Thankful for Opportunities

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." - 1 Corinthians 1:18

Just a days ago my dad's cousin moved to Chicago from Taiwan with his wife and two boys, one 17 and the other 13 years old. We had a great time reconnecting with them and all our relatives during our Thanksgiving dinner today. My cousin, Leo, and I shared some of the challenges we faced as kids integrating into American schools, such as learning to make new friends, how to open the lockers, and deciding where to sit on the school bus. Somehow through these silly anecdotes, I was reminded of how thankful I am of my parents' decision to move our family to the U.S. to give my sister and I the opportunities we have today.

One of those opportunities was attending church for the first time with my aunt and uncle when I was in third grade, which led to a series of other opportunities to ask questions like "what is the trinity?", "what is the purpose of life?", "who is Jesus?", and "what is grace?" In the year following, I attended my very first retreat (well, at least that I can remember) called "Foolishness" with 1 Corinthians 1:18 as theme. After asking all the questions I could think of about God and getting most of them answered, I was confronted with, yet, another opportunity: to decide whether I considered the cross as foolishness or truly the power of God.

Thirteen years later, I am confronted with that decision again.... and again, and again, and even now. This confrontation exists because I choose my thoughts, my site, my words, my actions every second of my life (thank you Lord for the opportunity to choose). However, my choices are often influenced by my lust, my pride, and selfishness.

Confession: Prior to writing this post, I chose to spend 7200 seconds of my life feeding my lustful cravings. In those 7200 seconds, I did not consider the cross as foolish, but I decided that the cross did NOT have the power to save me. I was lost and did not want to be saved.

"I want to die longing to see the face of Christ.
But I know I would not wish to see his face at my deathbed
if I do not wish to see his face right now."

Your words sent chills down my spine because truthfully, I don't want to see His face right now. Not like this; not while I'm in this condition. Like Adam and Eve, guilt and shame prompted me to hide from the Lord's face. But like God Himself, He sought after me the very next second I tried to hide and gave me, yet, another opportunity. Right now, Sherry, do you believe that the cross in which I demonstrated my love for you has the power to make our relationship right again? Do you believe that I died and rose so that in this very moment, you can return to me again and that shame and guilt can no longer keep us apart? Do you, Sherry Lin, believe that My distinct ability to love you and save you from your current condition is the viable demonstration of My power and glory?

Yes, Lord. Show me your glory. I want to see your face.

As I approach graduation in three weeks, I am thankful for all the opportunities God has given me to know Him more, to comprehend His love a bit more. Thankful that He chose me and for the ability to choose Him back, which can only come from Him. I pray that my newly-immigrated relatives can also embrace the opportunities they'll have to come to know Jesus, too.

Lessons learned and to be learned

All my own desires aside... Should I stay or should I go?

Lessons I learned in college:
- the church is the vehicle in which God chooses to transform communities/lives (Acts 2)
- God invites us to participate in His mission to redeem lives through evangelism and discipleship (Matt 28)
- God cares for me and wants me to know and enjoy Him daily (Psalms)
- ministry is about people, not tasks

What I want to learn before I graduate:
- prayer allows us to see God's work around us
- prayer ushers in the Kingdom of God and reveals the power of God to the world (Matt 6)

Dear Lord,

Please continue to help us know what it means "to live is Christ and to die is gain." Lord, I pray for the many people in the World who are dying for the Gospel, they are gaining because they are with you. However, too many people are dying in Chicago that are NOT dying to gain eternity with You, but stolen/taken by Satan into hell. Lord, please bring your light into those areas, please teach us to understand the Gospel deeply that we may become that light into those dark areas. Lord, we lift up chicago to you.

In Jesus name,

Amen

Dejavu- Inspiration Kitchens

The scene of me sitting across Avril Greenberg, interviewing her about her job. in a restaurant. her getting up and attending to some need and coming back to sit down for the interview. Even the lighting. It all seems so familiar. I've had a dream with the exact same picture before. freaky. vision from God? Hm... maybe I should pay attention to my dreams more. This has happened before. cool....

Dreaming

I need space to write down all my dreams and ideas.

1. cafe restaurant training program for low-incomed men and women
2. entrusted talents in Chicago
- dance
- music
- spoken word
- drawing/painting/photography
3. Breakthrough Urban Ministries- Nutrition Program

Sprouting!

My lettuce seeds have begun to sprout! its quite exciting, but I can't say I've done much work. In fact, God has done most of the work for me as the rain and sun have been taking turns appearing. However, I only go visit my garden once a a day at most. I kinda forgot about it over the weekend, and as a result, my basil plant pretty much died. I know gardening has many parallels with life, but the current one God is challenging me with is prayer. The way I gardening is very much like my prayer life. long story short, I pretty much don't care about it. I don't make any special effort to set aside time to pray. well, not constantly of course. However, with the help of my cousin Roger and Jaeson Ma's blog, I am reminded once again the importance of prayer. I think praying can feel like staring at a plant grow all day... it feels like its gunna take forever to see some result, but after a week or a month, there will be a big difference. maybe a sprout will show, maybe a fruit will bear. but the process takes patience, dedication, and... trust. Praying is loving.

I had many other things in mind, but thats all I can think of for now. OH! I watched Julie and Julia two days ago. I LOVED IT! ill talk more bout it next time.

Spring Break

Spring break started off bad, but ended great! I spent many nights up... (confessions) watching Taiwanese dramas. >.< For those that are wondering which ones, they're Down With Love and Autumn Concerto. I became a big fan of the actors in those shows: Ella Chen from S.H.E (Taiwanese girl singing group) and Vanness Wu (who's an out-spoken Christian and Taiwanese American). I began to really miss Taiwan watching those shows. I also found myself wondering "what if I was like all the ABT (American born Taiwanese) celebrities that go back to Taiwan and become famous? That'd be awesome!" I dont think I can pull off singing, but dancing i can do! It was fun thinking about it, but it was all very self centered. none of that daydreaming had glorifying God in mind. Through this daydreaming, however, two things dawned on me: 1.) Why I am Taiwanese American and 2.) Why I am a Christian.

1.) In watching the Taiwanese dramas, I realized there were many Taiwanese jokes that no matter how good of a job the translators of mysoju.com does, non-taiwanese people just won't understand. Similarly, there are Korean jokes, phrases, sayings, that I'll just never be able to understand in Korean dramas. But, in any case, I felt unique as a Taiwanese American to be able to understand the subtle humour of the Taiwanese drama. Also, a movie called Formosa Betrayed came out during break. The movie was heavily supported by the Taiwanese community across America. My friend, Jon Lee, was the associate producer of the film, which starred James Van Der Beek (better known as Dawson) and Will Tiao (also producer and writer). The film is a political thriller that examines the history behind the tension between China and Taiwan, and China-Taiwan-US relations. It's really interesting. I dont have the time to go into it right now, but yall just gotta go see it. I can more confidently say I am Taiwanese American, and not Chinese. However, it's hard to say that without that background voice saying "and therefore I am better." That's still something I need to fight against. This issue will come up in the future I'm sure.

2.) Staying up to 4, 5,6 am on some nights watching the dramas made me feel sick the next day. not literally, but knowing that I had wasted my life. Mysoju.com admits to "feed your drama addiction." and that's exactly what I felt like, a drama addict. I was chained by it, I couldn't keep myself from not watching. I'm not saying that watching dramas is always bad. But for me, given the time and other circumstances, I was sinning. I was not living for the purposes of God. I was consumed in my own desires, not willing to let it go. Consumed in fantasy, even daydreaming about the episodes I had watched the next day, scenes that interrupt even my prayer times to God. In that, Satan really used it to distract me from God, my family, and my schoolwork. When that starts happening, I knew I wasn't glorifying God, nor living purposefully for Him. What finally saved me from this addiction? Kingdom perspective. I visited my old church this past Sunday and I was really convicted by Hans' message during (and after) service, and Irene's Sunday school lesson. I'm ALWAYS encouraged by them whenever I go back to visit. they're just one of those ppl you wanna be around cuz... you learned from them, their words, their actions, everything about them, you know they're trying to live for God, and they're attempt to live for God in everyway (their marraige, raising Emeth, serving at church, finishing school) is so beautiful. In a few sentences, the message was about living for the kingdom of Heaven. I tried to explain this in a non-Christiany lingo to a friend today, but it was realllly hard. So I'll try again here. Living for the Kingdom of Heaven means, in simpler terms, living for Jesus! haha. Let me explain.... next time!