Blessed to do Good

I've been blessed beyond measure to be living and working in New York City.

The environment here is so different. A lot of people value their work, their efficiency, their productivity and even strangely enough - how many hours they work. They talk about how many points they have for hotels or miles for flights, what projects they're on, what stocks to trade... and the list goes on. Everything feels like it revolves around money and status.

On one of my projects, our team went around the room introducing ourselves to our client, and it went like this, "A&B from Harvard, B from Yale, C from Cornell, D from UPenn." That's when I first thought to myself, "Wow, I'm somewhere where a lot of people can't be."

I started thinking a little about what that means for me? I try to never take things for granted. I'm not special or anything, but I must be here for a reason. And I played around with the idea.

And then last night, I hung out w/my friends from Vegas who went to Yale. It ended up going from dinner to rooftop to lounge to chicken to karaoke... but throughout the night our group got bigger and bigger and the schools that were represented were Stanford, Yale, MIT, Duke, Berkeley, UNC, and UPenn - and these were all people in great jobs in big firms.

And so thoughts started to come up again. Do any one of them realize how amazingly blessed they are? Do any one of them have a vision to use what they have been given and do great things? What is their definition of great? Of success?

I was the only Christian, and maybe it's because God calls us to use what He has given us to further His Kingdom. But I had all these thoughts last night and even now, I wonder, what am I supposed to do with what God has given me?

In Luke 12:48, it says "To whom much is given, much is expected."

There's no conclusion in this post. But I think that my prayer and my prayer request for both you and I will be to do great things for God, using what He's given us. Although I've mentioned school and "success" in a very Asian perspective here, I think that we're ALL blessed in different ways so why not use what we're blessed with for God?

I don't know what God's plan is for me, but if He's saying anything to me right now, He's telling me to recognize everything He's given me and to use it. Don't let your "success" go to waste - turn it into something better. Because in my opinion, we're not just blessed, we're blessed to do good, to bless others.

God speaks to me in weird ways

So over the course of my last semester in college, I've been praying for a few people I met while flyering for my Christian fellowship at Penn. I met a lot of people who were interested in learning about God or who were curious in some way or another, and I always hoped that God would bring them to church or introduce them to the God that I know, the God that loves abundantly.

There was one girl in particular who I'd pray for alot because I could just see that she was curious about God and that all she needed was an opportunity. I spent the semester randomly shooting emails back and forth getting to know her situation a little and asking her to come out to our events. We'd remember her when we sent out care packages, but for some reason, she'd never be home when we dropped them off, and we'd get an email back saying thanks. And she almost went to our retreat and I thought God would surely help her at least experience God in some way if she came. But nothing ever really worked out, and I always wondered if praying for these people consistently would ever help?

I stopped praying for her and for these people. I remember at the end of the year when I was moving out of my room, instead of keeping all the post-its with the names of people who I'd pray for, I just thought to myself, "Nah...there are too many names, and no answers. I'm moving out, got to throw it out." So I threw them out.

It's been two months since that happened, and I'm quite ashamed that I gave up so easily. I had totally forgotten about those names with no faces, and I just passed along the name of the girl to the new leaders in my fellowship to keep an eye out for.

Today, in New York (out of everywhere, New York!), I ran into her at church. The connections are crazy. But another guy from my fellowship who had just joined my senior year, had invited her to the church that I was going to in NY, and she came. I was so shocked.

God really spoke to me today. He told me to never give up on prayer and on His people. My prayer was answered today, she's experienced God in some way, and now we'll see how God works. But the lesson of the day is, God listens, and He wants me to know that :-D.

I'm ashamed that it took this to awaken me, but I'm grateful for such an awesome, mysterious God.

Home

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. :-)