Rant of the Exiles

Time management help:  For as long as I can remember, I've struggled with procrastination, lack of focus, and the inability to complete tasks. As the latch-key kid of Chinese immigrant parents, I knew the drill - come home from school, have a snack, and then do homework and practice violin until dinner.  Yeah right. Instead I would lounge around, snacking and imitating the moves I saw on MTV (my generation learned dance from music videos not Youtube). I would try to start an assignment only to be distracted by something going on outside. My friends would come over. If we had social media, it would have been game over. I always believed my problem was time management. If I could only organize my time more efficiently, I would be far more productive. If I could only set up a plan where I  allocated a specified number of minutes to important tasks, I would be able to get things done.  It never worked.  No matter how well I planned, the boost...

I spoke about favoritism at UC Davis' Asian American Christian Fellowship a couple weeks ago. Campus Christian organizations tend to be quite insular and Asian groups are no exception as our need for belonging is great. Nevertheless, everyone wants to be around people of a similar life stage, background, ethnicity, educational level, etc. I spoke from James 2. The author exhorts believers not to show favoritism, particularly with regard to the rich. I encouraged students to take advantage of the summer and get to know people who are different from themselves. We all know favoritism is unhealthy. And my talk probably made a number of students feel guilty about the preferential treatment they exhibit in their relationships. I asked (but didn't answer) an important question that evening: If favoritism is wrong, didn't Jesus show favoritism when choosing his twelve disciples? 1) Favoritism is preferential treatment based on worldly values James 2:3-4  ...

I share the following in the aftermath of the Santa Barbara killings and the loss of George Chen, a former member of our church. Here are a couple misconceptions that the enemy uses to distance us from God, each other, and ourselves. Myth #1: Mourning is emotion-driven 2 Samuel 1:11-12   Then David and all the men with him took hold of their clothes and tore them.  They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. David should celebrate Saul's death but he weeps instead.  2 Samuel 1 depicts David's response to the deaths of both Saul, the king of Israel, and his son and David's best friend, Jonathan. Since Saul has attempted on various occasions to take David's life, including slaughtering an entire village, David has no reason to mourn and every reason to celebrate Saul's death. If you think about David’s predicament over the la...

I talked with a lapsed Catholic who doubts the existence of God and believes all religions are the same. He asked some good questions and it got me thinking. If there is no God, how would I live differently? If I had grown up without believing in the existence of God (which I did until I was 13 years old), what would my life look like?  It's a more of a practical question than a philosophical one. I thought about it for awhile. It felt a little strange to imagine life without God.  But then I decided my life would not be that different.  I would have gone to college. Probably the same school. All my friends from high school went to college. I would have chosen the same major - business administration - because I didn't like math but needed a technical-sounded field that brought honor to my Asian-ness. I would have a job. Of course I wouldn't be a pastor but I would probably work in high-tech. After college, I would have gone into management consult...

Wikipedia says: Racism is actions, practices or beliefs, or social or political systems that consider different races to be ranked as  inherently superior or inferior to each other , based on presumed shared inheritable traits, abilities, or qualities. [emphasis mine] This definition is inadequate for two reasons: 1) It quells rational observation and discussion about race Any time I want to make an observation based on racial/cultural characteristics, I am being racist.  If I comment that Ethiopians, on average, make superior long distance runners because of their body type, I am being racist.  If I observe that African American family formation in the United States is inherently inferior due to a high rate of out of wedlock childbirth, I am being racist. If I brace myself for inferior driving when I go to Cupertino's Ranch 99 Plaza, I'm stereotyping Asians as poor drivers and am therefore being racist. 2) It's not helpf...

My friend walked into the church from the parking lot. She had just returned home from college and was greeted boisterously by the overseas-born mom of one of her friends. The woman gave my friend a hug and at the same time, blurted out in Chinese: Wow - looks like you've gained some weight! All of us present laughed out loud while inwardly cringing. I felt so uncomfortable for my friend. Chalk it up to another case of tactless Chinese people making public comments about a person's body.  As part of an immigrant church, I hear Asian parents make these kinds of remarks all the time. And throughout childhood, I've witnessed relatives make rude comments to their younger kin. You've gotten bigger since the last time I saw you Have you gained weight? Or better yet, the back-handed compliment:  Wow - you lost weight. Keep it up. And the you-can't-win comment: You're too skinny. You need to eat more. Or the veiled fat remark: You...

We look at our spouses, children, and parents as the people we love most. In every culture, marriage and blood relations are the closest bonds one can have. In Chinese culture, the most important societal building block is the family unit. That's also true in Christian culture. After all, marriage is a spiritual covenant. Our children are a gift from God to raise in the LORD. And honoring parents is the fourth commandment. In seminary I was taught to prioritize my life in the following sequence: God, family, and then ministry. I understood (at least intellectually) that my church work should not jeopardize the more important ministry of loving my wife and children. Our Bay Area Discipleship Training Conference (DTC3) this past weekend centered on the theme of how we love each other as new creations in Christ. And one of the teachers objected to the notion that family is our most important earthly relationship. Peter said: Church is the most important thing in life ...