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When I was leaving Vegas, I literally said bye to my bedroom. Funny how something not alive can have such a special place in my heart. Then, as my plane took off, I said bye to Las Vegas and God blessed me with a wonderful aerial view of the Las Vegas strip as my flight flew over the city. I felt a little weird. I was leaving home.

Now that I'm in the process of moving into my apartment in New York, things are fun but different. I'm getting adjusted to the noise outside my window, the fight to get places through Times Square, the marked up food prices, and the confusion in the subway systems depending on the time of day. Everything is so different when I think about home now.

But there's one thing that's not different, and that's the comfort and the "home" I have in God. Even though everything around me is unfamiliar, I am familiar with the peace I have in God to the point where it feels like another home. It's been a nice reminder that my true home, my citizenship, is in God's nation. That's home. My true home has not changed and although there is the pressure for me to conform to the ways of the city, I can't do that fully, because I am living as a citizen of God.

"Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us." - 1 Peter 2:2:11-12

It's funny how Peter refers to us as aliens and strangers to the world. The initial feeling I get from that passage is that we don't belong here. But in actuality, I think we do. I think that this is a temporary place that God has placed us in to call home, but our true home - the home that we will long for, and the home that all of us will and should remember and look forward to in our lives, is God's home. We're here representing Christ :-).

Small Group Blog

Hi all,

My small group has been doing a summer blog. There is a new entry everyday :-). Please have a look and get involved in our conversations. My entries will temporarily go on that blog.

http://lwmirrors2010.wordpress.com

-Young

Lessons from the 5K and my friend

Today, I was blessed beyond measure to run with my Living Water Christian Fellowship brothers and sisters in the 5K race.

I ran with Matt as my pacing buddy. Somebody I knew who could dominate and destroy the target goal that I had of 24 minutes :-). But sure enough, he said that he'd run with me side by side so that I could beat my time. I admired that from the beginning - someone who practiced humility and sacrifice like we saw in Jesus - something we've been learning about all year.

In small group, we talked about how Jesus, who sits on the throne with God, humbly came down leaving all that He had just so that He could save us and show us the grace and mercy of God. What Matt did for me was minuscule compared to what Jesus did for me, but such a small act of love meant so much.

During the last mile, I was panting. I remember yelling, "Matt! Just go ahead of me! You go ahead!" And he'd firmly yet calmly reply back, "No, we're almost there Young! The finish line is almost there."

Amazing what words can do. Amazing what hope can do. "We're almost there" meant the world to me. I couldn't stop the battle that I was fighting because there was an end to this soon. This is like our race to God's kingdom - we have hope in God and His Kingdom and His promises. But what meant more to me than that bit of hope during that run was the mere fact that Matt was there, by my side, pushing me towards the end. Although he didn't carry me, I felt like I was being carried just by his presence. Just like how God sent the Holy Spirit :-). It keeps us going.

It's like feeling God's love channeled through my brothers and sisters in Christ. Although it's only a fraction of God's love, it's something that means a lot and something that I'll remember.

It's a challenge for me to live the same kind of life that Jesus lived :-).


EPILOGUE :-)
Living Water placed 3rd place in the 5k run, much to our surprise. What shocked me more was that when we were talking about our run, several people said, "All for God's glory." Amen :-). It wasn't our own ability that got us through, it was God's love.

I love learning about love :-).

Love Run

I took a run along the Schuylkill River today at 2pm.

It was hot, REALLY hot.

The whole time, I was listening to this one Korean ballard on my iPod. I'm a sucker for ballards - not the lyrics, but the music. I like the sound :-).

But I sucked at running today. Ten minutes in, I died. It could've been the heat...the time of day, lack of adequate rest. Who knows? But I struggled my whole way down that river to the museum. At the end of the run, the water fountain didn't work. I really needed water.

See, I didn't bring water with me because I thought I'd drink out of the water fountain at the end of the run, but what I had planned didn't come about. It made me think about my life and my plans in life - would they work out? Which then got me thinking about God and how He has plans for me. Then, while being reminded about my thirst, I remembered that Jesus promises to give living water :-), and I will never thirst again.

I ran down a little further and found another water fountain. Thank God :-).

I ran back listening to Christian music and reflecting on the power and love of God. For some reason, I had almost no trouble running back. Which made me think about how I had no energy while listening to the ballard, but on the way back, was fueled by songs reminding me of Christ's power and holiness.

My conclusion?
Ballards = love songs about..human love
Christian Music = love songs about God

God's love > Human love
God's love fuels, empowers, motivates, completes

Phone Prayer

I've been working hard trying to catch up on all my work and assignments since I've returned home from Costa Rica (which by the way, was an amazing trip). Of course, when you're trying to catch up on a lot of work, everything just seems a blur. Time is valuable.

Then - a phone call.

"Hello, my name is Heather from GBIM (Grace Brethren International Missions). May I speak to Mr. Yim?"

We talk, and I find out that they're calling to thank me for supporting one of their missionaries. - I'm already thinking - Wow. They're actually calling every donor to personally say thank you.

They then asked if I wanted to be put on their list-serve to be informed about how God is working throughout the world in the mission fields and how I could pray for them. I politely turned them down and expected to hang up and get back to work.

Then.

"Well Mr. Yim, before I go. Is there anything I can pray for you about?"

I was kind of surprised. So I didn't know what to say except, "I can't think of anything right now, but thank you so much." Well - that was nice.

Then...

"Well Mr. Yim. Can I pray for you over the phone right now? Even though it's general, I'd love to share a moment with you and God. I'd love to pray for you."

And she prayed.


Some stranger from far away prayed for me over the telephone. My blurred day became clear.
What a way to remind me about God's love. :-)

Snowflakes

Hundreds of feet hitting the floor, swishes of purple and green and white and blue and pink blur by. Eyes are looking down at their hands that hold up their most prized possession, cell phones. A few of these blurs are yelling, trying to hand out fliers or trying to sell tickets. Hands are waving left and right with smiles here and there. Someone trips over an uneven brick and as she tries to cover up her mishap, no one really notices or cares. Men are moving their legs fast left and right in their business pants. There's a runner in the crowd, and even someone walking a bike. Hurry, look at your watch. Oh here's another flyer person, act like you're busy. Oh there's someone you kind of know, look away and act as if you didn't see her because maybe she won't say hi. Oh, there's a friend, avoid him, you're too busy right now.

Freeze.

There are puddles on the ground. The church bells are ringing a melodious song. It's 6pm, time for dinner. Specks of white are falling down all around you. It's snow. If you look closely, you realize that you can see the beautiful crystals that make up what they call the "snowflake." You know, the big ones that you see on cartoons while growing up. But in reality, they're tiny. Can you see it? Are you focusing on it?

Now you're walking slower, moving gracefully with the softly falling snow. It's going to make it to the ground, but the wind is taking it on a tour - here come to the left, oh maybe a little to the right, oh, maybe fly up again. It's beautiful. It finally hits the ground and disappears. You're a little bit disappointed, because this one was your special one that you saw. You walk on realizing the beauty of each little speck as they fall around you. They're really quite special.

Freeze.

There's a saying that there are no two snowflakes that are alike. But to us, they look the same if we don't focus on their beauty.

No human being is the same. But they all seem the same in the crowd when we walk trying to live our busy lives.

Take a step back and focus on someone :-). Get to know their beauty.

That's what snowflakes taught me today.

You're not a Leader, You're a Slave

I lead a men's small group and I love them to death. We were planning a valentine's day surprise for the girls in our Christian fellowship and a few of us got together on Thursday night to start making them little packages.

Now, I will not lie, this "surprise" task is of epic proportion. There were only 8 men in LW for 37 girls (our guys:girls ratio is tiny). Since we didn't finish on Thursday night, I figured we'd finish up on Friday.

On Friday, I was surprised that no one could really help. I started to think that this could not be done, and I started to lose hope in my men. This is rare, I'm an initiator, someone who feeds off challenges and motivation. But here, I felt kind of hopeless. Why were my men not coming? I know that we're all busy with a lot of priorities, but surely, 30 minutes can't be that hard to spare... :-/

I luckily had one of my guys come up :-) and he brought along two other alumni. One of them told me when I was leaving, kind of as a joke, but not really, "You're not a leader, you're a slave."

I'm not a leader. I'm a slave.

Am I a slave because I do everything for them. Maybe I don't give them enough responsibilities to grow? Maybe I'm not trusting in them enough? Maybe I'm not leading because I'm not encouraging them to do work since I'm here. At the same time, isn't this how Jesus led? I want to lead by example, because I believe so much more in doing than just saying or forcing. When you do things, you live your thoughts and your life becomes what you stand for. But why isn't this leading style working for me? Why aren't most of my boys,for a lack of better words, "manning up?"

Is what I'm doing right? Wrong?

I'm confused. I want them to grow. I want them to take responsibility, learn how to manage time, learn how to serve others, go out and initiate things.

Today's sermon was quite timely. Pastor LT said that the words "servant" and "slave", in the Bible, could be interchangeable. "Slave", not like the way think of the word, but "slave" as in someone who willingly calls someone their master and serves them and their needs. Jesus says that "If anyone wants to be first, He must be the very last, and the servant of all" (Mark 9:35).

Tough life. But His disciples saw Jesus's servanthood, and now the whole world is changed.

I need to be both a slave and a leader, not just a slave. But how?

On the bright side, when we were making final deliveries today, even if it was at the last moment, a few of my guys pulled together to help :-).

It's nice to see some improvement, but I need to stop focusing on what I want to see, and let God take over.