Be Kind and Gentle (2008 - 2018)

"I am kind and gentle in heart" (Matthew 11:29).

West Loop Church (WL) began in Jan 2008. 2018 began with our 10 year anniversary. These are some of my extemporaneous random reflections over the years.

1. Be kind and gentle (Mt 11:28). Jesus said, "I am kind and gentle in heart."  Mother Theresa said, "I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness." I realize that when I feel attacked, oppressed, imposed upon, criticized, slandered, gossiped about and experience injustice, I am reactive, angry, loud, defensive and offensive. I am anything but gentle and humble in heart, even if I try to control my outward expressions. For the rest of my life, I pray to learn my Lord who is "kind and gentle in heart," though it will surely be with many failures.
2. Criticism is rarely welcomed. I want to change the world, or at least change my church for the better. But I learned that criticism and pointing out what is wrong is often met with anger and resentment. Whenever you point out any problem, YOU are the problem. Jordan Peterson's statement comes to mind: "If you can't even clean up your own room, who the hell are you to give advice to the world?" Yes, I pray to clean up my own act first, rather than be critical with what's wrong in the world.
3. Preaching with awe, fear and trembling (Phil 2:12-13) and with humility and tears (Ac 20:19). I began preaching 30-40 times a year at WL in my late 50s about a half dozen years ago by default, since I was the least busy among our elders who all work full time. Ever since doing so, it has been the greatest joy of my life to be able to read and study countless "boring" Bible commentaries on many books of the Bible in preparation virtually daily all year round. Each and every Sunday my heart is in awe, having been given the utmost privilege to preach. It is a tremendous responsibility that I cherish with fear and trembling and with the utmost of gratitude to all those who come with willing hearts to listen and learn. This is nothing but God's grace to me. I realize that it is also a great challenge when my wife once told me, "If you behave like this at home (I don't remember what I did!), I can never listen to you preach on Sunday." That was a thunderbolt and a tsunami! In God's time and by God's choosing, I pray to pass the baton on to younger preachers and pastors who are called to preach and lead the next generation.
4. Enjoy chaos and do scary things. As one who has basically lived a charmed life all of my life, scary things to me are certain books of the Bible that I thought that I would never ever preach on. They are Revelation, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekial. By God's grace, I barely skimmed the surface of those books and preached on them over several years. It was overwhelming, scary, challenging, unpredictable and fun.
5. Blessed weddings. Over the last 10 years, Rhoel and I have officiated and blessed the weddings of Al and Kelsey, Mike and Gail, Iron Man and Jen, Adam and May, Niamzu and Donna, Defi and Jaime and next week in Jan 2019 Daniel and Maria. John Yoon and I also blessed the wedding of Sam and Heather in the Philippines. It has been our utmost joy to bless them and see to God's hand of grace upon their lives.
6. The best job I ever had. As a physician I have done countless jobs as an internist over the last 38 years in the US. But over the last 3-4 years I began practicing telemedicine where I do phone and video consults online. I regard this as my best job ever because I no longer have to go somewhere else to work, but I can work from home or from anywhere else as long as there is a quiet room.
7. Fall in love with God was our theme in 2018. St. Augustine said, "To fall in love with God is the greatest romance, to seek him the greatest adventure, and to find him the greatest human achievement." Personally, I desire by God's help to be a person who is deeply and madly in love with God and my wife all the days of my life.
8. Themes in 2019 that I am considering are:
1. Be perfect and merciful (Mt 5:48; 9:13).
   
2. See Jesus more clearly (Mk 8:22-25; 10:46-52).
   
3. Walk the gospel line (Gal 2:14).
   
4. Have faith in Jesus' faithfulness (Gal 2:16-17).
   
5. See coincidences as providence (Rom 8:28).
   
• Or the above may just be the first 5 sermons that I preach in 2019!
9. Be kind and gentle (as in #1 above). A close friend told me last week that after almost 2 decades of being "shepherded," she did not know how to listen to God directly for herself outside of the voice of her human church leader. Sorry to say that included me. From her I learn how NOT to be a leader, shepherd and pastor in the church. "Be kind and gentle" is not an end in itself. Rather, it is to not impose myself on others, even if I know that I am right and others are wrong and lacking in wisdom. "Be kind and gentle" is to lead others personally to seek to know the God who loves them, outside of human voices and church voices, as well intentioned as they may be.