Bloom where you're planted

My heart is so heavy these days.  The clock keeps ticking - 40, 35, 30, 25.  Unmercifully, relentlessly, the calendar refuses to stop counting down the days until I will have to board that plane and leave Korea.  I remember when I first came here - my worry, my fears, my insecurities, my sheer terror at the thought of spending a year in a country which I didn't speak the language, on a continent I'd never even been to, doing a job that I had no experience in.  It was petrifying.  I can't tell you how many nights I cried myself to sleep in the weeks leading up to my departure for Korea.

But then I arrived.  And everything was so different from what I expected.  Sure, it was hard.  I will never attempt to pretend that the past year has been all roses and candy.  I had my days when I cried, when I screamed into my pillow, when it took everything in me not to punch someone in the face.  But eventually, one day I woke up and realized that I love my life here.

I am connected, here in Korea, in a way that I've never been before in my life.  I have students who adore me, and I them....I have dear friends, lifelong friends....I have a church that has become not just a place to worship, but a fellowship, a family.  I feel more at home here, on the other side of the world, than I ever did in America.  And it has got me wondering - why on earth am I going back to the states??

Why on earth would I leave the place that is more my home than anything has ever been before?  Out of all of the cities, countries, and continents that I've been to, I feel more at home in Gyeongju than I ever have anywhere else.  I feel loved by my students, connected with my church, close to my friends....in a word, I feel needed.  I feel like I am making a difference in the lives of the people around me.  And the thought of leaving all of that - all of the places, the people, the relationships that I have invested so much into....the thought of that fills me with a sadness so pervasive that I find it difficult to put into words.

But God's word reminds me that there is a season for everything.  Just because I am leaving Korea, doesn't mean that I can never come back.  It simply means that, for now, I will be investing in different people, in a different country.  If anything, this year has taught me how important it is to invest in people, in relationships.  Simply piling up a list of accomplishments and accolades is not enough.  If you don't have the personal relationships, the people that you've poured your heart and soul into, then you will never feel at home.  And, if you do have that, then you can feel at home no matter where you are.

Don't let yourself get bogged down by the what-ifs, the nostalgia, the wishful thinking.  Yes, you have had good things, wonderful things, in your past.  But there is a season for everything, there is a reason that you have moved onto to different things, and God has told you to bloom right where you are planted.  If you are so stuck in the past, so focused on what you're missing, on what you've left behind, you will never be able to focus on what's happening to you right now.  Bloom where you're planted.  Invest in the here and now.  Don't just waste your life pining for the things that you're missing.  

1 Corinthians 7:17-24

17 Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. 18 Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised. 19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts. 20 Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.21 Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. 22 For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave. 23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings. 24 Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.

Birthrights

Americans these days seem to be consumed with their "rights."  We want to to make sure that we get everything we feel that we have earned, we want equality, we want justice, we want an end to racism and sexism, yada yada yada.  Don't get me wrong, those are all good things.  I want those things just as much as the next person.  But I wonder sometimes if we really think about what our rights are - and what are simply priviledges.

It's interesting contrasting this "equality" debate that we find in America, with the cultural norms and attitudes that are found in Korea.  In Korea, "rights" aren't really debated about much.  Now, I'm not saying that South Korea blatantly disregards human rights and ignores the needs of the less fortunate members of their society.  Far from it.  The people of Korea are a loving, caring, democratic society.  But they also have a completely different mindset from the American one.  In Korea, the needs of the group always come before your individual needs.  If your boss needs you to cancel plans with a friend, or work late, or take on extra projects, then you do it, no questions asked, because it's what is best for the group as a whole.  Sometimes I wonder how the majority of Americans would handle living and working in Korea.  One of the first things you have to learn is that your rights as an individual don't really exist; or at least, they are always secondary to the rights and needs of the group.

Isn't it interesting to see how different 2 cultures view rights?  Economically, and in other ways as well, Korea and America are actually very similar.  But the mindset of the two cultures is so completely different.  How do you reconcile them?  How do you decide which is right, and which is wrong?  Is that distinction even possible to make?

The Bible has an interesting take on rights.  In Genesis 25, we find a story of Jacob and Esau, battling over the birthright in their family.  Now, in Biblical times, the birthright was the ticket to a good life.  It was always given to the oldest son of the family, and upon his father's death promised him more land, more possessions, and more power than any of the other children in his family.  A birthright was something incredibly precious, incredibly valuable, and it was highly treasured by whichever child in the family was fortunate enough to have it bestowed upon him.  It's no wonder that Jacob, even though he was the second son in his family, coveted this birthright.

And Esau was hungry.  He was hungry, and could see no farther than his own stomach, and so he sold his precious birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew.  How shortsighted could he be??  I can't imagine giving up something so valuable for something so cheap.  And yet, many of us do just that every single day.

As born-again Christians, God has given us a birthright, as well.  He has promised us life everlasting, a seat at the right hand of the Father, and safety and protection while here on this earth.  Yet, how many us of just throw that birthright away for a bowl of soup?  We ignore the promises of God - as well as the commands of God - in pursuit of frivolous things.  We convince ourselves, as Esau did, that if we don't pursue what we want right now, then we can never be happy.

But God has called us to much more than chasing bowls of soup.  He wants to make us heirs to His kingdom.  It is our birthright, that was given to us the day that we accepted Jesus Christ into our hearts. But that's something that we have to accept.  It does us no good if we simply ignore it and do our own thing.  So today, I want to you ask yourself....are you taking advantage of the privilege of being a Christian, the birthright that God has given you?  Or are you wasting your life on silly frivolities, chasing down bowls of soup that will be gone by the next day?

Genesis 25:24-34

When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.  The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.  After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.  Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.  The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.  Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.  Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished.  He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)  Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright. ” “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.  Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

No time for frugality

I love the story of Noah and the ark.  For one, it's a fascinating - albeit heartbreaking - tale of humanity, plainly showcasing their constant struggle between choosing good and choosing evil.  I can just hear the incredulity of Noah when God tells him to build a boat in the middle of the desert, and the jeers and mockery of his neighbors when he complies.  I can feel the wonder of every witness when animals start coming in throngs to the ark of their own accord, and the terror of those stuck on the outside once the doors are shut and the rains start.  I sense the frustration of everyone on board the ark, after being cooped up on a boat for a solid year.  I listen to Noah's heartfelt cries of worship after the Lord finally delivers him and his family in the mountains of Ararat.

The tale of Noah is one of real people, real emotions, real situations.  But it also has a lot of symbolism in it.  One of my favorites can be found in Genesis 6, when the Lord is describing to Noah how he should build the ark.  He tells Noah to cover the ark with pitch inside and out.  Many people don't think much of this sentence - in fact, when I was younger, I would always skim over all the "boring" directions for building the ark and go directly to the "interesting" part.

But, like everything with God, there's more to this than meets the eye.  The Hebrew word for pitch is kopher.  Kopher, however, does not just mean pitch.  It also can mean a ransom, the price of a life, or atonement.  And so, Noah's ark becomes not just a piece of wood, but a symbol of what Jesus would do for us thousands of years later.

Jesus came to save us.  He came to redeem us.  He came to be our kopher, our atonement.  But He can only save us if we allow him to cover our lives, inside and out.  Imagine if you were Noah building that boat.  The pitch was the only thing keeping the water from seeping into the ship and killing everyone on board.  Don't you think, then, that he was probably pretty liberal in applying that pitch to the ark?

In the same way, Jesus is the only thing standing between us and eternal death.  And yet, so many people just sprinkle him on their lives.  They use as little of Jesus as possible, only applying Him as needed.  My friends, your spiritual life is no time for frugality.  Jesus wants to give of Himself without restraint; why are we so hesitant to take of Him without reservation?  Cover your lives inside and out with Jesus.  Let Him be your kopher, your ransom.  Don't make the mistake that Noah's neighbors did by scoffing at God's generosity and mercy, and only realized their mistake after it was already too late.

Genesis 6:11-14

Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.  God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.  So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.  So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.

Baggage

Have you ever wondered why Christians outside of God's will can sometimes seem so blessed?  They don't read the Bible, they don't pray, they don't make any effort to grow closer to the Lord; and yet, their businesses are growing, their bosses are giving them promotions, and their families are happy and healthy.  In the meantime, while you are trying to follow the Lord, sometimes you may feel like you are not making any headway.  It can be frustrating, can't it?  What's the point of following God, when so often the people who don't seem to have the better lives?

Abram probably knew all about that inner struggle.  In Genesis 12, before God changed his name to Abraham, there was a famine in the land of Canaan.  So, instead of staying in the promised land, Abram went to Egypt with his wife Sarai.  While there, he lied about their relationship, telling everyone that Sarai was his sister, and so Pharaoh took Sarai as his wife.  And for the sake of Sarai, Pharaoh gave Abram all sorts of gifts - sheep, cattle, camels, servants, etc.

While Abram was most certainly not in the Lord's will, it also seemed like he was being greatly blessed during his time in Egypt.  But blessings acquired out of God's will are not blessings at all - they are baggage.  Later, in chapter 16, we will see that Abram chooses to have a child through one of his maidservants, Hagar.  What many people don't realize, though, is that Hagar was Egyptian, and was almost certainly acquired during Abram and Sarai's time in Egypt in Genesis 12.

So Abram slept with Hagar, they had a child, Ishmael, Ishmael and Hagar were sent away from Abram and Sarai, and they eventually grew into a whole new people group, many of whom comprise the present-day muslim population in the middle east.  I don't have to remind you of all the conflicts between Muslims and Jews that have arisen over the years.  All because Abram left God's will and went to Egypt.  All because he allowed fear to cause him to lie about his relationship with Sarai to Pharaoh.  All because he let Pharaoh "bless" him.  Baggage, baggage, baggage.

It's easy to think that your obedience to the Lord is not being noticed - or perhaps, that your disobedience will be equally unnoticeable.  But our actions have repercussions farrrrrr beyond what we can see with our own eyes.  Remember that the next time you are frustrated in your walk with the Lord, and take heart!  Don't delude yourself into thinking that the good things that come to you when you ignore the Lord are blessings.  In the end, they're just baggage.  And they're not worth it.

Genesis 12:10-20

Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”  When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace.  He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.

But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai.  So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?  Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!”  Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

The red letters

There's a great old song by the band dcTalk, called "Red Letters."  It is a poetic way of referring to the words of Jesus, as many translations of the Bible have Jesus' words printed in red, while the rest of the text is in black.  The chorus says that: "There is love in the red letters, there is truth in the red letters, there is hope for the hopeless, peace and forgiveness, there is life in the red letters."

I was listening to the song this morning, and I decided to go straight to the source, as it were.  Just what is it in Jesus' words that made them so powerful?  What is it about His words, that have caused them to endure and thrive throughout thousands of years of persecution?  

Something He said in Matthew 12 struck me.  In verse 7, He said that "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."  I would add my own paraphrase to that - He desires people, not rules.  God is a God of compassion, not cruel dictatorship.  Many other religions in the world are run by rules, their people dictated by fear.  Even people's good deeds are often not done out of love, but rather out of a fear of what will happen to them in the next life if they are not kind to their neighbors in this one.  

But Jesus is different.  He goes straight to the heart of the matter.  He desires mercy, not sacrifice.  People, not rules.  Love, not fear.  Perhaps that is one of the reasons why people still cling to His words, even thousands of years later.  Because, deep down inside, all of us want to feel that we matter.  All of us want to feel that we believe in something important.  All of us want to feel loved.  And love?  Well, love is Jesus' specialty.  That's what he is all about.  If you don't believe me, take some time to read the red letters for yourself.  

Matthew 12:3-8

He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?  He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.  Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?  I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.  If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.  For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

A cheerful heart

A few weeks ago, when I was super busy and stressed from school, I had an incident happen that I can't seem to shake from my memory.  It was the end of the week - I had been working long, frustrating hours for close to 2 weeks, and I was at the end of my rope.  I was exhausted and annoyed, and not hiding it very well.  While practicing with my one of my students, she said to me, "Teacher, you should smile.  You're so beautiful when you smile."  Wow.  Owned.  This meant even more to me, because she was one of my lowest-level students.  That was very difficult for her to say, and yet she made the effort and said it anyway.

Jin-hee's statement didn't get me just because I was happy that she was speaking English.  It didn't even appeal to my ego, in that she sort of backhandedly called me beautiful.  It got to be because she had to tell me to smile.  I was the older, supposedly more mature person, I was the teacher, I was the cultural ambassador.  And she had to remind me to smile, because all I was thinking about was myself.

Proverbs says that "a cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.  I can't help but wonder if that statement was meant both ways.  A cheerful heart would certainly be good medicine for one's self, and a crushed spirit equally discouraging.  But isn't it equally true that a cheerful heart would be good medicine for someone else, and that when you are sad you would bring those around you down just as quickly as you bring yourself down?

Of course, you can't always just summon a cheerful heart on command.  But that's where God comes in.  I don't think it was a coincidence that week, I had sorely neglected my time with the Lord.  I convinced myself that it was a necessity - that I simply did not have time to read my Bible that week.  But, because of that decision, my relationships with my students, my co-teachers, and my friends all suffered during that time.

Making time for the Lord shouldn't ever be something that get's regulated to the bottom of the to-do list, no matter what else is going on in your life.  Because when the going gets tough, when you're stressed and frustrated and angry, when you need a cheerful outlook on life more than ever but are the least able to supply one, that's the time that you're going to need God more than ever.  When your spirit is crushed, He is the medicine you need to make your heart sing again.

Proverbs 17:22

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

The breathings of His heart

William Wordsworth once advised aspiring writers to "fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."  He was advising us, in effect, to write with passion.  To be real and raw, and let our true emotions come out.  Sometimes that can be difficult.  It can be painful.  It requires vulnerability, letting people see into your innermost soul.  But that's the only way that the words you write will affect people, will move them, will have a lasting impression on them.

After I read this quote, I started thinking.  God's word does nothing if not affect people.  It does nothing if not move them.  Surely the Bible, which is the most-sold book in the history of the world, must have some sort of lasting impression on its readers, to inspire them to forsake their families, their careers, and sometimes even their lives, for the sake of what they find in between its pages.  Doesn't this imply that God, too, has filled the Bible with the breathings of His heart?  That He has saturated its pages with the passion of His true emotions?

So I opened my Bible, looking for this passion.  I intentionally went to a book that's not generally considered to be very "passionate".  I figured that if the entire Bible came from God's lips, then it was fair to assume that the entire Bible should bear witness to His passion.

Almost immediately, I found a passage in which God is talking to the Israelites, speaking of their future with Him.  I was struck by what it said.  It was because of God's mighty love for His people, He said, that He redeemed them from a life of slavery under the Egyptians.  It was because of His great love for them, that He protected them, the 'fewest of peoples,' from the ravages of their aggressive neighbors.  It is because of His great love for them, that He has promised to keep His covenant with His people for a thousand generations.

It is true that there are times in the Bible when God does not seem the most loving of Beings.  But that is not the whole story.  When you are overwhelmed by life, and when you feel like no one, not even God Himself, is on your side, I would encourage you to go to your Bible with a new perspective.  Look for the breathings of His heart, the passions of His emotions.  I think you will find a different story - one that says that He loves you unconditionally, and will never leave you nor forsake you.  Never.  Never, my friends, is a very long time.

Deuteronomy 7:7-9

The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.  But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.  Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.