Ethylene

“And Lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.” 2 Corinthians 12:7

We were on our way to visit. The changing colors on the trees were just absolutely beautiful and amazing. Suddenly Hyemi asked, “Do you know why the leaves fall?” I had no idea. Then she told me, “It’s because of ethylene. They are hormones in plants and that’s what makes the leaves fall.” Of course that’s how she would explain! She’s a scientist! For the next couple minutes she explained to me how ethylene works and the process of leaves falling. I had no idea what she was saying. They were like foreign language to me. Bottom line: leaves fall because of ethylene.

Hyemi told me she could never forget the word ‘ethylene.’ She was taking her exam back in college years ago. Hyemi was well prepared for the exam and she was ready to ace it. She studied hard for the exam. But she couldn’t get the perfect score. Hyemi was able to write down all the answers except for one answer: ethylene. Funny, she couldn’t remember that word at that time for her exam, but because of that experience she will never forget that word.

I feel like that is how God let’s us make us mistakes. We can learn a great deal in our mistakes. We assume that the thorn that Paul mentions in the above verse is about his bad eyesight due to the blindness he had on his way to persecute Christians. But because of that experience he met Jesus. Every time Paul thinks about his poor eyesight, he will not complain but he will remember that Jesus has saved him.

No, we shouldn’t make mistakes. But even if we do so, let’s remember God. The scars you may have from the past, the mistakes you might have made, the times when you might have drifted from God, they should become a way to search for God. And we should remember God for the goodness He has done to us!

In the name of Jesus Christ

Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. Acts 3:6-9

You know, I am tired of listening to the same songs over and over again in the car. We turn this Christian Children CD on for Sebin to listen to in the car and she just loves it! So when we are driving together, I have to turn it on! I feel like I have listened to it for more than a thousand times. Well some of the songs got stuck in my mind.

Yesterday, I was at the market to do some grocery shopping. I had to use the restroom. I found myself singing one of the songs from the CD that we listen in the car as I was entering the restroom. I was singing, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk…” I was singing and entering the restroom, but when I saw feet under one of the toilet partition door I started humming to the song instead of singing the lyrics. I slowly lowered my voice and stopped humming, hoping that that man did not hear me.

At that moment, I felt ashamed of myself. I don’t know what stopped me from singing about Jesus in the restroom. Maybe I did not want that man in the toilet to get an idea that I am a Christian. Or maybe I was justifying to myself that I should not offend him with a Christian song. Whatever the reason was, I felt ashamed of myself for stopping to sing about Jesus as I noticed someone else was in restroom with me.

For you see, that very man who was cured in the name of Jesus, he was different. Verse 9 tells us that he couldn’t hold it to himself. He had to express it! He walked, leaped, and praised God for everyone to see! This man was not ashamed of Jesus. In the name of Jesus Christ we are saved. What I need to do is be joyful and keeping singing songs about Jesus and show others!

Our Father

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

It was yesterday morning. I was playing with Sebin. She was just so happy as she was playing. She had this small glass jar in her hand and she was waving it up and down. Next moment the glass jar was touching the surface of my iPad. I didn’t think much about it, but 3 seconds later, my iPad display cracked!

If you know me well enough by now, you probably know how much I care for my electronic devices. I try to take good care of them and I make sure they are always clean and in good shape. That goes for my phone, tablet, laptop, and my cameras. And my iPad screen cracked as I was watching! The funny thing was, I was OK. I know myself. I would have been so mad, if I accidentally broke it myself. I would have been upset if someone else broke it. But when Sebin broke it, for some reason I was OK and I was like, “Oh, it broke. I see…” It was because she is my baby girl. (Of course, I started to realize how much I would have to pay to fix it… The thought of it got onto me for the rest of the day.)

This is just the beginning. She is probably going to create a lot more trouble in the future as she grows. I hope I can still be OK with the things that she accidentally breaks.

I wonder how God would feel as we are troublemakers. The natural response would be to be mad or angry at us. But rather, God loves us. Because we are His children. Instead of getting rid of us, He devised a plan to save us from our troubles and sin. He is our Father.

Imitate

“Therefore I urge you, imitate me.” 1 Corinthians 4:16

“Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” 1 Corinthians 11:1

Many of you know me as a soccer fan but I am also a basketball fan too. I used to play basketball so much when I was in middle school and high school. I remember those days when on Sunday I would play basketball for hours and hours the whole daylong until the sun would set. I remember those weekday evenings when I would sneak out of personal study session (In Korea, education is very strict and competitive that schools had mandatory evening study sessions where students were forced to do personal studies at school. For me I was at school until 10 p.m.) just to play basketball with friends. On lucky days, we wouldn’t be caught by our teachers, otherwise we would be spanked pretty hard. Basketball was a boom in Korea in the 90’s when I was in school because of this one popular Japanese comic book called the ‘Slam Dunk.’ This series was a huge sensation to Korean boys like me. It inspired us to play ball. I remember studying the comic carefully to improve my basketball handling (dribbling) skills or my shooting form. I ‘imitated’ from the comic book for me to improve my basketball skills.

When I was a freshman in college, one of the required classes was a preaching class. I don’t remember that much from that class. But one of the few things I remember was that the professor told us to copy sermons from famous preachers. He was not teaching us to plagiarize. He wanted us to ‘imitate’ well-known speakers. That was one of the ways of improving our speaking skills.

Paul tells us to ‘imitate.’ And we must ‘imitate’ Jesus Christ. There is no shame in imitating Christ. That’s what Jesus wants from us. It will grow us to be like Him. Let us imitate.