I don't know you and yet... I miss you...

Nowadays, i find myself asking people "how are you?". Not just as a greeting but to get to know that person, find out how they're doing. But I've realized this very question is one of the reasons why, apart from knowing them longer, that my closest friends are still from high school. And I've come to wonder why the people around me, I guess in particular around Philadelphia, don't seem that close (or as close). Sometimes it feels as though they're just nice people around me treating me politely while time passes. For example at Westminster, there is a custom, if you pass by someone with whom you've at least been acquainted, it seems obligatory to say a simple "hello" or to shake hands. But this custom sometimes seems like a barrier, people are satisfied by the simple "hellos" and don't bother to go any further. Maybe that is the very nature, at least in isolation, of the question "how are you?", a barrier. I know so many people here around me and how they are doing (usually "well") but I do not know who they are. We so often find ourselves busy during our free time figuring out what to do, how to hang out, how to have fun, but I cannot remember the last time I sat down with someone and found out about their past, their who. I've realized I do not even know the colleges that some of my schoolmates attended. I do not know their past, I do not know their story. On the other hand, all of my close, good friends, I know who they were, who they are, and who they hope to be. There are so many people here to get to know, and in need of getting to know. It is not to say that the how is unimportant, but now, in conjunction with the how I want to ask another. So please, tell me. Who are you? 

I hate the phrase "As long as you're happy." Too many people make it the end goal. And those that do probably don't find it, at least lasting ones...

One of my favorite quotes:

“If you observe a really happy man, you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that had rolled under the radiator, striving for it as the goal itself. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of each day.”
–        W. Beran Wolfe

 

Bono's best sermon yet: Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast

If you're wondering what I'm doing here, at a prayer breakfast, well,
so am I. I'm certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that
cloth is leather. It's certainly not because I'm a rock star. Which
leaves one possible explanation: I'm here because I've got a messianic
complex.

Yes, it's true. And for anyone who knows me, it's hardly a revelation.

Well, I'm the first to admit that there's something
unnatural...something unseemly...about rock stars mounting the pulpit
and preaching at presidents, and then disappearing to their villas in
the south of France. Talk about a fish out of water. It was weird
enough when Jesse Helms showed up at a U2 concert...but this is really
weird, isn't it?

You know, one of the things I love about this country is its
separation of church and state. Although I have to say: in inviting me
here, both church and state have been separated from something else
completely: their mind.

Mr. President, are you sure about this?

It's very humbling and I will try to keep my homily brief. But be
warned - I'm Irish.

I'd like to talk about the laws of man, here in this city where those
laws are written. And I'd like to talk about higher laws. It would be
great to assume that the one serves the other; that the laws of man
serve these higher laws...but of course, they don't always. And I
presume that, in a sense, is why you're here.

I presume the reason for this gathering is that all of us here -
Muslims, Jews, Christians - all are searching our souls for how to
better serve our family, our community, our nation, our God.

I know I am. Searching, I mean. And that, I suppose, is what led me here, too.

Yes, it's odd, having a rock star here - but maybe it's odder for me
than for you. You see, I avoided religious people most of my life.
Maybe it had something to do with having a father who was Protestant
and a mother who was Catholic in a country where the line between the
two was, quite literally, a battle line. Where the line between church
and state was...well, a little blurry, and hard to see.

I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays... and my
father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from
my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the
way of God.

For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in
the name of God, did to my native land...and in this country, seeing
God's second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering
indulgences for cash...in fact, all over the world, seeing the
self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners
of the religious establishment...

I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV.

Even though I was a believer.

Perhaps because I was a believer.

I was cynical...not about God, but about God's politics. (There you are, Jim.)

Then, in 1997, a couple of eccentric, septuagenarian British
Christians went and ruined my shtick - my reproachfulness. They did it
by describing the millennium, the year 2000, as a Jubilee year, as an
opportunity to cancel the chronic debts of the world's poorest people.
They had the audacity to renew the Lord's call - and were joined by
Pope John Paul II, who, from an Irish half-Catholic's point of view,
may have had a more direct line to the Almighty.

'Jubilee' - why 'Jubilee'?

What was this year of Jubilee, this year of our Lord's favor?

I'd always read the scriptures, even the obscure stuff. There it was
in Leviticus (25:35)...

'If your brother becomes poor,' the scriptures say, 'and cannot
maintain himself...you shall maintain him.... You shall not lend him
your money at interest, not give him your food for profit.'

It is such an important idea, Jubilee, that Jesus begins his ministry
with this. Jesus is a young man, he's met with the rabbis, impressed
everyone, people are talking. The elders say, he's a clever guy, this
Jesus, but he hasn't done much...yet. He hasn't spoken in public
before...

When he does, is first words are from Isaiah: 'The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me,' he says, 'because He has anointed me to preach good news
to the poor.' And Jesus proclaims the year of the Lord's favour, the
year of Jubilee (Luke 4:18).

What he was really talking about was an era of grace - and we're still in it.

So fast-forward 2,000 years. That same thought, grace, was made
incarnate - in a movement of all kinds of people. It wasn't a bless-me
club... it wasn't a holy huddle. These religious guys were willing to
get out in the streets, get their boots dirty, wave the placards,
follow their convictions with actions...making it really hard for
people like me to keep their distance. It was amazing. I almost
started to like these church people.

But then my cynicism got another helping hand.

It was what Colin Powell, a five-star general, called the greatest
W.M.D. of them all: a tiny little virus called AIDS. And the religious
community, in large part, missed it. The ones that didn't miss it
could only see it as divine retribution for bad behaviour. Even on
children...even [though the] fastest growing group of HIV infections
were married, faithful women.

Aha, there they go again! I thought to myself judgmentalism is back!

But in truth, I was wrong again. The church was slow but the church
got busy on this the leprosy of our age.

Love was on the move.
Mercy was on the move.
God was on the move.

Moving people of all kinds to work with others they had never met,
never would have cared to meet...conservative church groups hanging
out with spokesmen for the gay community, all singing off the same
hymn sheet on AIDS...soccer moms and quarterbacks...hip-hop stars and
country stars. This is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy
stuff happens!

Popes were seen wearing sunglasses!

Jesse Helms was seen with a ghetto blaster!

Crazy stuff. Evidence of the spirit.

It was breathtaking. Literally. It stopped the world in its tracks.

When churches started demonstrating on debt, governments listened -
and acted. When churches starting organising, petitioning, and even -
that most unholy of acts today, God forbid, lobbying...on AIDS and
global health, governments listened - and acted.

I'm here today in all humility to say: you changed minds; you changed
policy; you changed the world.

Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists,
most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the
poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives.

Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone.

I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill. I hope
so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff.
Maybe, maybe not. But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and
ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor.

God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house.
God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a
virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under
the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and
lives, and God is with us if we are with them. "If you remove the yoke
from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the
afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with
become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy
your desire in scorched places."

It's not a coincidence that in the scriptures, poverty is mentioned
more than 2,100 times. It's not an accident. That's a lot of air time,
2,100 mentions. (You know, the only time Christ is judgmental is on
the subject of the poor.) 'As you have done it unto the least of these
my brethren, you have done it unto me' (Matthew 25:40). As I say, good
news to the poor.

Here's some good news for the president. After 9/11 we were told
America would have no time for the world's poor. America would be
taken up with its own problems of safety. And it's true these are
dangerous times, but America has not drawn the blinds and
double-locked the doors.

In fact, you have doubled aid to Africa. You have tripled funding for
global health. Mr. President, your emergency plan for AIDS relief and
support for the Global Fund - you and Congress - have put 700,000
people onto life-saving anti-retroviral drugs and provided 8 million
bed nets to protect children from malaria.

Outstanding human achievements. Counterintuitive. Historic. Be very,
very proud.

But here's the bad news. From charity to justice, the good news is yet
to come. There is much more to do. There's a gigantic chasm between
the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response.

And finally, it's not about charity after all, is it? It's about justice.

Let me repeat that: It's not about charity, it's about justice.

And that's too bad.

Because you're good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at
it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can't afford
it.

But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of
justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our
pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment.

Sixty-five hundred Africans are still dying every day of a
preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any
drug store. This is not about charity, this is about justice and
equality.

Because there's no way we can look at what's happening in Africa and,
if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that
Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn't
accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the tsunami.
150,000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, "mother nature."
In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month.
And it's a completely avoidable catastrophe.

It's annoying but justice and equality are mates. Aren't they? Justice
always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.

You know, think of those Jewish sheep-herders going to meet the
Pharaoh, mud on their shoes, and the Pharaoh says, "Equal?" A
preposterous idea: rich and poor are equal? And they say, "Yeah,
'equal,' that's what it says here in this book. We're all made in the
image of God."

And eventually the Pharaoh says, "OK, I can accept that. I can accept
the Jews - but not the blacks."

"Not the women. Not the gays. Not the Irish. No way, man."

So on we go with our journey of equality.

On we go in the pursuit of justice.

We hear that call in the ONE Campaign, a growing movement of more than
2 million Americans...Left and Right together... united in the belief
that where you live should no longer determine whether you live.

We hear that call even more powerfully today, as we mourn the loss of
Coretta Scott King - mother of a movement for equality, one that
changed the world but is only just getting started. These issues are
as alive as they ever were; they just change shape and cross the seas.

Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while
we sing the virtues of the free market...that's a justice issue.
Holding children to ransom for the debts of their
grandparents...that's a justice issue. Withholding life-saving
medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents...that's a justice
issue.

And while the law is what we say it is, God is not silent on the subject.

That's why I say there's the law of the land�. And then there is a
higher standard. There's the law of the land, and we can hire experts
to write them so they benefit us, so the laws say it's OK to protect
our agriculture but it's not OK for African farmers to do the same, to
earn a living?

As the laws of man are written, that's what they say.

God will not accept that.

Mine won't, at least. Will yours?

[ pause]

I close this morning on...very...thin...ice.

This is a dangerous idea I've put on the table: my God vs. your God,
their God vs. our God...vs. no God. It is very easy, in these times,
to see religion as a force for division rather than unity.

And this is a town - Washington - that knows something of division.

But the reason I am here, and the reason I keep coming back to
Washington, is because this is a town that is proving it can come
together on behalf of what the scriptures call the least of these.

This is not a Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not
even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor it is unique to any
one faith.

'Do to others as you would have them do to you' (Luke 6:30). Jesus says that.

'Righteousness is this: that one should...give away wealth out of love
for him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the
wayfarer and the beggars and for the emancipation of the captives.'
The Koran says that (2.177).

Thus sayeth the Lord: 'Bring the homeless poor into the house, when
you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out like the
dawn and your recovery will speedily spring fourth, then your Lord
will be your rear guard.' The Jewish scripture says that. Isaiah 58
again.

That is a powerful incentive: 'The Lord will watch your back.' Sounds
like a good deal to me, right now.

A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In
countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord's
blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it�. I
have a family, please look after them�. I have this crazy idea...

And this wise man said: stop.

He said, stop asking God to bless what you're doing.

Get involved in what God is doing - because it's already blessed.

Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing.

And that is what he's calling us to do.

I was amazed when I first got to this country and I learned how much
some churchgoers tithe. Up to 10% of the family budget. Well, how does
that compare with the federal budget, the budget for the entire
American family? How much of that goes to the poorest people in the
world? Less than 1%.

Mr. President, Congress, people of faith, people of America:

I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective
foreign assistance as tithing.... Which, to be truly meaningful, will
mean an additional 1% of the federal budget tithed to the poor.

What is 1%?

1% is not merely a number on a balance sheet.

1% is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. 1%
is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. 1% is the
African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to
you. 1% is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down
a rat hole. This 1% is digging waterholes to provide clean water.

1% is a new partnership with Africa, not paternalism toward Africa,
where increased assistance flows toward improved governance and
initiatives with proven track records and away from boondoggles and
white elephants of every description.


America gives less than 1% now. We're asking for an extra 1% to change
the world. to transform millions of lives - but not just that and I
say this to the military men now - to transform the way that they see
us.

1% is national security, enlightened economic self-interest, and a
better, safer world rolled into one. Sounds to me that in this town of
deals and compromises, 1% is the best bargain around.

These goals - clean water for all; school for every child; medicine
for the afflicted, an end to extreme and senseless poverty - these are
not just any goals; they are the Millennium Development goals, which
this country supports. And they are more than that. They are the
Beatitudes for a globalised world.

Now, I'm very lucky. I don't have to sit on any budget committees. And
I certainly don't have to sit where you do, Mr. President. I don't
have to make the tough choices.

But I can tell you this:

To give 1% more is right. It's smart. And it's blessed.

There is a continent - Africa - being consumed by flames.

I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will
be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital
revolution, and what we did - or did not to - to put the fire out in
Africa.

History, like God, is watching what we do.

Thank you. Thank you, America, and God bless you all.

My butt shakes when I jog... I can feel it... It's actually quite cumbersome... need to loose weight...

This thanksgiving break was good. My older sister made a surprise visit from Korea, and it's been almost a year since our family has been together in the same place at the same time. We spent thanksgiving dinner at the gracious Elder Lim's place. I got to play with the assistant pastor's two kids. They were fun, I'm usually scared of kids but it was fun playing mindless games with them.

For friday, we just went shopping and had family time, and Saturday, more family time and I got to see Tony "Mexican" Lee, Alex, and Eve. It was short but fun.

Sunday was the best. My dad was invited by his long time friend, Ben Wilkinson, to preach at the Rock of Ages Church. I expected it to be another weekend at some big church that supports us, but the church turned out to be a small, maybe 20 people (mostly
African American/Black), church, held at a remodelled apartment. My older sister had to play the piano cause they didn't have a pianist, thank God for her surprise visit!

My dad talked about a short passage on the proclamation of the gospel and mostly gave a report on his ministry as a missionary in Korea.

It was great. I'm used to seeing my dad being treated and taken care of by big churches and former students, etc. But this past Sunday, he joyfully and willingly presented to those willing to hear God's message and God's ministry in which he participates.

I am usually engrossed in ideas of grandeur and influencing the many and being involved in the big picture of the world. But the small Rock of Ages Church in the corner of Atlanta, reminded me that there are small corners in the world that matters. And not only do they matter as recipients of God's grace, but they are participants in the plans for God's kingdom. This past Sunday, I felt like I was able to get a glimpse of what the Early Churches looked like. Joyful, Hopeful, and Mindful and Active towards bigger things.

Then after church, the Wilkinson's invited us for lunch. The meal was delicious. It was a very American meal. Green Beans, Corn, Baked beef and Potatoes, Dinner rolls and butter, topped with homemade pound cake =). After eating wawa constantly, it was heaven =). The Wilkinson's are such wonderful people. God bless them.

Now back to the routine, but looking forward to Christmas =).

i have a bad habit... i think i know where it comes from, but i hate being followed. followed in the sense of someone latching on to you for a prolonged period of time while knowing that that person finds security in knowing you. I like it when people can hang out together but can independently do their own thing... argh, i am totally incoherent right now, but you think it's wrong to be annoyed at that guy who latches on?

I've discovered that I like girls with small thin eyes.

Why are big, beady eyes conventionally pretty.

Chinky eyes is the way to go~~