forsook a full scholarship to Stanford to go pro.  But in reality, they didn’t know, but were willing to pay to find out based on the regular scouting reports, and were sorely disappointed when he didn’t pan out.

Interesting side note, but baseball has some of the worst stats around.  Batting .400 for one’s career is unheard of.  But that means 40% of the time the player gets some kind of hit.  The other 60%?  Outs.  Last time I checked, 40% was failing.

But that’s the key here: how is success measured, or how does one determine another’s value?  For Billy Beane, the problem was that they were looking at the wrong statistics.  Sure homeruns, and batting averages are what makes a player great, makes him exciting, they’re not what wins games.  If players aren’t getting on base, then that means no runs.  No runs, means no wins.  In the end, it wasn’t how much money they had or didn’t have to spend in the absolute sense, but how they utilized and maximized that money by getting the best overlooked players available to achieve their goal: to win.

I know in this world–especially in the U.S.–there are certain metrics we always use to determine someone’s worth, but like major league scouts, do we really know?  I Sam. 16:7 tells us that “people look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”  Jesus throughout His ministry preached that the people we think are going to enter in the Kingdom might not be who we would expect.  See, there’s a different criteria by which we should view those around us, and I could see these lessons reflected on the screen.  Because in the end, what’s really important?

Is it money, or our twisted notions of what it means to be successful, what it means to “make it” in the world, or is it something else?

By the end of the movie, Beane (Pitt) found what was really important, through his daughter, or more accurately, it was his daughter.  It was the relationships.  It didn’t matter that they didn’t win it all, because in the end it was just baseball.

There’s always next season.

Remember this: You’re a loser. Just enjoy the show.

End of an Era

October 10, 2011
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On Sat. night, Oct. 8, I got a chance to see The David Crowder Band.  They are currently on their farewell tour, announcing that after 11 years together they are going their separate ways.   It was truly an awesome experience.  I remember when they first came on the scene, I was just starting college and started seriously playing the guitar.  One of the songs that I learned to play was Make a Joyful Noise/I Will Not Be Silent.  There was nothing like DC*B at the time.  Their songs were truly innovative and powerful, a beautiful mix of rock and theology for the new millennium, a new age filled with uncertainty and promise, and a generation desperate for a voice.

DC*B became that voice for young people everywhere.  It’s not like they wanted it–the fame, the responsibility.  Crowder explained as much during the concert, that they made their songs for their local community of faith, and if it happened to mean something outside of that then it was by no means anything that they could have manufactured.  Their humility is something to be emulated far above their musicianship, even though both were and are extremely high.

As I stood there listening and singing along to the songs, I couldn’t help but to feel a tad bit sad that I would never get to hear DC*B in concert, in Los Angeles again.  It was like saying goodbye to an old friend after years and years of simply just being there for each other.

But in that moment it wasn’t about the band on stage, it was about the One behind the music.  The awe and reverence wasn’t for DC*B, but was for God.  We went there to see DC*B and ended up worshiping God with hundreds of perfect strangers.  See, that’s the beauty of DC*B’s music:  it’s first and foremost, worship.  No matter how great it sounds, musically, it’s worship, fundamentally.

As a young(er) worshiper, DC*B taught me, in their own way, what it meant to worship, and for that I am eternally grateful.

Thank you, David Crowder Band.  You’ll surely be missed.

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