Farewell Old Friend

I just sold the '94 Mazda Protoge. It's gone through 3 generations (Pastor John O, Phil Chung, and Simon Chung), and it is on its way to its 4th. This car was a huge part of my life. I experienced my first flat tire, my first oil change, my first windshield wiper change, my first headlight-bulb change, my first car battery dying, my first time putting gas in, my first car wash, I passed the behind-the-wheel test with it, it was my first car. It truly was a faithful car. It died a few times, resurrected a few times. Nonetheless, it was good to me. Oh, how I will miss thee!

-Simon

Offering Leftovers

I just read something, and I wanted to share with all of you.

"For years I gave God leftovers and felt no shame. I simply took my eyes off Scripture and instead compared myself to others. The bones I threw at God had more meat on them than the bones others threw, so I figured I was doing fine."

Hosea 13:6 says, "When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me."

Basically, I need to be more generous, not only with my money, but with my time. I need to make more time for God. I used to be proud of my 10-20 min. daily morning devotionals. But that's 10-20 mins. out of 1440 mins. (which is the number of mins. in a day.) A lot of the times, my attitude towards offering is that I assume God is pleased because I offered something. However, "God wants our best, deserves our best, and demands our best."

What really hit me was that God didn't just think "offering our leftovers" was bad, or He was just disappointed or something. "God described this practice as evil."

-Simon

End of 2009, Hello 2010!

This was posted on Jan. 1, 2009 on my xanga:

"Looking back on the year 2008, it was probably the hardest year I've ever had. I went through the most depression stage of my life, academics were incredibly difficult, more family issues ensued, and more. However, through these hard times, I think I have grown the most. God must do whatever it takes to bring me back to Him, even if it means breaking my leg.

So I am here now, it is 2009 and I am excited and kind of nervous about what is to come in this next year. For sure there will be many obstacles. Who knows? Maybe 2009 will be tougher than 2008. I have to admit. I will never forget the year of 2008.

-Paraguay
-Counseling at CPCYG Winter Retreat
-Transfer Apps
-Gaining/Losing Relationships
-Being encouraged by Pastor Paul and Pastor Harold
-Christ and the Gospel being more and more real to me everyday"

I would have to say, 2009 was one of the most memorable and eventful years of my life. Some of the things I can think off the top of my head are:

-Receiving my acceptance letter to UCLA
-Joining welcoming committee
-Experiencing the longest summer break of my life (4 months long)
-Paraguay '09
-Accepting roles are CG officer and small group leader
-Reading ALOT of mystery/thriller books
-CPCYG Summer Retreat, Pilgrim's Progress, getting 1st place!
-1st quarter at UCLA
-Living in the dorms
-Gaining/Losing relationships
-CK and Cho Family visiting America
-CPCYG Winter Retreat
-Christ and the Gospel being more and more real to me everyday

I feel like I always have to add that last one because it is so true. I am constantly reminded of his faithfulness and his unfailing love. One of the craziest reminders about God was shown to me through the seminar at the CPCYG retreat. It basically talked about how huge the planets, stars, galaxies, the universe was. The speaker said that you could fit several billions of earths in the sun. And then he just kept going on about how the next biggest star, you could fit trillions, and then quadrillions in the biggest star ever recorded thus far, and how it ultimately seemed like it decreased the significance of the earth. When you see the biggest star, you can't even see the earth. If the earth is that small, how small are we? And then when we pray to God, for some reason we try to be God's counselor or adviser, trying to teach him how to do his job by telling him to fulfill our requests and then get bitter when he doesn't.

Yet, God still knows us by name. He knows us on a very personal level. He knows us better than we know ourselves. And what an amazing love that is! I don't know about you, but that thought alone humbled me to the ground.

What does God have in store for me in 2010? There's nothing to worry about that because God is sovereign, and He is faithful.

Happy New Year!

-Simon