Rant of the Exiles

I ran an idea by a mentor friend of mine. I told him that for Asian American Christians, shame is the elephant in the room. We hide from each other and God, afraid to fully reveal and expose our vulnerability. We operate in fear of disapproval and humiliation. He disagreed. Shame and saving face are issues but the biggest problem Asian Christians face is recognition of sin. He recounted a conversation with an overseas-born pastor. "I don't struggle with sin" the pastor told him. I'm inclined to agree with my friend that recognition of sin is the primary issue. Nothing in the gospel can happen without acknowledging our wickedness. And its true that most of us high-achieving, moral Asian American believers have a superficial sense of our depravity. But I wonder if shame and recognition of sin are close to the same thing. I was in a meeting recently where a person said he was hurt by another's comment. The meeting went silent after that statement. Out of awkwardness...

In most things, I love being coached. It wasn't always that way. In high school, I had some poor coaches. After playing a mediocre game, my water polo coach would yell, throw chairs, and curse at my teammates and me. Playing for him felt like living in a pressure cooker that might blow up any second. I have my own issues too. I often resent being told what to do. Most of all, its tough to hear that you're not doing something right. Its painful and annoying to have someone get in your face and tell you that your performance was sub-par. Two years ago, my brother-in-law taught me how to throw a football. He's a good teacher and a former athletic coach. He was very patient and gave me good feedback. You can watch a Youtube video about throwing a football but the video won't tell you that your arm is not going back far enough or that your shoulders aren't square. The feedback is precious. This article by Atul Gawande talks about coaching at the highest levels of perform...

I saw this book at my friend George’s house and had to take it from him. After preaching through Genesis and marveling at how Adam was with Eve and said nothing while she was tempted, the title jumped out at me. Its written by Dr. Larry Crabb with Don Hudson and Al Andrews . It’s a book about manhood. I love reading this kind of stuff. They awaken a hunger inside me. The awesome thing about this book, in contrast with a book like John Eldredge’s seminal “Wild at Heart”, is that there’s very little chest-thumping, outdoors/nature glorification, and references to popular movies. Manhood is not about raising wild boys, backpacking up steep mountains in Colorado, and re-enacting Braveheart movie scenes (I actually loved Eldredge’s book but his physical imagery gets a little tiresome). There’s something more powerful illustrating truth here – the true, personal stories of the authors and imagined stories that are a composite of the hundreds of men these authors have counseled over...