Something tells me I won’t miss it all that much…

(the image has nothing to do with this post obviously but it’s just a picture I like from our quick trip to Connecticut a few weeks ago)

So here are some thoughts I want to put down before I forget after the having led Korean-style early morning prayer meetings and a Friday evening service tonight.

Thought #1: “Korean-time” should really be changed to “1.5-2nd generation Korean-American Time”.

I just filled in for 1 week leading these early morning prayer meetings and what I noticed right away was that no one, not a single person, was ever late to the prayer meetings that began sharp at 5:30am everyday.  In fact, they all came anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes earlier to pray on their own and get their hearts ready before worship each morning.  In the “circles” that I belonged to in past and present, whenever people show up late for worship services – usually anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes – we just say they are going by “Korean time”.  Well, I think we all should stop dragging the 1st generation folks down with us, man up, and just say “1.5-2nd gen KA time” because truthfully speaking, being late for services is a phenomenon that I’ve witnessed in worships that mostly involved the 1.5-2nd gen. English speaking folks – or “EM”(English Ministry) for short.  I still have no idea why people are consistently, I mean consistently, late for worship services.  I mean, it’s not like we move the service times around every week to make it interesting or anything.  And just by the fact that most late-attenders are usually consistently late the same exact amount of time every week just tells me that most of them can make some sort of a small change in the Sunday morning routine to be on time for a change – if they wanted to.  And if this small change in morning routine is not possible, then maybe you just don’t want to and something else is the problem.  (yes, I know, I’m generalizing and there are people who are late to things from every race, age, and socioeconomic class, but are you seriously going to disagree with me about 1.5-2nd gen KA constantly being late to church?  If you don’t believe me, do me a favor, and this Sunday, just see how many people are actually inside the church building, in their seats ready to begin worship together with the worship team, the presider, the opening media, or whatever else your church uses to start the worship with)

Thought #2: The 1.5-2nd gen. Korean Americans seriously need to be praying for its own generation and for the uncertain future of the church they’re a part of.

I heard from somewhere that if you want to just get a feel for the spiritual climate of a church, just check out how many people show up to the prayer meetings – if there are even regular prayer meetings to begin with.  I just have to wonder how many 1.5-2nd gen KAs are fervently praying for their church to be something more than just some sort of a social club and are genuinely seeking spiritual growth in their worship, fellowship, and whatever else that goes on in their respective communities.  We can fault the 1st gen. KAs for a lot of mistakes for sure, but I have a sneaky suspicion that the reason why their churches are still going strong, is because of all those lay people praying on a daily basis for their pastors, small-groups, etc.  Just try to imagine what your ministry is going to look like when you’re 50, 60 and even 70 if things keep going the way they are right now…

Thought #3: Lord’s Prayer is no lightweight of a prayer – it is packed with some hard-to-swallow truths about our faith that should really serve as a wake-up call to many of us who mindlessly recite it during worship services.

Man, as I reflected on the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6 throughout the week, I realized that this prayer is no joke!  Jesus wasn’t messin’ around when he taught this prayer to His disciples, which would include, uh yes, you and me.  I’m not going to write everything that my studies taught me here, well primarily because I know that like only 3 people are reading this, but when you get a chance to, seriously chew on the prayer verse by verse and really think about what each sentence means and more importantly, what your life should look like as a result of you praying it.  (Doing a light word study on “kingdom” and “forgiveness” won’t hurt either…)

Thought #4: I am weaksauce!

Yeah, 새벽기도(early morning prayer) is not for the faint of heart!  It takes some serious discipline to really be committed to this stuff.  I mean these people work all day and in some cases evenings as well and still make it to the early morning worship everyday – everyday! Some of them travel from places that are good 30-40 minutes away without traffic and they still come!  I on the other hand, had a difficult time just getting up every morning that early(4:30am in case anyone is wondering) and even more challenging was disciplining myself to go to sleep earlier than I was normally used to.  I failed miserably on the latter than that’s why I was so tired everyday – while I was getting up on time every morning, I was still going to sleep around 12 or 1am every night!  Man I still have a long, a LOOOONG way to go…

Call me crazy but I’m actually excited about this.  There is something definitely sacred about the very early hours of the morning and really, being able to intentionally set those few minutes to an hour aside to connect with the Creator of my soul does something that cannot be explained in words.  I don’t pretend to practice this on an ongoing basis at all.  In fact, I usually only do this when I’m in crisis mode.  When Chloe, while still inside the womb, was declared to have extremely high chances of being born with D.S., Grace and I not only prayed together every night until delivery for the most of pregnancy, but I even added on early morning sessions just to demonstrate to God how desperate I was.  (For those of you wondering, she was born without any such conditions and is very much fulfilling her duties as the youngest of the three girls by being the cutest and the wildest at the same time)

I am excited, however, for this opportunity because while we’re not exactly in a crisis mode per se, we are definitely in a place where we can sure use the extra time – especially the sacred time in the morning – to just be with Him in that humble manner and seek His wisdom regarding some important processes in our life right now.

I’ll be preaching in Korean and am currently reflecting on the Lord’s Prayer out of Matthew 6 as the passage to go over for the five mornings next week beginning on Monday at 5:30am.  I’m hoping and praying that this will be a good occasion for me to realign myself to His will and to be reminded of the “essentials” in our journey of faith.

If anybody in the area, for whatever reason, is interested in joining me and a few Korean elders and deacons for these early morning sessions next week, drop me an email or a comment and I can give you more detailed information.  Otherwise, please do pray for me as I seek to share from the Lord’s Prayer and maybe more importantly, that I would wake up on time to open up the church to let His faithful saints in!

I got to plug into the amazing Carr amp (Rambler I believe?) at CCH backstage for a while and it was absolutely heavenlicious! (is that a word???)  My fingers and ears have found a new addiction…

(On a completely unrelated note, I left(intentionally) my dlsr at home in Beijing to force myself to only use the lx3 for the year and see if I can survive… while it can be frustrating at times, I’m very much enjoying not having to carry the big lens around. I have to admit, getting older and traveling with 3 small kids definitely influenced my decision but still, it is forcing me to be more creative with picture-taking and I’ve been having fun with being able to take HD quality video clips whenever I want as well.)

Jesus’ wilderness experience is a profound reminder to me that none of us are exempt from what he underwent during those 40 days and it’s becoming increasingly clear to me that without our absolute dependence on him, it is nearly impossible for any of us to come out of it the way he did.

Matthew 4:1-11

And as I pondered on the changes he had gone through in the past 10 years I began to wonder about my own changes and the events that had been a part of my past 10 years as well.  And just when I was starting to think I hadn’t accomplished anything even worth mentioning, I was suddenly reminded of all the people that had been a part of my – my family’s – life during all these years and even the precious new friendships that are forming now in this stage of our life.

Then I realized once again, it is all about the people – the people. It isn’t about anyone’s successes or even failures.  In the end it is about the people who have touched me through the ups and downs of my life and those that I have touched through their own as well.

And now I find that I am completely grateful – grateful because God has absolutely showered my family and I with His love through the people.

I can only pray and hope that I too can be remembered as that channel of God’s love in someone else’s testimony someday.

Also amazed at the same time with how easy it is to so mindlessly slip back into the routine of things as in the past here in the States…