Pain is weakness leaving the body

Photo by: Dae Shik Kim Jr. Taken at Moanalua Gardens

That was a quote left by my brother on my facebook.  I like it.  I’m not going to go all Plato on you and analyze it, but just think about that line.  Think about how much you have grown through pain.  How much stronger you have become.

Today was a pretty bad day to say the least.  I have had worse, but I have definitely have had better.  It start off with a fight with one of my closest friends and me snapping, gotta love that korean rage.  I look at snapping like alcohol, feels really good while doing it, but you have the worst hangover afterwards.  And as usual, I felt the hangover.  What is even worse than snapping is having the person you snapped at apologize first. (Talk about stab in your pride.)  At the end of the day we will still be bros, but I’d love to learn not to have these hiccups.

Anyway, that didn’t last long, and after I made a drive towards Magic Island Beach park.  But for some reason as walking towards my car, everything under my chin is in pain.  Like I decided to lift every muscle on my body the night before.  Puzzled, I shook it off and did a couple of arm circles (that’s my stretching) and started to drive.  I had my friend visiting me from Texas with me, Jin Yoo, and one of my friends from high school, Joanna, and we headed down.  Almost there, I started thinking about other things and I all I heard was curb!  I was about to curb hop a corner and saw it too late.  I’ve hopped curbs before, so I thought no big deal.   As I hopped it, the car shook like I hit an elephant.  As I tried to drive it off, my car started shaking.  I pulled over and I found out that I shredded my tire and needed to change it.

I looked at my tire and stood in the blazing sun, actually relieved.  Before I went out to check, I held my breath praying that I didn’t hit my bumper.  PTL that I had a jack and a spare tire in my trunk.  I have never changed a tire and got a little scared.  Thank God that I watched Rugrats season 4, episode 24, Looking for Jack, and remembered when Angelica’s mom had a flat tire and had to change her tire.  (no joke)  I started lifting my car with the jack and had a lot of time to think.

We often times hop curbs all the time in our lives.  Each time we hop a curb with our car, it damages the car a little bit, but we don’t notice it.  With our lives, we do sins over and over again that we don’t notice that harm us.  But there is that chance that one time you hop a curb, you will blow a tire and cause your car to wobble and unable to move forward.  Same with our lives, sins we do over and over again, could one day blow up in our faces, making us unable to move forward.  That jack in my car represents God.   As a jack for a car lifts up the car to make it able for me to change the flat tire,  God lifts us up to make it able for him to change the flat in our lives.  Without the jack, we will not ever be able to change it.  Driving could still be possible, but it will forever be wobbly and not smooth.  Slowly killing the car, as sin slowly kills us.

It is never too late to get a jack in your car, never too late to get a God named Jesus in your life.

Yoda, Mr. Miyagi, Coach Knight, and Elijah

Photo by: Dae Shik Kim Jr.

When you think of all of these names, one thing comes to mind, masters.  Or in other words, mentors, and probably some of the best ever.  Whether training up the next Jedi Master, or the next Karate Kid, each of these “characters” took people under their wing and taught them everything they know.  Not only were these masters great at teaching, but their students were very eager to learn.  An eager student + and an eager master = usually something amazing.

Today during my Journalism 401 class, we took a trip to a news organization called civil beat.  It is an internet ran newspaper and is flourishing during a time where print is dying, and fast, accessible news is booming.  Our speaker, John Temple, is actually the editor of civil beat.  He was going over the different aspects of the industry and some of the tips to strive.  One thing he did mention was how he learned most of the things he knows today.  He told us it was a combination of experience and mentorship.  He said he used to follow high profiled reporters all the time and just try to learn from them and what they were doing.  It was hard work, but by the time he was done shadowing, he knew so much more.  That really convicted me to start thinking about things in my own life.  I personally want to become the best pastor I can be.  I have a lot of pastoral role models and mentors, ex. Joseph Yoo, Kyung Lee, Chris Fujino etc, and have recently shadowed Pastor Joe this summer during an internship program.  I thought about how much I learned from a hands on experience, things I couldn’t learn from a text book.  Going through what he goes through every day, sermon prep, meeting prep, netflix prep, everything.  John Temple expressed how important internships were, and I couldn’t agree any less.

In the first Karate Kid, Daniel (after finally respecting Mr. Miyagi and what he had to offer) took his “internship” seriously.  Followed things all the way from breathing techniques, to how he struck an opponent.  Everything Mr. Miyagi knew, he was feeding into Daniel.  With the hope that not only will he be as good as he, but eventually greater.

A great example of this was the story of Elijah and Elisha.  Elisha was someone who followed Elijah everywhere.  Trying to learn as much things as he could before it was too late.  Before Elijah ascended into heaven, he asked Elisha for a final request.

2 Kings 2:9

When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”

“Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.

I find this so fascinating.  How he could have asked his master for anything, and he went with a double portion of spirit.  Not saying at all that this is a small request, but the maturity and understanding of Elisha was incredible.  He knew he learned a lot from Elijah, and the last thing was to get not only the amount of spirit he had, but double.  And lets remember, Elijah had a lot of spirit and faith, one of two people in the Bible who did not pass away.

Interning with Joe was great, I came in with an open mind, wanting to get better, and grew a lot.  If I ever do another shadow or internship, I’ll be even more of a sponge/accepting mode.  So I challenge everyone reading, find something you want to get good at, especially if its for the glory of the Lord.  Then find a mentor, or teacher who will put in time and effort in taking you under his wing.  Learn as much as you can, the things they do well, and also their mistakes.  The sign of success will be the day you surpass your master.  Daniel got better than Miyagi, Luke over Yoda, Coach K over Coach Knight.  Not out of arrogance, but out of care and love from both ends.

Yesterday, Duke under Coach K beat Michigan State and made history.  With that win, Coach K became the most winningest coach in Division 1 basketball history.  The previous record holder? Coach Knight, his mentor.  Curious to see Knight’s reacted, they interviewed him.

There was nothing but praise towards his former mentee.  And that’s what we need to all find.  Someone to take us under their wing, and strive to make us the best.  Not only better then them, but the best.

I am blessed to have people I respect giving me guidance everyday of my life.  Sure, it takes a lot of pride swallowing and such, but it is well worth it. Maybe you will win 904 games, defeat the syth, win a karate tournament, or show God’s power over nations.  maybesomedae

So say we all,

Dae

Skid Row

This is my first blog post since I’ve left for summer internship.  So far I’ve been to DC for my orientation, and now I’m in LA, shadowing Pastor Joseph Yoo (josephyoo.com) at Valencia United Methodist Church.  Being at an Anglo Church is very different from a Korean church. (good and bad.)  The people are very nice here, maybe too nice, and seem to like me so far.

5 1/2 weeks shadowing Pastor Joe, enough said.

My first full week on the job started today, and it was a real eye opener.  Pastor Joe and I took a drive down to Skid Row so he could show how bad it is.  Let me tell you, it makes Chinatown look like Hawaii Kai.  (not undermining the problems in Chinatown at all, but it just shook me up a little bit.)  The first ten minutes of walking down the street, I was terrified.  Then my heart started to ache for the people I kept seeing.  Movies do not do a good enough job portraying the problems that this world faces.  If a bunch of us in Hawaii decided to head down to Chinatown to pick up trash, it wouldn’t be a problem.  But in Skid Row, we can’t even do that because there are needles everywhere on the street and it’d be very dangerous.  (Let’s just say I’ve never heard of a program called heroine anonymous before.)

Places like Skid Row exist, places like China town exist, the ghettos exist.  But what I realized is that Food shelters exist also, food vans exist, churches who come and feed exist, help exists.  So why is there still problem.

Of course I do not know the full answer to how to stop poverty and the drug problem completely.  If I did then I’d win the noble peace prize, and more.  But I do know what we are lacking.  We need to do more than just go there once a week (that is a lot for most Christian/non Christians) and give food to the homeless.  The other six days that you aren’t there, they are still hungry.  Or lets even say you go every day to provide one meal (that is a lot for even the justice league, bad joke.)  Will that really solve the homeless, drug problem.  Or will that just make them less hungry?  They will still be homeless.

Deut. 15:7. If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in any of the towns of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.

The people on the streets aren’t just lacking food.  The people on the streets aren’t just lacking sobriety.  The people on the streets aren’t just lacking God Bless you’s and free bibles.  The people on the streets aren’t just lacking church.

They are lacking justice in Christ and love from the people from his kingdom.  We as brothers and sisters need to figure out what the homeless people need to figure out how to bring His kingdom here on earth for not only us, but for them.  Not just free meals.

Again, I am not undermining the fact that going out and serving lunches after service is not good.  But the fact is, you are still going home to your macbook, and he is still walking back to his bench.  Compassion is good, but that just scratches the surface.  There needs to be justice for them.

I do understand a lot of them ended up there because of drug problems and other things that is their fault.  But that does not mean it is ok for us to just say, your problem not mine.  Because it is our problem, if we Christians really want to do the will of God.

and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.”

Let us not forgot that whatever means everything.  Whatever does not mean somethings.

Like I said before, I do not know the answer to the problem on the streets.  But I am now seeing the problem for the streets.  And I am guilty.

By the way, I love DC and the east coast!  Can’t wait to go again.

(by the way, I owe a lot of this eye opening to my mentor Joseph Yoo.  Who also opened my eyes to Battlestar Galactica.  Both things being amazing. )

So say we all,

Dae

Put it in your closet, not on craigslist

Press Release

I recently started writing, taking pictures, and graphic designing again.  I am no where near “professional” level in any of these things, but these things are certainly passions of mine.  If you asked me if they were passions of mine about 3 months ago, it would have sounded more like “it was a passion of mine.”  Fortunately, one thing lead to another, and I picked these hobbies back up and revived parts of my life I thought I lost forever.

The question is, why were they lost in the first place?

To answer that question, I look back to the summer before my senior year of high school.  I got my first camera, a nikon d40, and fell instantly in love.  My yearbook teacher right away saw a natural talent and encouraged me to pursue this new found love.  So I started snapping away at everything I could, what I wanted to shoot, and submitted my pictures to my high schools yearbook.  I then started to get ambitious and partnered up with a friend of mine, who was also into photography, and started taking senior portraits.  We started making a good amount of money, and we were on our way.

What I didn’t notice was that I was also on my way to becoming something we are all familiar with, burning out.

I found myself taking pictures for a handful of seniors in a compact amount of time, taking pictures for the school’s yearbook and newspaper, and trying to build up my photography portfolio.  It was becoming very overwhelming.  I should have done the sensible thing and taken a break.  Of course being an irrational teenager, I dropped all of it at once.  I still had to take finish the job for the school, but it became a chore.  No longer being a fun hobby that I fell in love with, but a dreadful walk to the next event I had to shoot.  I felt like the passion for it was gone forever.  What I didn’t know was that I just needed a break.

During the month of June, July, and August, teachers and students take off for summer because they need a break.  People with jobs take vacations because they need a break.  NFL teams have bye weeks because they needs a break.  No student, professional, or football player wants to quit what they are doing (for the most part), but often times we are blinded by the fact that we are simply just tired.

Tiki Barber is a former NFL running back who quit when he was at the top of his game.  In 2007, he hung up his pads and announced he was walking away from the game.  He said he was tired and wants to move on to different things in his life.  We are now in the year 2011, and Barber is looking for a comeback.  5 years later, he regrets his decision and wants to try and play in the NFL again.  At the age 36, his window of returning doesn’t look very big, and it may be too late.  He may live in regret for the rest of life because he chose quitting over “breaking”.

Your situation may require quitting.  You may be involved in something that forces you to drop everything at once.  But you should really think about why whatever you are dropping was a passion in your life in the first place.  Why we follow this concept called the sabbath.  Why we take vacations.  Even couples take breaks from each other.  Whether that break is half a day when she goes out with her friends for a “girls” day, or when he goes out to his friends house to watch some football.  Or maybe a couple of weeks for a vacation.  But calling it quits for any of these things when you feel tired and burnt out often times lead to regret.

I was watching The Jungle last night on MTV (one of my favorite shows), and one of the girl teams wanted to quit and do an elimination challange.  Another girl saw this and she told them that she has never met anyone quit something and look back on it and say that was a great idea.  I got lucky that I picked my hobbies back up.  My camera could have stayed on the shelf until I eventually sold it on craigslist for some pocket money.  But things don’t always work out that way.  Sometimes when we quit something, there will never be a time when we can pick it back up.  Start up where we left off.  Relight the flame that was once burning so strong.

When you wish you felt the way about something like you did in the beginning, sometimes it just takes a little rest to bring you back there.  Even if it doesn’t work out in the end, at least you can say you gave it a shot.  As Tim Riggins would say before he was about to do something really stupid, “No Regrets”.

So put you “Camera” in your closet, not on craigslist.

Even Billionaires Die

Photo by: Dae Shik Kim Jr.

I would like to first off say, rest in peace Steve Jobs.

I think Obama’s quote about Steve Jobs today sums it up,

“Brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world & talented enough to do it.”

Greatly admired, long remembered.

I would like to say that I am not talking about Jobs directly, but like in all things, God can turn something that looks so tragic, into something glorious.

There are a couple of things that are certain in this world, one of them being physical death.  It is no secret that Steve Jobs had a lot of money.  (8.3 Billion according to the latest Forbes list).  But even with all that money, he could not avoid death.  But steve wasn’t your ordinary billionaire.  (Billionaire’s aren’t ordinary to begin with)  He had a passion of changing the world, each day of his life.  Making an impact to all ages, never settling for a normal day.  And in the end, he faced what we all will face one day, physical death.

After talking to my father about this, my eyes were opened to a lot of things.

1. Money can buy anything in this world, but never anything outside of it.

2. Steve Jobs is pretty dang famous. (I say this because even my dad knew who he was.)

3. You live each day as if it is your last, and one day it will actually be your last.  (quoted by steve jobs in his 2005 Stanford speech.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA&feature=player_embedded).

If this was your actual last day here on earth, would you be going for all the riches that this world could offer you?  Or would you go for a different kind of gold?  Steve Jobs, I believe, was different.  Not saying he didn’t enjoy the money, but he was in it for something even greater.  The gifts God gives you here on earth will come naturally, but the real gifts he’s waiting to surprise you with is stored up somewhere magical.

Matthew 16:26

And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?

Don’t lose your soul.  Don’t lose your path.  Don’t lose the sight of the true prize.  Gaining the world is definitely the second best thing that can happen to you.  But in a list of two, only the gaining of salvation is something we can cherish forever.

So say we all,

Count on Accountability

We all have things we wish we would have pursued.  Sports, exercise, school, God, etc.  Somethings we wished we would have learned, another language, guitar, martial arts, etc.  Things we shouldn’t have done, drugs, sex, crimes, eat, etc.  But what if all those times of regret, you had accountability?  I am not only talking about Christian accountability, but accountability in life.  Have an accountability partner means having someone who will push you to do something when you want to give up.  Will be the angel on your right shoulder telling you the right advice.  Being there for you when it’s the last thing you want to hear.  That’s someone we all need.

I have been hanging out with my boy DK for a while now.  He is my gym accountability partner.  We tag team and hit the gym 4 times a week and push each other to stay committed.  There are days when I feel super lazy, or vice versa, but that’s where the partnership comes from.  You now become one in the thing you are accountable for.  If DK slacks, I slack.  If I slack, DK slacks.  Kinda getting it?

In the Christ life we try to walk, we definitely need an accountability partner.  Someone to be your mirror friend where you can take any criticism from.  No matter how much I think I am right and, if my partner thinks I am wrong, we will tell me straight up.  A lot of times that will hurt our feelings, especially our prides.  But with this accountability, you will take it as something constructive.  It’s unrealistic to be so open-minded where you can take constant criticism from everyone.  If everyone told me everyday how lazy and A.D.D. I was, I’d get pretty upset.  My pride would rage, and I’d defend myself like crazy.  But building a relationship with an accountability partner helps me to understand that he/she is only doing it to look out for me.

Go out and find someone to keep you accountable.  Someone you can definitely TRUST.  That’s huge.  You need to trust them with all of your secrets (or most) and you have to know they are going to keep them.  If you have a drug problem no one really knows about, trust them to keep it.  Then when they see you slipping or sees any signs, they can call you out on that.  Keep you accountable.

One thing I wish someone kept me accountable for was learning guitar.  I’ve been trying to learn this God worshiping/girl serenading/mom impressing instrument for years now.  Always stopping when I finally see progress.  Whether it’s because of time, busyness, or just plain laziness.  I am going to try to pick it up again, determined as always, hoping the fire lasts. This time I know I need someone to keep me accountable.  I am not saying that we always need someone to push us to do everything.  That we can never be independent.  But times like this, where we struggle to press on, we need some fellowship to help us through.  Someone who has been through the fight and can recall the steps to success.  Someone like Jesus (I had to throw that in)

Go out and find your accountability partner.  But follow a couple of steps first.

1. Trustworthy (make sure they are! this could easily be the downfall of your relationship)

2. They don’t struggle in the same things you want them to keep you accountable for.(obvious reasons, sorry if you had to cross out some people)

3. You can talk to them on a regular basis (don’t make this a bi-annual checkup like going to the dentist. Make it regular)

4. Someone you can take crap from without letting your pride getting in the way.  (but don’t let them abuse their power, if they do, just tell them their fired)

I can say for sure that the areas in my life that I have someone keeping me accountable, I see a lot of growth coming from it.  The areas I don’t, well…you get the picture.

The devil will often times cloud our heads from the truth, so much that we start to believe all of the lies.  Sometimes we need our brothers and sisters to clear up the fog and reveal what God really wants from us.

God Bless, and always in Christ,

Dae

If it doesn’t work today, it won’t work tomorrow.

I am a strong believer on fixing things that are broken.  Now mind you that God can change anything he wants to, but besides that, we should change what is not working.  One of my pet peeves is when people do the same thing over and over again when it’s obviously not working.  Along with that, a 1 out of 30/40/50 doesn’t mean it works either.

The Miami Heat have been struggling lately, especially down in late, close games.  (Check out our sport’s blog @http://3reserves.wordpress.com/, Jin Bae’s latest blog is on the Heat)  A trend that has been happening is that the Heat have been down in the last 10 seconds, and Lebron James misses the game winning shot.  Now Lebron James does not deserve to receive the full blame, but going to him is obviously not working.  I’m not gonna go in-depth about this, (read the sports blog for that) but I think there are other options.  Giving the ball to Lebron for the last shot “seems” like a good idea, but if it doesn’t work for a long period of time, you need to change it.

That’s our problem as stubborn human beings.  We think of an idea that always “seems” like a good idea at the time, but when it doesn’t work, we continue to do it.  I do this unbelievably a lot.  Often times I think of a plan that seems flawless to me, and when it starts not to work, I always tell myself that it needs a little more time.

This is a big thing we have to fix especially when it comes to temptation.  We make plans to fix our bad habits, to change the way we do things.  We set “boundaries”.  When those boundaries fail, we don’t change them but, we do the same thing over and over again.  The plan seemed so well thought out in the beginning, it just has to work.  One of the main reasons things like this happen is because there is a lack of prayer.   God knows the perfect plan, so asking him would be the smartest thing to do.  We as humans will never find out how to create a perfect plan.  There will flaws, loopholes, and mistakes all over the place.  But our pride and selfishness will continue to try to convince ourselves that there is nothing wrong with it.

When you take a step back and evaluate the things in your life that is not working, do you notice some routines?  We as Christians often fall into a routine when it comes to church.  We go to church, praise, pray, listen, then eat.  Sometimes what happens is that it just becomes a part of the week.  Instead of expecting God’s presence to touch as a different way each time, we are satisfied with just going through the motions.  There is no heart.  When that happens, church stops becoming all about God, but it starts becoming all about your schedule.  Just another thing to cross off your planner.  If this is the case, you need to fix the problem right away.  If the church you are doing right now isn’t allowing you to get close to the Lord, it is not working.  The link to this paragraph and to the rest of the blog is, many people have already realized that they haven’t felt God in a while.  But they continue to do the same things at church, hoping things would change.  The prayer is there, the concern is there, but the action is absent.

JAMES 2:17 (NIV)

“In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

Continue to pray for a change, but also make that change.  If a pencil is broken, you aren’t going to try to keep using it, hoping that it’ll work.  Same thing with your faith and your church life.  Make a change so that you’ll experience the presence of God every time.  And not only with your faith, but with everything in life.  Swallow your pride and tell yourself, my plan failed, time to make a new one.  But don’t forget to pray about it, so you won’t have to start over.  God has the perfect plan, and he wants to share it with you.

Shalom!