20-22 Covid-19 Daily Reflections

Dealing with pain sometimes affects our ability and flexibility. A physiotherapist friend gave me a set of home exercises to help with that. They are simple yet intense at the same time. Dealing with our human brokenness sometimes affects our ability to see and hear God. Our commitment to spiritual disciplines must be at the core of our relationship with God. One of the disciplines I have been trying to embrace more fully is confession. It’s not just about recognizing where we have gone wrong; it’s about how we have chosen to live our lives independently from God. It’s about whether we truly want God to be part of our lives. The absence of meaningful confession will damage our freedom to experience intimacy with God. "Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy." - Proverbs 28:13

  Listening to a young woman who shared her experience of being raped repeatedly by a family member for over four years as a teenager made my heart ache. The man who did that was a leader of a church. He was imprisoned for seven months and released. He was her stepfather. Her mother chose to pick him over her after his release. Her life has changed forever. She had to go to a foster home. Her foster parents helped her with her restoration and her faith in God. Her supervisor at work asked me to see her because someone at work was inappropriate toward her. That triggered many emotions within her. I did not expect the story I heard from her. The meeting took longer than I thought, and it was toward the end of the day. She kept talking about her anger and the pain she felt when men treated her like a subject. I knew that the best I could do was to listen. She told me she had not been able to tell anyone as much as with me. God reminded me of the true calling of being a pastor.

  I love this quote from J.I. Packer: “Our business is to present the Christian faith clothed in modern terms, not to propagate modern thought clothed in Christian terms… Confusion here is fatal.” We began with the desire to be contemporary. Nothing is wrong with that until our message is lost in the list of spiritual groceries. We can pick and choose according to our faith shopping list. Soon enough, we find out that we are in a confused midst. We fail to understand that our acceptance of people does not have the approval prerequisite. Loving others is to show them God's love for our deficit. It is a lie when we say to them everything is OK. If that is true, why should we learn to obey? We say to ourselves that we want to have a Seeker Friendly church. It depends on who and what we are seeking? Otherwise, the lack of truth will emerge. When the truth is absent, so is compassion. Tell me why they should be in our congregation. We don't want to be judgmental. So we are willing t

Is it fair for a trans athlete to compete in a women's competition? Lia Thomas has become the center of attention. Since her declaration as a trans person, she has beaten her female swimming competitors. What do her victories reveal her true character? She has no shame in beating female athletes with her physique of a male. Her declaration of being a woman has real tales. For more than twenty years, she developed biologically as a man. It is unfair and unjust for her to swim against those who are naturally women. The NCAA leadership should be ashamed of how they handle the complexity. They act as cowards in this debacle for the lack of integrity. We have done extensive damage to female sports and negated the advance has been made. It is not about trans issues, but the whole women's sport will soon be disintegrated. It is time to be in touch with our common sense. Accepting a trans person does not mean overlooking the make-up of our genes. Life is indeed far more complex. When w

  This picture of t his beautiful little old lady tells an amazing story...I learned about her from an Ukranian friend. It is the true-life account of this elderly lady. First, she suffered Holodomor and starvation from 1932 to 1933. Her teenage years were cruelly taken away by World War 2. Life seemed to be without hope as suffering grew. Soon after the war, the Soviets came and occupied her homeland. What next she asked while watching they ruled with tight fists and hands. She had much hope for the future when Ukraine became independent and the Soviet Union collapsed. It was only a dream when the oligarch corruption (1991-2022) enlarged. 2022 did not come with much peace and beauty either. Putin decided that it was his right to put her life through another grinder. Her country hardly recovered from the pandemic. Now people have to fight against the worst destruction from a lunatic. Somehow I believe that she will live, not just survive. She might be feeble, but she is alive. She will

Here are the seven deadly sins. Pride, lust, envy, anger, greed, gluttony, and sloth are all in. Many seem to think pride is the worst of them all. It has caused great men and women in history to fall. With pride, we have failed to see who we are in God. Nothing seems to be good enough for us, considering all we got. Pride has taken us on the road that many have travelled frequently. Yet, we still cannot find our ways seemingly. We don't see God's beauty in others because of our prideful thoughts. We pursue distructive pleasure knowing we ought not to. Envy, jealousy, and fear take a good hold of our hearts. Joy, hope, faith, and love gradually depart. We cannot pray when our pride is hurt. Tell God that we don't want to be a part of his plan on earth. Our world suddenly is too small, and so is our presence.  We pride ourselves with our own insignificance. The road less travel is where pride will die. It is quiet and yet confident in God's given life. We hea