Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Religion

an image of faith

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Faith is such a lofty word and it’s hard to imagine what a life of faith would look like.

The following is a description of my mental image of faith…

Imagine a cliff – high up, isolated, dusty, and majestic.
The wind is blowing and the clouds are within arms reach.
You walk to the edge and you hear the frightening yet soothing sound of wind.
You then take a few steps back and you begin running full speed towards the edge.
As you draw closer to the edge of cliff, you are trusting that God will catch you because…
“Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

You are sure that God will catch you even though you might not see him over the cliff.
That’s faith.  And faith is freedom.

Let me end by quoting my beautiful and insightful wife:

“What’s so wrong with being afraid when you know you are in the embrace of the one who created the universe?”

a random blessing?

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A Note of Blessing
A Note of Blessing

Last Friday, I was sitting at a popular bagel restaurant for breakfast with one of the students in my youth group – it was the beginning of a one week internship that he wanted to do with me. Midway through our meal our waitress brings us this note telling us that some person wanted to give it to us.  It seemed pretty random because we didn’t even know who it was.  We thought it might have been someone who saw us pray before we ate.  Anyway, we were grateful for the note and continued our meal and conversation.  When we were getting ready to leave, I was wondering why our bill hadn’t come yet.  I thought they might have forgotten about us (since we stayed for such a long time) so we got up and I was going to pay at the cash register.  When I asked for the bill, the cashier told me that it was my lucky day because someone had already paid for us.

The person who left us the note must have paid for us!

Wow. That’s amazing.

But why? What motivated that person to bless us so anonymously?

Why can’t we all be more generous and loving like that anonymous person?  If we were, I wonder what this world would look like?

our calling in life…

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“Every assignment that God gives His people is His primary means of sanctifying His leader.”

These are the words of Crawford Loritts that have encouraged me today.  In a sermon entitled The Call to Courage from the 2008 Desiring God Pastor’s Conference, Loritts digs out an amazing insight from Joshua 1:1-9 regarding the calling that God has given us and how God uses it to sanctify us.

Here it is:

“Every assignment that God gives His people is His primary means of sanctifying His leader…some of us are getting burnt out because we are separating the sanctification process from our ministry. I understand boundaries, rest, variety in life, etc…

…but the very thing that God is using to draw you to Himself is the calling that He has given you.”

Wow.

The primary calling that God has given me is to love God and love others.  More specifically, he is calling me to do that through pastoral ministry.  Getting even more specific, God has given me a desire to minister to those who are intercultural (those people who are attempting to balance their different cultural backgrounds and upbringings).  And to really hone in on exactly what God is calling me to do – he has given me a calling to minister to 2nd generation Asians (those born and raised in a country that their parents immigrated to) and to those who minister to 2nd gen Asians.

Perhaps that is why I am so energized and have such a renewed sense of calling upon coming back from ministering to 2nd gens in Korea?

conversation with a Korean taxi driver

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Sitting in an airport just outside of Seoul, South Korea, I can’t help but reflect on the conversation I just had with the cab driver who drove me to the airport.

I was initially going to take the bus to the airport, but as I was waiting, a taxi driver approached me and asked if I wanted a ride to the airport.  I was initially hesitant, but he seemed like a nice guy and he said he would only charge me the cost of the airport bus fare – 15000 won, so I went with him.

Entering the car, I began a conversation with him that began with why I was in Korea in the first place and progresed to faith issues and how cab drivers are paid in Korea.

The most interesting part of the conversation was when we talked about matters of faith.  He seemed to view faith very much as a crutch that help people live their lives.  He was commenting on the way that he came from a Buddhist family and that he just couldn’t understand why one of his sisters was such a strong Christian.  To him, everyone needs faith in something in order to get through this difficult life. 

Difficult?

When he mentioned the word difficult, I sensed that perhaps he saw Christianity as something that only gives hope to the poor.

Hoping to enter into a deeper faith conversation, I proceeded to ask him why rich people are also Christian.  His answer was basically that rich people’s prayers are different than the prayers of people   “like us.”  “We pray for daily life, making enough money so that we can eat, etc, while rich people probably pray for other issues..” 

I was hoping to comment on his faith and the way that he expresed himself to be a nominal Catholic who just goes to church to feel better in hopes that it would help his life…however, I didn’t sense that it was necessarily my place to tell him that.  Neither did I sense that it was right for me to say it (for cultural and spirtual reasons).  What I did do was love him by listening to him, encourage him as a human being, and silently pray for him that he would enter into a deeper and true relationship with Christ.

Does that mean that I never confront strangers on faith issues?  If God leads me to do that, then I will.  However, aren’t there enough people that breathe criticism and hate towards others who don’t believe in the exact same way that they do?  Wasn’t it enough that he knew I was a pastor and that I showed love and care for him?

True and lasting life transformation comes through relationships…not criticism.

I know that it wasn’t a mistake that I met him, and I pray that he does eventually realize that Christianity is not a crutch nor a religion…

Christianity is a way of life.

Remorse after murder…

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“I have to stay on this bus forever.”
and
“Please kill me.”

These are the two statements coming out of the mouth of Vince Weiguang Li, the man who murdered Tim McLean on a Greyhound bus last week.

Since his arrest he has yet to speak to his court-appointed attorney and the prosecutors.

Here is a bit more information about him, (from a CNN report – this link contains a picture of Li)

A church pastor, Tom Castor, who helped hire Li soon after he immigrated in 2004 with his wife, Anna, said the man never showed any sign of anger or emotional problems when he worked there as a custodian.

Church officials said they vetted Li by contacting references listed on his application and running a criminal record check.

I wonder, what happened to him? What was going on through his mind, soul, and body while he murdered a man he had never met before?

Is it a psychological issue? Is it a spiritual issue?

Is he mentally unstable? Is he demon-possessed?

These are the questions that I am asking myself as I continue to examine what happened.

What do you think?