Linus Soh

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Do you ever watch a movie so many times that you can recite it? What’s funny about this phenomenon is that I’ll watch movies that I absolutely know and still sit on the edge of my seat. For example, I recently watched Rumor Has It for the second time.  Granted, it’s not a movie I know very well but I know what happens in the movie.  I wanted Jennifer Aniston’s character to admit that she was in love with her fiancé.  It takes her several days in order for her do admit this but she had to sleep with another guy in order to find this out.

Being a former screenwriter, I’ve often wondered what would have happened if she admitted to her fiancé that she had doubts in the beginning of the movie.  Of course, it wouldn’t have made a good movie but that’s not the point.  But I think we all do this.  How often have you thought about how different your life would have turned out if you did something differently.

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I remember going to confession when I was a kid.  At the time, I was going to a private school in Baltimore.  And I remember how difficult it was as a kid to think of all my “sins” and confess them to the priest.  Sometimes I felt like I had to make up something just so I had something to confess!

Today, this isn’t the case.  I’m not catholic, but I still confess, but not in the same way.

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When I do any sort of cold-turkey evangalism (this is when Christians go out and talk to random people about the Gospel of Christ), I always get very nervous. A lot of this comes from my own feelings of telemarketers or other random people trying to talk to me. But I began to question what was it specifically about the Gospel that made me nervous. When I talk about anything else like sports or movies, I freely engage in debate and conversation. When I go to the grocery store, I can easily have a conversation with anyone. It’s very easy for me. But I find it difficult to talk about God randomly. Now, if someone brings it up or a topic naturally leads there, it’s a bit easier.

As I thought about this topic, I think the concept of heaven, hell, sin, and eternal damnation are things that are not only difficult to conceptualize but also very judgmental. And I think it’s because of the fact that it is judgemental that makes having Christian conversations difficult. I specifically single-out Christianity because it is the only faith that I have found that makes a distinction of going to hell for unrepentance of sin.

We live in a world that doesn’t want to be judge, but feels free to be willing to judge others. The difference that I’ve seen between Christian judgement and non-Christian judgement is the time horizons of their punishments. For example, very few people would argue that a child-raping murder should be jailed but almost anyone would yell and scream that a ‘good’ person would still be condemned to hell “simply because they don’t believe in Jesus Christ.”

No one enjoys thinking about punishments. Everyone wants to avoid them! Why do people suddenly hit the breaks when they see a police car? To avoid a ticket! But there seems to be a different sentiment when it comes to eternal damnation. Either people are uncomfortable hearing it or insulted by it.

I will not hold back here because I believe that there is such miscommunication concerning eternaty that one must be clear: The only way to heaven is through the free gift of forgiveness that is offered by Jesus Christ alone. It’s not a factor of having enough good things to out-number the bad things.

Most people find Christianity restrictive. Saying that only certain people go to heaven while condemning others to hell seems very exclusive. And I would agree! But what these people don’t realize is that God has given everyone a choice. C.S. Lewis puts it this way: the gates of hell are locked from the inside. God doesn’t send anyone to hell: people choose to go there.

It is God heart and desire for his people to spend eternity with him. He has provided a way to accomplish that. But we must choose it. God’s greatest gift to the world was choice to make the wrong decision. What does that say about God?

Evangalism isn’t about ‘converting’ people. I know many Christians believe this but it’s simply not true. The goal of evangalism is to tell people the hope that is found in Christ alone. No more, no less. Evangalism isn’t about getting people into heaven. It’s about getting people to start a relationship with God.

We all must make this choice. And it will be our actions that determine the results. I’ve chosen God. What about you?

I’d like to start with a thought experiment: God asks you to name a salary that you want to receive. This amount would never change for the duration of your life. The amount would be tax-free and you are allowed to do anything with it. The only caveat is that any amount you make on top of this amount, you would have to donate. So if you receive a gift from your parents, you would have to donate that money to charity.

Think about how much you’d want to receive on a yearly basis. You only get one shot.

If I were to guess, that number is higher than what you make right now.

When my pastor ask the congregation this question, it was amazing that everyone admitted that what they make is not enough. And let me tell you, there were people in that room that make at least three times more than what I make. What surprised me the most is that everyone wanted more money.

The point he was trying to make is that we will never be satisfied while we are on this side of eternity.

As the economic crisis deepens, more and more families are realizing how little money they really have. Many people are re-evaluating their finances, cutting back, keeping a much leaner budget. Because these people are being forced to live below what they are used to, they wish that they had more money.

Today is Blog Action Day – a day where bloggers around the world write about one topic. This year’s topic is poverty. There are many blogs that suggest a way to end poverty. I respectfully disagree with them. Poverty is not a disease that can be cured. Jesus even says that the poor will always be with us. I think that poverty is a state of mind that we are to accept.

Don’t get me wrong; there are real people that have real needs that live far below what we would consider to be a standard of living. These people should be comforted and helped to the best that we are able. There isn’t enough money in the world that we could redistribute that would overcome the amount of poverty that exists. Instead, I hope to attack a different problem: the perception of poverty.

I wholeheartedly think that no matter how much money you have, you’ll always want more. No matter how full your stomach gets, you’ll still get hungry. And no matter how powerful you are, you’ll always want a better position with more influence. The problem isn’t poverty; the problem is ourselves.

Too many times I’ve heard people complain about how much life would be different if they were married or how they could donate more money if only they made a little bit more. But the reality is that many of us have so much to be thankful for. Christians are called to live a life full of joy! They are called to be content in every situation. But many of them, including myself, fail – not because we don’t have enough but because we want more.

The truth lies in the fact that we have everything we need. Yes, even those people who are starving have everything they need. And yes, it’s easy for me to say that because I’m not starving. But follow me here.

Have you ever noticed that people who are homeless or people who are starving have amazingly simple lives? They clothes and shoes and sometimes a roof over their head. But much of their life is unencumbered by the demands of paying bills, choosing what restaurant to go to, or what shoes to wear. I don’t say this to belittle them. But I think there is something to this that many of us who are "better off" don’t understand. Perhaps it’s us that are impoverished because no matter what, we’ll still want the latest fashions, the hottest electronics. The poor would be happy to simply have a good meal and a friendly conversation.

Friends, my encouragement to you is to take stock of your life and see what you have. Learn to be content with what you have. Serve the poor and learn from their lives. Learn how simple life can be. Don’t just say you’ll do something. DO SOMETHING!

It used to be the norm that people would get married young and stay married.  They would be best friends and know everything about each other.  Kids growing up to be fine members of society while dad would coach little league and mom would cheer on the soccer team.

Slowly, the world started to change.  Children grew up into homes where mom and dad rarely spoke to each other.  Parents divorced, using their children as pawns of control and influence against a bitter spouse.  These kids don’t trust marriage — and for good reason.  Almost 58% of marriages fail within 3 years, 66% within 10 years.

I bring this topic up because of a conversation I walked into a few weeks back.  The topic was about sexism and why women can’t be leaders in the church.  This person was a woman and not a Christian for this reason.  She believed that Christianity demeaned women.  And this view understandable!  And I would even go as far to say that I would agree with her.  But the question that really got me was this: What so special about a man to boss his wife around?

One of the things I picked up when I was a missionary was that people ask questions not because they want an answer but because they want to ask the question.  Confused?  Yeah, I was too!

Behind the question was a belief that men boss their wives around.  You see, the question disguises the real problem (the inaccurate belief) and instead shows a response (the anger).  My response to her was a question: Why do you think men want to boss their wives around?

This question shifted the conversation to her family and the home she grew up in.  Her dad didn’t treat her mom with respect.  So she had come to assume that this is what marriage is.  This is not marriage!  This is not love!  This is not what God had in mind!

I believe that marriage is supposed to be the embodiment of Christ’s relationship with his Church.  As Christ sacrificed his life for the church, so, too, should a man be willing to sacrifice his life for his wife.  You don’t hear this often in weddings and I think given the choice, most men wouldn’t.  It’s a tall order for men to stand too.  God calls men and charges them with the duty to protect his wife.  And in doing so, the wife is to submit to her husband.

Before we jump on the second part, let’s examine the first part.  I think William Wallace said it best: Every man dies; not every man truly lives.  There are some things in life worth living for and, at the same time, there ware things in life that are worth dieing for.  A man must love his wife so much so that he would risk his life to keep her safe.  I would even go as far to say to keep her comfortable!  A pastor put it this way: If his family was on a boat while it was sinking, he would grab his wife first, make sure she was dry, comfortable, and a glass of iced tea in her hand before he would go out to save his kids.

Rest on that image for a second.  Obviously, this is a hyperbole but it illustrates the priority of his life.

Now, let’s look at the second part: the wife is to submit to her husband.  I believe it is the word "submit" that tangles us up.  But let me put it in light with the role of the husband.  Wouldn’t it make perfect sense that in order to protect his wife, that he would ask of her to do something to make sure she stays safe?  (Let’s not converse as to whether a woman ‘needs’ protecting as that’s not the goal.)  And wouldn’t it be devine that a woman shows her husband love by trusting him supernaturally?  I would put it this way: Wife, if you cannot trust me, trust God.

Notice that the husband is not to force his wife into doing anything.  Why should he?!  He loves her!  Forced love is not love but in fact the opposite!  Love must be a choice.  He must allow her to choose to love him.  This doesn’t mean that the husband makes all the decisions or that the wife does not have any say in the process.  Quite the contrary!  In order to make the decision based in love for his wife, why wouldn’t he consult with her to see what she wants.  After all, he would look after her comfort before his children!

The feminist movement brought great things to society.  But it also went too far and took too many things away.  It’s not that women can’t be leaders.  They can.  But men should be leaders.  Men are not perfect and never will be.  But his love for his wife should be as eternal as his relationship with God.  Under the perfect circumstances, monogamy not only makes sense, but is the only product.  Monogamy is a product of trust and love.  When doubts arise about the relationship, it is this trust that husbands and wives turn to.

They say that those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it.  I think this works equally so in our daily lives.  Every day, we experience challenges, granted, not all of them are critical and are often mundane.  But there are moments when we ask ourselves, “What if I did that differently?”

We do this because we wonder if things could have turned out better, or worse.  What if, instead of studying for that important test, I went to the party with my friend.  Would I have met the woman of my dreams?  What if, instead of talking with my best friend for five hours on my cell phone, I visited him instead.  Would I still have gotten brain cancer?

The reality about yesterday is that it cannot be redone.  It cannot be changed.  Then why is it that so many people have doubts about their past?  Or why, after a mistake has been made, do people complain about it?

I think memory is a gift from God.  I don’t know if animals have memories in the same way people do.  But what is for certain is that memories help us relive our past, bringing tears of joy or sadness, laughter and pain.  But when we make mistakes, we don’t want to make them again.  And I’m not just talking about conditioning; I’m talking about life-lessons.

If we don’t reflect upon our lives, we won’t be able to see the full picture.  “Hindsight is always 20/20” they say.  And it isn’t until we’ve completed a journey that we realize how much we’ve grown, what we’ve accomplished, and what we can do better next time.

One of the big problems with memory is that sometimes, it paralyzes us.  We are afraid to make the same mistake – or make a worse mistake – so we don’t take any action at all.  We miss out on the opportunity to do things differently.  What better way to know if you’ve really learned your lesson than to have the opportunity to mess up again?!

The only way to know that someone is honest is to give that person the opportunity to be dishonest.  He must make the conscience choice to do the right thing.  The same goes for life lessons.  God purposefully and deliberately puts us in situations where we will have to decide how to handle the situation.  I don’t think God does this to annoy us.  I think he does it because he realizes that these lessons are worth learning.

So as you look at your past, consider your present situations.  Chances are that you’ve been here before.  Somewhere in the mystery of our problems lies a choice to either repeat history or to do something different.  The cool thing is that if we decide to do something different, we can have hope.  This hope will pay great dividends if we make the right decisions.  We will be able to look back at the events in our lives that made us into who we are today and say with certainty, “If I didn’t do that, I’d be in a completely different place.   I’m glad I made the right choice.”
 

Everyone, at one point or another, will ask themselves, “What am I doing here?”But even if they don’t ask themselves this question, actions will speak louder than words.

Look on any college campus and you’ll see people looking for meaning and being a part of something bigger.  For example, on Wednesday, I went to the Nationals game here in DC.  There were two college students gathering signatures to get ExxonMobile advertisement out of the stadium.  Not older adults and not politicians but college students.

Why is this?  I think it’s because this is the time that we begin to wonder what our life is going to be about.  But I don’t think it’s by accident.  I think it’s by design.

What I’ve found in Christ is the sense of meaning.  If environmental, political, and socioeconomic problems were solved tomorrow, there would be nothing to protest.  These topics give people the illusion that they are a part of something bigger.  But they don’t realize that they can and will disappear.

So what is so different about Christianity?  Eternity.

There is never a shortage of what can be learned and experienced in the life of Christ.  I constantly find myself questioning my faith and trying to get a better understanding about the life that God has promised.  Living a faith-filled, fear-free life is so elusive that we must constantly search for it.  The difficulty is that situations always change but God remains constant.

The challenging obstacle of the faith journey is ourselves.  We’re prone to wonder, walking aimlessly to things that will fade away.  Even though we know this, we still do it.  And the older we get, the harder this seems to be.

I used to ask myself how I will make my mark on this world.  I now ask myself “What will I do today that will change the world?”  Like all of the causes I listed before, I’ll fade away too.  But hopefully my actions and my faith will have inspired others to do the same.  Ultimately, it’s not about me.  It’s about the person next to me.  If I keep that in mind, I won’t have to worry about leaving my mark on the world.

I went on vacation last week and I had a blast!  I went to Ft. Leonard Wood to visit a friend of mine and to get away from the Interwebs and video games.  It was very relaxing, outside of the fact that I almost drowned three times, fell of a cliff and bruised my bum, and now have a stiff neck and back.

A week before my vacation, I prayed about what was going on in my life.  I asked him what should I focus on while I was away.  It became clear that "simplicity" should describe my life, but it doesn’t.  But the question is how?

For most of us, life moves so fast that we hardly have time to eat.  With so much happening so quickly, it’s easy to put God by the wayside.  I know I do.  So it stands to reason that we want to make things as simple as possible.  But even if we do, are we our own worst enemies?

The world becomes more and more connected these days.  There is a statistic somewhere says that one out of every 6 people are connected to the internet.  (Yes, I just grabbed that number out of the air.)  Even if it was less than that, 10 years ago, this wasn’t even possible!  Messages are sent instantaniously to around the world and back.  Video can stream to different people at once.  More and more the Internet is going from experiment to required utility.

But how goes our lives?  As we get more busy, we try to carve out more free time for ourselves.  And even then, we have to "plan" free time so it meets our schedule.

I was at the doctor’s earlier today and there was a woman who had walked in for a prescription.  As I was waiting, I overheard her argument with the staff saying that she called earlier to have the prescription ready by the time she got there.  I don’t know how much time went by between that call and that afternoon, but she was very upset.  As I sat there, I began to wonder what was going on in her life that made her so impatient.  Yes, it’s annoying to wait but this is a case where she really didn’t have much control.  The fact was that the prescription was written and she’d have to wait.  She got up 2 minutes later and asked what was taking so long.

This is a case where she has made her own life complicated because she should have realized that complaining would do nothing to speed up the process.  I’m sure it felt better for her to complain but at the end, it wasted time.

We all have moments like these.  We make choices on how to complicate our lives.  Very few of us actually choose to live simply.  Take a look around you right now.  List all the devices that are available to you for entertainment or distraction.  I can name several:

• Power stapler
• phone
• fax
• INTERNET
• speakers
• iPod
• iPhone
• PDA
• XBOX
• bed
• bird
• swivel chair

I could go on!  When I went on vacation, none of those things went with me (except a laptop in case I had to be called in to work).  And I can’t tell you how refreshing it was not to be surrounded by these things!  It forced me to slow down, relax, and look at life simply.  My greatest realization was at the Lake of the Ozarks where I took a horseback ride.  It was perfectly sublime!  As I rode Chocolate (my horse), I realized just how humbling it was to just ride around on a horse.  I saw two deer and they didn’t scamper away when approached.  What amazed me the most was just how marvelous everything was.

That was it.  No phone calls, no complicated decisions.  Just me and a horse for an hour ride.

It made me question what I have done in my life that has made my life complicated.  My job is incredibly peaceful.  I’m in good financial stability.  I could stand to lose a bit of weight but overall in good shape.  I have it easy, compared to most other people.  Yet, I still feel stressed.

I’d like to encourage you to stock of your life.  Look at what you can do with out.  Or look at what you can’t do without.  Then leave it all behind and see what happens.

I hope you’ll be surprised as I was.

I’m taking a much-needed vacation!  There will be no Crossword article today and the next Crossword article will be posted on July 20th.