Linus Soh

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.

Around this time every year, I request my free annual credit report.  I also warn people about fake free credit reports.  Here’s my blog entry from last year:

However, some companies (particularly credit card companies) offer you a "free" credit report.  The report only comes after you sign up for some sort of credit watching service, which can be anywhere from a few bucks a month to a percentage of your balance.  Be alert!  The credit report can be obtained directly from the bureaus’ websites.  Congress recently amended the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act that allows you to have all three agencies give you a free credit report from on one web site.  This website is http://www.annualcreditreport.com.  Do not be fooled by imitations (e.g. http://www.freecreditreport.com).  annualcreditreport.com is the only official website promoted by the FTC.

One of the tips I got from consumerist.com is to request my report every four months, instead of once a year.  That way, I can keep regular watch over my credit.  You do this by requesting one report at a time.  My schedule is March, July, and November.

Also, as a reminder, your credit score is not free.  Congress is working on including this in your report but it’s not quite there.  Be sure to contact your representatives to have your credit score a part of your report.  Seeing that this is the number that banks and lenders use to judge your credit, it seems like it should be free.

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.

I have decided, after much thought and contemplation, to purchase an iPhone.  This is a big deal for me because I am not a fan of AT&T.  Let me give you a brief history:

My first cell phone was with AT&T.  I got it primarily because a few members of my family had it.  This was back in 1999-ish.  I had a Nokia phone.  No camera, very simple to use.  It was awesome!  The big thing I liked about it was how it searched for contacts.   Without going into technobable, you could type "ic" and get "Michael", "Jessica", or "Maverick".  I can do that with my LG enV.  Implementing this would be as easy as changing the regular expression.  But I digress.

Despite these awesome features, my service with AT&T was sub-par.  I had issues with my phone and the service.  I got hit with hidden fees, overage charges, and a list of other problems.  And anytime I called AT&T to get these things fixed, it always proved to be difficult.  I would get the run-around several times and basically left me bitter.

I was more than glad to pay my early termination fee to port my number to Verizon.  I did this the very day the law went into effect.  Ever since I’ve been with Verizon, I have never had any issue that Verizon couldn’t solve.  With the exception of three calls, every problem I address with Verizon was handled with one phone call.  The three other calls were due my own negligence and misunderstanding.  Even then, the representatives were incredibly understanding.

So why move to AT&T if I like Verizon so much?  One word: stupidity.

Apple went to Verizon first because they new that Verizon had the biggest and most reliable network.  Verizon also had the most customers.  When talks dissolved, Apple went courting for another cell service provider.  AT&T was next on their list.

Verizon’s response to their customers: "We just couldn’t reach a deal that was mutually beneficial."  Translation: Apple wanted too much money.

AT&T, on the other hand, GLADLY welcomed Apple and pretty much gave them everything they wanted.  And now, AT&T has taking a huge collection of Verizon customers with them.  Verizon, you lost out on a great thing.

Technologically, Verizon has got some piss-poor phones.  All of their phones (with the exception of Blackberrys or Smartphones) all run the same interface.  This is great so you don’t have to re-learn each phone.  But it does take away from the unique features each phone had.  Verizon is also the only company that cripples the Bluetooth interface so that you have to purchase applications from Verizon.  You can use a headset, but you cannot send and receive data via Bluetooth.

I’ve been a Verizon customer for over 5 years and I’m sad to be closing my wireless relationship with them.  I still have FiOS and don’t plan on getting rid of that anytime soon.

One of the things I find curious about our society is how exclusive we’ve become.  I don’t think it’s intentional; but nonetheless, very little is being done about it.  I think a part of that problem is that people do not notice how exclusive we really are.

Here’s an easy test to see if you are one of these people:

• Think of all of your friends that you see on a regular basis (less family members)
• What do you have in common?  Same school?  Same work place?
• What differences are there between you and everyone else?  Are these differences shared with anyone else in your group?
• Think of your closest friends
• What makes them so close?

And now the final test: Where do you find yourself making new friends?

Now before you make any wild assumptions, many people fall victim to this.  I know I do.  The majority of my friends are people with whom I go to church.   A small handful of them are people I work with.  But my closest friends are those who believe the same things I do and have fun in similar ways that I do.

Most of them are Christians, republicans, and are on facebook.

The question I find asking myself is why everyone does this.  Despite what people might think or say they behave, everyone chooses their friends and many of them are people with whom we have things in common.  It is rare that we have friends that are completely different.  In fact, this is something that we will notice!  If we have a friend that is friends with someone else who is completely different, we will ask, “Wow!  What do you guys have in common?!”

When friendships start, we don’t want to be “too different” because we don’t want to stick out like a sore thumb.  We fear being ostracized because we grew up poor or because we don’t have the iPhone.  So we live on both sides of this fence.

I don’t know if it bothers you but I’m bothered by the fact that I’m so judgmental with people I just met.  If someone doesn’t believe what I do, I have instant dislike of them.  The likelihood of me being friends with them is so infinitesimal that I immediately dismiss it and don’t even think I could benefit.

Jesus was not like this.  In fact, he frequently and consistently talked with people who we would never want to even be associated with.  Jesus talking and having dinner with tax collectors and prostitutes is equivalent with Rosie O’Donnell having a romantic candle-lit dinner with James Dobson (President of the conservative group Christian ministry Focus on the Family).  If that image strikes you as odd, you can understand the confusion that this would have caused with others.
The sad reality of this is that the selection of friends is no different in the Christian world as it is for anyone else.  I would expect that the one place that things would be different would be Christendom.  While the ratio isn’t as bad, it’s still abysmal.  Many of my friends’ friends are similar.  The only differences tend to be jobs, socio-economic status, and race.

I think the reason is because we all want to be comfortable.  I know I would rather be with people who understand me, my politics, and my beliefs, than with someone who constantly disagrees with me.  That someone may be a perfectly nice person but I probably wouldn’t want to spend a lot of my time.

I often wonder if I would say the same thing about God.  If I think about it, the differences between me and God are vast!  We have absolutely nothing in common.  But something is to be said for him to be willing to put that all aside and still want to get to know my quirks and insecurities.

Honestly, I can’t think of the last time I did this.  And perhaps that the hardest lesson that I as a Christian have to face.  Am I willing to let everything fade and simply focus on the person?  Instead of being afraid of talking with the indigent, would I be willing to open myself up to them?

But what makes this so hard?  Perhaps something gets lost in the translation…

September 11, 2001 is a day that people will remember for ages.  The day evokes the same emotions of Pearl Harbor.  The United States was attacked suddenly.  Suddenly, we realized that we aren’t protected as much as we thought.

Just after a year later, two men trekked around the Washington Metro area sniping random people.  They killed ten people.  During the shootings, there was mass hysteria.  People refused to get out of their houses for fear that the two could strike at any moment.  They were shooting people in common areas, like gas stations and outside grocery stores.  No one was safe.

In 2005, a 16 year old student went to his high school with a handgun and a shotgun and killed 9 students before killing himself.  It is the worst high school shooting since Columbine.

In 2006, in an area known for their peace and non-violent beliefs, a 32 year old man made his way to an Amish school in Pennsylvania and killed five girls, ages ranging from 6-13, before killing himself.

In 2007, Virginia Tech would become the campus with the largest school shooting, killing 31 students, staff, and faculty before the shooter took his own life.

How can we say that prayer works when the world continues to have these problems?  Why would anyone bother to pray to a God who doesn’t seem to care?

If God can’t handle the big stuff, why should I trust him with my stuff?

There is no answer that I can give you that would satisfy these questions.  In fact, no matter what anyone tells you, no one has the answer to these questions.  Even the Bible is oddly silent about why God allows the innocent to suffer.  The difficult reality with these questions, however, is that it still leaves us with a choice: do we continue to follow God or do we believe that God does care?

One of the realizations I’ve had is that no matter what question you have about God, no matter how troubled your faith, you still end up at this same juncture: do you choose to follow God or do you choose not to?  Every situation, every question, every lesson and every moment we are faced with this question.

So why do we choose to pray?  Isn’t true that God knows everything?  Why, then, is it necessary to pray to him?  Even if I pray it, it doesn’t guarantee that God will answer my prayer.  And even if he does, it doesn’t mean I’ll like it.

I think pain is God’s way of telling us he exists.  If you think about it, it really makes a lot of sense.  One of the greatest questions that have been asked after all tragic events is, "Where was God?  Why did he allow it to happen?"  And I think it’s because of this that he allows events like 9/11, mortgage crisis, and child abuse happen.  That answer sounds trite.  Let me try again.

When events happen that are beyond our understanding, one is only left asking if there is a larger power.  C.S. Lewis said that it is our idea of justice that screams of a higher being.  The very fact that we have a notion of what is fair and what is not fair must lead to the conclusion that a savor is needed.  So why pray?

Perhaps we should pray because we’re supposed to.  Or perhaps if everyone prayed, things like Katrina wouldn’t happen.  I think these answers are too legalistic.

I think we pray because, well, quite simply, we need someone to talk to.  If you go outside the notion that God is this unapproachable king, ruler of the universe that doesn’t want anything to do with his subjects, you realize that he is a person.  A person who wants to love and a person who wants to know you.  You can’t expect to be friends with your wife or husband if you don’t communicate, even if you know each other to the point that you already know what they are thinking.  But sometimes that’s the point, isn’t it?  What shows greater intimacy than knowing what your spouse is thinking in a moment?  What shows more that they care?

The years are filled with destruction.  It’s easy to get lost in the carnage and ask why.  Perhaps the answer doesn’t lie in the event; perhaps the answer lies in our relationship with God.  If we’d only know him the same way he knows us, we probably would never have to ask.