The New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl yesterday over the Indianapolis Colts. It was a great game and no matter who you rooted for (I rooted for the Colts), there was a sense of awe of watching two teams battle for the Lombardi Trophy. There are great lessons to learn from both teams, but the lessons that stand out to me as a pastor are the ones from the losing team, the Indianapolis Colts. Here are my reasons why.
You learn to walk in defeat. Peyton Manning had to walk off that field knowing that he let a great chance of becoming a 2 time Super Bowl winner slip through his hands. He will have this memory of losing forever. That is how life works though isn’t it? That we have memories of our failures and that we have to walk with them. This doesn’t mean that it controls us, it only means that it is a part of our story. Peyton’s story of losing the Super Bowl will not define him, it is how he responds to this failure. As human beings, we need to remember to walk in defeat and not lie in it.
You celebrate other peoples accomplishments and praise them for their work. At the end of the game, the coach of the Colts, ran to the middle of the field and gave a hug and congratulatory shake to Sean Payton, the head coach of the New Orleans Saints. Peyton Manning, after walking off the interview podium ran into an opposing player and congratulated him and his team. We need to be better at congratulating people for their achievements when we are in places of failure or defeat. The heart of a leader will show in times of defeat and those are the moments when a leader can rise to the occasion or fall into anger and jealousy.
Look to the future. The hardest thing for an individual to do is to look to the future when something that they have worked on falls apart. I have seen this in my life with different projects that I’ve overseen or in relationships that have failed. Trying to see the future is a hard thing to do, after failure, it’s even harder. We must keep our eyes on the future and do our best to learn from our failure and move on with new ambitions, new hope, and a renewed passion.
When in failure, remember the words of Jimmy Valvano who fought a courageous fight against cancer and lost.
As a pastor and an avid sports fan, I’m at a struggle when it comes to Super Bowl Sunday. Some pastors might consider me weak and unfocused, I consider myself human and a man. Let me tell you why I’m struggling even more this year!
Signing Day has come and gone, the dust has settled and UCLA has come out a winner. I am amazed at the incredible class of student-athletes that will be coming to UCLA this upcoming season. In all, UCLA had 22 recruits commit. Here is a few of the recruits that I’m most looking forward too. Read the rest of this entry »
Did you ever wonder whether the myth of the unicorn was true? That a creature with the shape of a horse, with the beauty to fly, that it could be true? The dreams and hopes to find such a creature, that it wasn’t a mere dream but a reality? Many people would call it foolish, naïve that a theologically trained, husband, and yes, pastor, would dream of finding a unicorn.
Everyone has a unicorn. Something that they’re chasing, an image that they want to make reality. Read the rest of this entry »
News broke out this week about 10 adults trying to smuggle 33 children out of Haiti. When I read this small tag-line, I felt a mixture of emotions. The emotions I felt were complicated even further when all the news broke out about who the adults were (10 Baptist Missionaries) and where they came from (Idaho church group).
I believe that the actions taken by these missionaries are wrong and that it shows the deep-rooted problems that the Western Church faces when doing missions in third world countries. There are many things that we can learn from this situation when participating in God’s work throughout the world. This is not to say that their intent was wrong, I think that they were trying to do good in the face of despair, but the way that they did missions, show how far the Western Church has fallen in the practice of loving our neighbor. Here are some themes that I see in the failing missiology of the Western Church. Read the rest of this entry »
Last night, President Obama got to give his first State of the Union speech. Naturally gifted with great orating skills, President Obama did a sensational job in sharing his message. Although I don’t agree with everything that President Obama said during the speech, I can appreciate his intent on how he hopes his administration can improve the lives of individuals living in America. Here are some of my thoughts on the things he said.
He wants Republicans and Democrats to work out their political differences and start working with one another. The first thought that came to my mind as he said this is, “Yes, all of us want you all to work together”. Nothing will happen until personal and political agendas are set aside. America needs politicians who are willing to listen to the stories that are being told in the streets and for them to respond in a thoughtful manner.
The new goal of creating more safe nuclear plants by President Obama is disheartening to say the least. I don’t see why the United States needs to spend more money on creating nuclear plants. I believe that money should be spent in other areas of industry where growth is happening now. America doesn’t need anymore nuclear plants, it will only make Jack Bauer’s job of saving America so much harder.
I am in full support of President Obama bid to give a $10,000 tax break to families who send their children to college. Coming from a single-parent home, I can’t begin to share with you the burdens that my mother and I am going through in trying to pay off my college loans. A tax break wouldn’t take away the loans that many college students take out, but it would help the families of the students in paying off their loans in a much quicker fashion.
President Obama urged Congress and Senate members to listen to what he had to say and to respond. I’m praying that as they listen and decide on new laws, that they will ask God to lead them.
I have heard a lot of chatter these past few months on the coming death of the Emergent Movement. Now whether you believe that the Emergent Church is good or bad is not what I’m asking. I have my own thoughts on the Emerging Church, I’ll share in a later post.
What I’m wondering is, can you tell me what the Emergent Movement is and why is it or is not, dying?
Here is a list of markers that show whether you are Korean in times of rain, hail, or snow.
Instead of drinking hot coco like white people, Korean people drink hot green tea. Korean people wonder at the amazement of the stomach powers that white people possess to drink all that milk. Korean people drink hot green tea because it helps them digest the food that they ate more often than helping them stay warm.
Go to Blockbuster to rent a movie on a rainy weekend night? Crazy! Korean people are going to the illegitimate Korean video store so that they can rent the newest dramas out in Korea. Korean people don’t care how many new movies that Blockbuster has, they don’t got the new episode of Iris! The Korean video store also has more resources near them, usually a Korean bakery to get those Red Bean Pastries or a Korean Boba Cafe to drink a non-dairy ice coffee.
House is starting to flood and a firefighter tells you and your Korean family that you guys should move out to a safer location. If you’re an Americanized Korean you might take that suggestion to heart and act, your Triple OG Korean grandpa, the Korean Army vet, not a chance. He’ll tell you a story of how he overcame the rain when he was a young child in the fields of Korea and when you tell him that times have changed, he’ll call you a pansy. He’ll stay in that house and eventually when the flood that was supposedly on its way never comes, he’ll laugh at you and tell you to get him a Hite Beer.
The snow is falling and it’s time for snowboarding season. White people love snowboarding. Snowboarding to white people is an Olympic sport, they take it seriously. Korean people look at snowboarding as more of a social event. Korean people will call their circle of friends who are not snowboarders and ask them if they want to have a social gathering around snow. While white people are snowboarding and competing against one another to see who has the best “trick” on a half-pipe, Korean people are eating their spicy ramen soup from a bowl.
Korean people hate hail. While other people are amazed at the ice that is falling from the sky, Korean people are cursing the Hail God for potentially leaving dent marks in their Honda Civics. Even though Honda Civics are made by a Japanese company, Korean people claim Honda as their own.
When it’s cold in a Korean person’s house, they don’t turn on the heater. No, they don’t put on a Snuggie either like white people. Korean people take blankets that have built-in heating pads and turn it on. The idea of having heat everywhere befuddle the mind of Korean people. Why have heat everywhere when you can have heat only on your butt and back thigh muscles.
Need a warm soup to help bring you back to regular body temperatures? Korean people have the perfect soup. Korean people have 3 choices when it comes to soup. They are (spelled phonetically) Kim-Chi-Chi-Gae, Sol-Un-Tang, and Soon-Du-Bu. Korean people eat these soups on a regular basis so they thought that it would be great to add another reason to eat these soups.
I wrote this list as I drink hot green tea,and after a dinner meal of Kim-Chi-Chi-Gae soup. What are some ways that you are coping with this rain storm?
When I was in bible college, I would complain to everyone and anyone that the “church” was bland, chose traditions over mission, and unfaithful to the calling of Christ. The complaining that I did wasn’t out of a desire to help re-imagine the church, no, fueled by anger and bitterness I attacked the church. It took me a long time (3 years) to understand that what I was doing wasn’t helping, it was destructive, both to what I love (the church) and to myself.
The thoughts that I had didn’t go away. What went away was my posturing towards my questions about the church. The way I thought changed from destroying the church like King Kong to re-imaging, re-birthing, re-dreaming about the church.
I find it ironic now that I’m a pastor at New Hope LA because as a pastor, there are many some insecurities that I have. One of them is about the church.
It ranges from, “Do people like New Hope?”, to “Am I doing a good job in leading the church?” There are times when I ask myself, “Why do I suck stink so much at being a pastor of New Hope LA?” With all seriousness, leading a church is tough. It’s not easy, people are tough, relationships fail, and the pay isn’t great.
Those aspects of leading New Hope LA doesn’t stop my belief of the church being the hope for the world. I have a deep conviction in my heart that the church and that people of faith should be the leading example to this world of how to love, care, and show kindness to their fellow-man. I only came to this conclusion after realizing that I need to “re-imagine church”, not destroy it.
What are some things that you would like to “re-imagine” about the church? Let’s dream and think together on how we can become a shining light, a beacon of hope, and a sanctuary of mercy.
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