by Sam | May 19, 2020 | Guest Blogger, Inspiration, Reflection
by Rachel Baik I’ve always loved long car rides. When I was younger, there was a game I used to play from the back seat of my family’s beat up minivan. Soaking in the passing scenery, I would ask myself: which of these would I like to call home? Maybe the glamorous high rise poking out from the Los Angeles skyline, or the mansion nestled into the Calabasas mountainside. Perhaps even — and this was for the days where fantasy and the imagination roamed free — the overgrown bush marking the entrance to the freeway we took each week to church; untold mysteries hidden within its depths. The game evolved as childhood slipped from my shoulders. Instead of unmarked buildings and magical shrubberies, I started to look for home in even less traditional spaces. In cliques and romance, accomplishments and career, I was desperate to find the place where I felt I truly belonged. Homesickness. It’s a concept that transcends culture and ethnicity, a universal human experience so closely knitted with the desire to belong. I found this desire compelled me in more ways than one. The clothes I wore, the way I acted. My manner of speech and the places I invested my time. So desperate was I to find this elusive home, that I shaped who I was around the search. My body broke down in the summer of 2016 during a missions trip to Panama. An unexpected career change into vocational ministry left me abandoning all I had worked for until that point. Void of community and struggling to meet my self-imposed expectations of ministry, the...
by Sam | Jan 21, 2020 | Guest Blogger, Inspiration, Reflection
by Jane Kim Living in the Midwest, there are many Winter mornings where I wake up to mounds of fresh powdered snow. People who don’t live with four seasons will automatically assume that this is something to celebrate. The seasoned Michigander that I am, dread these types of mornings. Yes, it’s aesthetically pleasing. Yes, it’s quite serene. But no matter how I see it, I conclude that I would enjoy it more through pictures than actually living it. With fresh powdered snow comes the inconvenience of walking to your car, sweating underneath all your layers of clothing, and spending many rushed minutes cleaning off your vehicle and attempting to maneuver your way out without hitting something or getting stuck. This is especially hard when you live in an apartment complex with shared parking. Not too long ago while I was in prayer, the Lord spoke to me through this familiar type of scene. Almost like a film reel going through my mind. As I pressed deeper into this moment with God, I watched myself open my front door to a set of footprints left by my neighbor who had left before me. As I put my foot into the remnants of their prints, I found myself avoiding the forceful trekking against untouched snow leading me where I needed to go that much faster. As I continued in prayer, I felt this deep impression on my heart that said, “Put your feet where mine have been. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light”. Right then and there I started to weep and cry out in repentance. For too...
by Sam | Dec 3, 2019 | Guest Blogger, Inspiration, Teaching
by Michael Kang Dreams are powerful. A dream can shift a moment, it can even shift history. Sadly, many dreams don’t get the chance of being birthed because of fear, but what I believe is even more sad is when we don’t believe we are allowed to dream! There can be a host of reasons as to why a person doesn’t dream, but one thing I realize a person doesn’t dream is because they are told not to dream. People are told that they have to follow a plan and that is the right thing to do and let me clarify, you and I are to follow the plans of God and build His Kingdom, but what I am believing as I get older is that the Kingdom of God is built on the dreams of the saints who walk with God! We are in a season of church history where I believe God is unleashing His people to dream and the dreams will reveal a unique expression of church which only reveals new facets of God’s glory. Every dream in God is a reflection of a unique display of God’s glory and this is the time we don’t rinse and repeat what was done, but appreciate what has happened as we forge a new era of the Kingdom! To start you off in your dream journey with God, I wanted to go through a brief roadmap of the pitfalls and lessons from the story of Joseph in Genesis. May the unpacking of this story spur you on to contribute into the Kingdom what is already buried deep within...
by Sam | Sep 25, 2018 | Guest Blogger, Inspiration, Reflection
by Koob Vang “Wilderness” is a word we often use to denote rough seasons in our lives. It’s sometimes a journey of loss and sorrow, and other times, a journey that’s weird and confusing. We find ourselves in agonizing pain and excruciating heartbreaks navigating through an endless tunnel. Something God has been really teaching me through the wilderness is to value the intimacy and the life that can only come while being in the wilderness. I’ve been overseas for over a year now and some days, it’s been a wilderness. There are only a few people I can fully express myself to. I’m limited by the language barrier. I can’t simply go down the street and buy something without struggling. I can’t pay my own bills without depending on others. And I can’t find any clothes that comfortably fits me (but this is totally my fault being American-sized). I wish there are times where I can just drop everything, be a student again, and take a summer vacation back to my parents’ place. But that’s not reality; I have to face the wilderness I’m in. There are two sides to the wilderness though. One that takes life away and the other that brings life. The Bible speaks of the wilderness as a place that is mostly dry, barren and filled with roaming wild animals. The prophet Jeremiah calls it “a land of desert and pits…drought and deep darkness…that none passes through, where no man dwells”. It is also called “arabah”, which may be translated to desert, wasteland, or pain. A few years ago I went to Israel and...
by Sam | Aug 28, 2018 | Guest Blogger, Reflection
by Andre Choi A few things I’ve learned about art is that it’s subjective and never objective. It’s personal and never indifferent. It’s filled with emotions and passions, yet never without an opinion. Art is tangible yet abstract. Art is organic and never forced. We can see art, create art, admire art, but can we ever define it? I believe this is why art is so attractive. Art is all about the chase and never about the possession, the moment an artist believes they made it or “mastered” it, lost the essence of it. The purpose of art is not to master it or to figure it out, but to enjoy it. We love art because it’s beautiful, and art is beautiful because it represents the very unique heart of its creator and by doing so it connects with people across gender, race, age, socioeconomic background, religion, and so much more. As of lately, God has been placing a phrase in my heart that reads: “The Art of Jesus”. I’m not sure what this means but I do know it has the same connotation as when a sculptor talks about the art of sculpting, or when a photographer speaks about the art of photography, or when a master storyteller shares about the art of telling stories. It has to do with what an individual is passionate about as his obsession captivated his heart. I know that it’s personal and unique, and just as art is everything I mentioned above, it’s the same with our relationship with Jesus. A relationship with Jesus is subjective and never objective, organic and never...
by Sam | Feb 13, 2018 | Guest Blogger, Inspiration
The first time I felt proud to be a black woman was when I lived with three other black suitemates during my sophomore year in college who celebrated and shared their West Indian and Nigerian culture, food, and heritage with me. As sisters in Christ, we would worship, sing praise songs, and discuss theology on the same night we would joyfully dance to Caribbean and African beats, share hair products, and talk about the latest rap song. It was a beautiful marrying of cultures and experiences that made me feel like I had returned home to a forgotten motherland. I felt proud to say that I was black, female, and created in the image of God; for the first time in my life, I had real sisterhood. Yet in that same season, I was reminded that every aspect of who I am as person was still dishonored, ignored, or disbelieved in our society. That semester, we wept when we heard the news about Tamir Rice being killed while playing in a park and worried about the future of our brothers and children; we were heartbroken at the ignorance and casual racism within our fellowship we had experienced from our white and Asian American brothers and sisters in Christ; we joined in solidarity with those who marched after Eric Garner’s killer wasn’t indicted; we shared stories of the sexism and misogynoir we experienced from those who claimed to be our brothers in Christ. We were bonded by our sisterhood and our pain, and that is at the core of how it feels to be black in America, especially as a...
