Be Kind and Gentle (2008 - 2018)

"I am gentle and humble in heart" (Matthew 11:29).

West Loop Church (WL) began in Jan 2008. 2018 began with our 10 year anniversary. These are some of my extemporaneous random reflections over the years.

1. Be kind and gentle (Mt 11:28). Jesus said, "I am gentle and humble in heart."  Mother Theresa said, "I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness." I realize that when I feel attacked, oppressed, imposed upon, criticized, slandered, gossiped about and experience injustice, I am reactive, angry, loud, defensive and offensive. I am anything but kind, gentle and humble in heart, even if I try to control my outward expressions. For the rest of my life, I pray to learn my Lord who is "gentle and humble in heart," though it will surely be with many failures.
2. Criticism and correction is rarely welcomed. I want to change the world, or at least change my church for the better. But I learned that criticism and pointing out what is wrong is often met with anger and resentment rather than appreciation and gratitude. Whenever you point out any problem, YOU are the problem. Jordan Peterson's statement comes to mind: "If you can't even clean up your own room, who the hell are you to give advice to the world?" Yes, I pray to clean up my own act first, rather than be critical with what's wrong in the world.
3. Preaching with awe, fear and trembling (Phil 2:12-13) and with humility and tears (Ac 20:19). I began preaching 30-40 times a year at WL in my late 50s about a half dozen years ago by default, since I was the least busy among our elders who all work full time. Ever since doing so, it has been the greatest joy of my life to be able to read and study countless "boring" Bible commentaries on many books of the Bible in preparation virtually daily all year round. Each and every Sunday my heart is in awe, having been given the utmost privilege to preach. It is a tremendous responsibility that I cherish with fear and trembling and with the utmost of gratitude to all those who come with willing hearts to listen, learn and worship. This is nothing but God's immeasurable grace to me. I realize that it is also a great challenge when my wife once told me, "If you behave like this at home (I don't remember what I did!), I can never listen to you preach on Sunday." That was a thunderbolt and a tsunami! In God's time and by God's choosing, I pray to pass the baton on to younger preachers and pastors who are called to preach and lead the next generation.
4.  Instead of telling people what to do and not do, simply preach the gospel of God's grace (Ac 20:24). This is based on my life key verse for the rest of my life: Acts 20:24 says, "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the good news (gospel) of God's grace."  In brief, the gospel is good news, not good advice, not do's and don'ts.
5. Enjoy chaos and do scary things. As one who has basically lived a charmed life all my life, scary things to me are certain books of the Bible that I thought that I would never preach on--Revelation, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekial. By God's grace, I barely skimmed the surface of those books and preached on them weekly over several years. It was overwhelming, scary, challenging, unpredictable and fun!
6. Fully accept the fact that I'm not in control and that I don't need to know what's going to happen. Perhaps the 2 scariest things for all people--including Christians--is that we are NOT in control, and that we DON'T KNOW the future. During tough times--personal, emotional, family, financial, relational, health-wise--this becomes especially acute, troubling, angst inducing and disconcerting. In painful and difficult situations, it feels like dying when I have no control and have no idea what's going to happen. For the rest of my life, I pray to thoroughly ENJOY and EMBRACE the simple obvious fact that I'm not in control and that I don't need to know what's going to happen.
7. Blessed weddings. Over the last 10 years, Rhoel, Tim and I have officiated and blessed the weddings of Al and Kelsey, Mike and Gail, Iron Man and Jen, Adam and May, Niamzu and Donna, Defi and Jaime and next week in Jan 2019 Daniel and Maria. John Yoon and I also officiated the wedding of Sam and Heather in the Philippines, and I officiated the wedding of Joshua and Rem in the Philippines. It has been our utmost joy to bless them and to see God's hand of grace upon their marriages and lives.
8. The best job I ever had. As a physician I have done countless jobs as an internist over the last 38 years in the U.S. But over the last 3-4 years I began practicing telemedicine doing phone and video consults online. This is my best job ever because I no longer have to go anywhere to work, but I can work from home or from anywhere else as long as there is a quiet room and wifi.
9. Six grand-kids. Since we began WL in 2008, God has granted my wife and I 6 grand-children: James, Annabelle and Lincoln from my son Sam, and Timothy, Ariana and Caleb from my daughter Agi.
10. Fall in love with God was our theme in 2018. St. Augustine said, "To fall in love with God is the greatest romance, to seek him the greatest adventure, and to find him the greatest human achievement." Personally, I desire by God's help to be a person who is deeply and madly in love with my God and my wife all the days of my life.
11. Themes in 2019 that I am considering are:
1. Be perfect and merciful (Mt 5:48; 9:13).
2. See Jesus more clearly (Mk 8:22-25; 10:46-52).
3. Walk the gospel line (Gal 2:14).
4. Have faith in Jesus' faithfulness (Gal 2:16-17).
5. See coincidences as providence (Rom 8:28).
• Or the above may just be the first 5 sermons that I plan to preach in 2019!
12. Be kind and gentle (as in #1 above). A close dear friend told me last week that after almost 2 decades of being "shepherded," she did not know how to listen to God directly for herself outside of the voice of her human church leader. Sorry to say that included me. From her I learn how NOT to be a leader, shepherd and pastor in the church. "Be kind, gentle and humble" is not an end in itself. Rather, it is to NOT impose myself, my views and my preferences on others, even if I know that I am right and others are wrong and lacking in wisdom. "Be gentle and humble" is to kindly embrace others with God's grace so that they might seek to know the God who loves them, outside of human voices and church voices, as well intentioned as they may be.