Dahhh…

The McDonald’s ice cream cone is the cornerstone of the Mike Hong Mental Wellness program. The vanilla flavored frozen yogurt cone is like Prozac, without the crazy side effects. Plus it gives you calcium and protein, and it’s only around 120 calories. In my opinion it’s just about the most happiness you can buy for a buck.

Even though it was sort of cold today, I decided to walk over to McDonald’s and get a cone during my lunch break. When I arrived at the door, there was this guy who followed me in. He told me this sob story about how he got robbed last night, and that the robbers took everything, including his tools. He said he was too ashamed to tell his girlfriend, so he needed money for bus fare to New York, because he was from New York. The story didn’t really make sense to me, and I could smell the liquor on his breath while he was saying it. I told him I didn’t have cash, (I almost never do) but I offered to buy him a meal. I asked him what he wanted. When he replied, “Get me a combo,” he sounded really pissed off.

I’m usually all for helping those in need. On Alhambra Blvd there are actually a lot of people in need. Pretty much every day I am asked for spare change. I will usually just give them a sandwich or a portion of food if I have it on me. If I have nothing on me, I will just tell them that I don’t have any cash. I have learned from many experiences in the past that it’s better to give food than cash. And most people are genuinely thankful to receive a sandwich or a McD’s hamburger.

What I hate is being taken advantage of. I felt like this guy was trying to take advantage of me, and I didn’t want to deal with that. So when my cone arrived, I gave him the receipt so he could pick up the combo meal and started to walk away. As I was walking out the door, I could hear him tell a different sob story to another person who had just walked in.

I thought of this verse, which a friend of mine used to quote often…
“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. -Mt 10:16

I used to think that he was taking the verse out of context. Jesus says this as he is sending the disciples out to the towns in Israel to proclaim the message, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” Nowadays I’m not so sure. I can see how it could apply in every day situations. We are in some ways sheep among wolves, so we do need to live with a fair bit of shrewdness while still being innocent…

This weekend I did some work on the house. My bro helped out for most of it, so it was a good time just bonding (well I guess only if manual labor could be considered bonding.) We drained and cleaned the pool, did some random gardening, and shoveled a bunch of dirt from my front yard which we dumped at the Yolo county landfill.

The gardening got me thinking. I am a terrible gardener. Good gardeners constantly take care of their plants, weeding, watering, fertilizing and pruning on a consistent basis. I basically do gardening work once a year (probably not even that much) so my plants are under nourished, overgrown and surrounded by weeds. Despite my neglect, they still grow and thrive and actually provide me with fruit.

The lemon tree outside my window is teeming with lemons. They used to be really dry and tasteless, but for some reason in recent years they have been really juicy and pretty tasty. Last year I actually cut back the tree a lot, since it was really overgrown and blocking the pathway in my side yard. The tree is about half the size it used to be, but it’s still giving me more lemons than I know what to do with.

When I first moved into this house about five years ago, my dad planted this mandarin tree. This is the first year that it’s actually started to grow some decent fruit. They actually look really good. I’ll probably wait and let them ripen a bit more before eating them.

There’s also a navel orange tree in my side yard. I call this the Mike Hong tree, because it’s lazy like me. This year it produced a grand total of four oranges. Here’s one of them. The tree bears really juicy and tasty fruit, I just wish it grew more than four. How do you motivate a fruit tree?

Along the edges of my yard is a planter box. It was overgrown with weeds, which I pulled this past weekend. Surprisingly the the lily plants in the planter box are still alive. At least I think they are lilies– I know very, very little about flowers. I remember they grew some nice flowers. This reminded me of this passage, which is one of my favorite passages in the bible.

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. -Matthew 6:28-34

Last year in Acacia we had a set of core values that we chose to be our focus for the year. I still remember the acronym, CLOUDS, and each of the letters… Community, Lordship, Outreach, Unity, Discipleship, and Service. I still remember most of those studies pretty well too, but there is one study in particular I remember very well, not because it was a very good study… In fact I remember it because it was the worst study I had ever been to, sadly it was one that I was leading. The passage was John 13, Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. Sounds like it should be pretty straightforward, but for some reason it just didn’t work, and I still am haunted by memories of it….. Haha well I guess it’s not really that severe that I have nightmares, but from time to time I think about that study and how bad it was…

Anyways, recently I was reminded of that study again.  This month I started going to BSF (which stands for Bible Study Fellowship I’m guessing) and ironically the first week’s study is on that very same passage.   But strangely the study doesn’t focus too much on the obvious act of service shown by Jesus, instead it focuses on the love that Jesus showed in his last hour. The first few verses show of John 13 show that Jesus was fully aware that his time was coming soon.  He fully knew the hardship that he would soon face, but until the end, what shows is his love for his disciples.  The first verse sets the stage for Jesus’ famous act of service and why it really is an act of love.

It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having LOVED his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his LOVE.

The act of service shown by Jesus was an outpouring of His love, and it was a precursor to Jesus’ greatest act of service and also his greatest outpouring of love, his death on the cross.  In verse 14, Jesus tells his disciples that they should be washing each others’ feet.  He doesn’t explicitly say it in this passage, but he says it in so many other places, that we should love each other.  Jesus’ act of service is really an outpouring of that love.  Maybe that’s what I messed up in that study last year…. Service is not something that is forced, separately on its own, service really is the practical outpouring of love.  If we are to love one another, we are to serve one another.  If we serve one another, we are showing that we are loving one another.

I usually park between 6 to 8 blocks away from my work, depending on how late/early I am.  The place I park my car is not the greatest area, and I’ve heard from coworkers that cars have been broken into there.  In the two years that I’ve been parking there, I haven’t had a problem.

My daily walk to my car takes me underneath a couple of freeway overpasses.  Lately there’s been a homeless guy sleeping out there.  He’s pretty cool, quite friendly, and he has a dog that sleeps with him.  Today I happened to have an apple with me, so I asked him if he wanted it.  He said he couldn’t eat it because of his teeth, and he smiled, a nice smile, but filled with gaps. I also had a grapefruit with me, which he ended up accepting.

Anyways, that got me thinking…. well the first thing I thought was, “next time I’ll bring an orange…”  The second thing I thought is that I’m really limited in my capacity to help.

The third thing that I’ve been thinking was maybe I’m the one that needs help. I thought about that gap toothed smile, a simple smile that reveals a simple contentment.  I trudge to work every day, and never have a simple smile like that… The simple joy from the simple grace of simply being alive…. that should be reason enough to smile.

Wow what a beautiful night.  After what seemed like endless stormy / cloudy nights, the stars are out. The Stars Are Singing

The Stars Are Singing by Mainstay

I’m pretty impressed with this group called Mainstay.  It’s the first christian album I’ve bought in a long time; I usually just cherry pick individual songs on Itunes.  Their album is called “Become Who You Are.” Amazing vocals, both upbeat and mellow songs, heartfelt lyrics… this album’s got it all.  A lot of the lyrics really speak to me, especially the lyrics from the last song on the album, “Hang On.”

I don’t know how I got to where I am
All I know is that I want to go back
to the moment when I fell in love with grace
and I hear You whisper

Hang on, I know your hope seems gone
Hang on, sometimes the heartache makes you strong
Remember the first time love turned you around

I try my best to pray but my heart won’t move
And all the words the saints say, they just don’t help
I want to go back to when I first called out Your name
and I hear You whisper

To the moment when I fell in love with grace
To the day when I first called our Jesus’ name