Who’s your object of affection?

May 14, 2012 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

A good word from Ben Arment:

The thing that takes time away from our families and kids isn’t usually what they see.

It’s the work, but all our kids see is the laptop.

It’s the relationships that make us feel connected to the world. But all our kids see is the iPhone.

It’s the strategic thinking that plots our next moves. But what my kids see is a Moleskine.

Our kids eventually grow to despise that object. Because it shows up at the most inopportune times.

It shows up in their time.

I don’t know the answer to overcoming this, but I’m pretty sure the first step is banning the object during certain times.

Ouch.

“Life is inescapably a way of pain. The only question ultimately is where we seek our comfort”

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Faith is confidence in the person of Jesus Christ and in his power, so that even when his power does not serve my end, my confidence in him remains because of who he is.

 

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God can achieve his purpose either through the absence of human power and resources, or abandonment of reliance on them. All through history God has chosen and used nobodies, because their unusual dependence on him made possible the unique display of his power and grace. He chose and use somebodies only when they renounced dependence on their natural abilities and resources.

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The answer to unbelief is love

March 21, 2012 in gospel with 0 Comments

Good reflections from Deut 1 from Philip Chan. This ties well with our series in Hebrews.

When we lack a revelation of God’s love, such as the people did, they operated in disbelief. When we have a revelation of God’s love, we our more apt to believe great things from God.

Love is the power for belief. And without a history of knowing God’s love for our lives, we will always make decisions of unbelief.

Unbelief is solved by a knowledge of his great affections. Belief is a choice we make out of love.

Read the rest here.

Women in Church Leadership

March 12, 2012 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Since many folks come to our church from various faith traditions, I’ve had to explain some of the distinctions of our Presbyterian roots and stances. One of them is women’s ordination, or women in leadership in general. Recently someone asked me and I figure others might have the same question so I thought I’d post my response here.

Often the reason why the issue of women in leadership is such a heated debate among certain circles is because of the false dichotomy that gets presented. Often what seems to be at stake in not the issue itself, but what undergirds it. It’s often presented as an issue of biblical authority. “If you believe in women in ministry, then you obviously have a low view of the Bible” or  “since I believe in the authority of the Bible, then of course I can’t violate the plain teaching on the matter”. Clearly biblical authority is very important, but the issue here is biblical interpretation, not biblical authority. You can honor biblical authority, but come away with a different interpretation…

The hope behind this short paper is not necessarily to convince you one way or the other. At the very least, I hope this will give you another perspective.

You can download the rest here.

Uncluttering

March 1, 2012 in hacks with 0 Comments

Spring is in the air, which means it’s time to…

unclutter

Yes, it’s good to unclutter my soul, which the Lenten season speaks to, but that’s for another post. But I’m talking about my inbox clutter and my mailbox clutter. I have piles of mail everywhere. My inbox is probably 80% junk that I have to sift through. I’ve enlisted the help of two apps and I’m hoping will do the job. One is unsubscribr which is a handy app that helps you batch your junk together so you can unsubscribe all in one swoop. The other app is called paperkarma which allows you to take photos of the junk mail you wish to stop. You are then removed from their distribution list. I hope they both work well. Otherwise I’ve just added more clutter into the blogosphere.

Jeremy Lin, Moneyball, and Being Overlooked

February 13, 2012 in Asian American, wholeness with 0 Comments

Monique and I watched Moneyball starring Brad Pitt last night. It’s based on the life of Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics. In most sports, big market teams have significant advantages over smaller market teams because of revenue stream, cable TV contracts, merchandizing, etc. But for small market teams like Oakland, they have to put together a team on a shoestring budget. In addition, any up and coming young player that they develop end up leaving for a big market teams once their contracts are up. Knowing the impossibility of truly competing, Billy Beane knew he had to change the way he evaluated talent and eventually turned to statistical analysis called sabermetrics which evaluated players on an entirely different skill set that most scouts undervalue. To make a long story short, the Oakland A’s were able to compete with the likes of the New York Yankees at the fraction of the cost. His adoption of sabermetrics sparked a revolution in baseball which shifted the way you evaluate talent as well as the way the game is played. Previously overlooked players now are given a second look.

Maybe basketball needs the same kind of revolution. I’m no scout, but I would imagine much of the criteria has much to do with raw talent, athleticism, and size. But how many players get overlooked in the process?  This is precisely why the story of Jeremy Lin is so compelling. Nobody, with the exception of Asian American circles knew who he was and where he came from until last week. Out of all the player commentary, I think Kobe Bryant said it best:

“Players don’t usually come out of nowhere. If you can go back and take a look, his skill level was probably there from the beginning, but no one ever noticed. … It is a great story. It is a testament to perseverance and hard work. It is a good example to kids everywhere.”

No one ever noticed…

Someone asked me yesterday why this story resonates so much with me. I love basketball, but what has happened is more than just basketball. It speaks to every person who has ever been overlooked. But for Asian Americans, I suspect that the story resonates even deeper because in many respects, being overlooked has almost become an identity for many of us whether it’s in the workplace or broader society. So when someone like Jeremy Lin pushes through the barriers and finally gets noticed on such a huge platform, there’s a collective sense of validation that our stories exist. Mainstream media dictates the terms of how we are defined and represented so its refreshing for this story to speak for itself. His story is being told, and for once, I identify with it.

Growing in Humility is key to mission

February 10, 2012 in gospel, wholeness with 0 Comments

Here’s another way of looking at mission and evangelism. It’s quite counterintuitive, but makes perfect sense to me.

Jack Miller, to a young husband and wife couple, March 1987:

Grow in your daily humility and you will become more effective in winning the lost. There is a beautiful harmony here. When our lives are empty of self and pride, we are freed to be ourselves. We are not under an iron law of duty, but acting and thinking and feeling as we were meant to by our Creator. In the enjoyment of that wholeness, we become attractive to sinners.

–The Heart of a Servant Leader: Letters From Jack Miller (P&R, 2004), 235

It may make sense to me, but it’s far from easy.

The Heart of Growth Groups

February 7, 2012 in gospel with 0 Comments

A good word from Ray Ortlund Jr.

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”  James 4:8

How can we draw near to God in 2012?  Let me propose two ways, consistent with the gospel.  They are not heroic.  They only require faith and honesty.

One, at those very places in our lives where we are the most sinful, the most defeated, let’s face it and admit it.  Whatever view we take of Romans 7, surely every one of us can say, “I do not understand my own actions” (Romans 7:15).  And beyond admitting the impasse which we thought that, by now, we’d have grown past, let’s trust God to love us at that very point in our existence.  It is his way.  God loves grace into us (Owen, Works, II:342).  Let’s open up.  If Jesus is a wonderful Savior in every way except where we are the most hypocritical, then he is no Savior for us.  But the truth is, he draws near to broken sinners who own up.  What if we saw, in our very sins, the nearness of God awaiting us with greater mercy than we have ever known before?

Two, let’s confess our sins to one another and pray for one another.  No one grows in isolation.  We grow in safe community.  Sadly, such an experience is rare in our churches.  It should be common among us gospel people.  It should be our lifestyle.  We should be obvious, even scandalous, as friends of sinners.  But so often, someone must break the ice.  I see no revival in our future without a new culture of confession.  Personally, I have found a good way to measure my own honesty is the level of my embarrassment.  If I’m not embarrassed by my confession, I’m still holding out.  But it is freeing to come clean with a brother or sister and receive the ministry of prayer (James 5:16).  What if in 2012 we were, to one another, unshockable friends, down on our knees together, not judging one another but praying for one another?  Surely God’s nearness would be there.

I’m hoping and praying that we are experiencing this kind of grace in our community. If you’re not in a growth group, consider it. If you’re in one, let’s aspire to be “graced” by God and each other.

 

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