But it is still good to set a goal...

Setting goal may invite another challenge. But it is still good to set a goal than setting no goal and inviting no challenge. Whether I invite or not, challenge comes anyway. And if I am ready for the challenge, most likely I will overcome it and I can grow. The more challenges come, the more challenges I appreciate, then the broader my heart becomes, which would give me happiness, and happiness to my audience. And my audience is--God.
In fact, I am meant to grow a lot during my short lifetime. No time to waste. Anyway, God knows where I should go, and thus it is good to set a goal together with him. Then my goal is his goal and we together will enjoy the process of accomplishing the goal.
Life is so short, you must enjoy it. And there is a reason why this amazing opportunity of life is given to me. Blessing accompanies expectation, and responsibility. I owe so much to God, as well as to all mankind.

Challenge comes because of your Goal

When you set some goal, and proclaim it, challenge usually comes which would give you a very opposite experience of what you want to accomplish. Why is this?

1. One possibility: it is from God

This is the conversation from the movie, "Evan Almighty"

....This situation looks like an opportunity.

If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does He give them the opportunity to be patient?

If they prayed for courage, does God give them courage, or does He give them the opportunity to be courageous?

If someone prayed for their family to be closer, you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings? Or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

2. Another possibility: it is from the "Devil"

The very opposite things from your proclaimed goal would happen inside of you, or inside of your group, so that you would be pushed to say, "I give up." This happens because your proclamation about the goal made the "Devil" really angry that he would challenge you to show him how much you are committed to the proclaimed goal. Thus, God has to allow this to happen so that you could truly show the proof that you are committed to the goal. Therefore, you could say it is from the "Devil" but in this case God is, in fact, behind him. This would surely serve you as a chance for you to clarify your motivation and attitude toward the proclaimed goal--Be careful not to get tricked by blaming something/somebody, but first thank God...

In either case, God would not be able to do certain things, and what you do would determine the consequence. According to what you do, God would be able to help you even to the degree of making miracles.

Trick: blaming without realizing it

I realized that one problem is that I am blaming something even without my being aware of it. But because blaming is against the universal law, we will naturally lose power when we do it. We will lose heavenly fortune when we do it. And the scary thing is that this happens without my realizing that I am, in fact, blaming something. This is kind of tricky, but I believe that realizing this situation would greatly help me live a better life.

Thank God for disappointment

When you get disappointed by someone, that is a good chance to reflect and think how much you might be disappointing God. It is also a good chance to humble yourself to think about the possibility of how you might be disappointing people around you through the way which you cannot even imagine.

You get disappointed when your expectation is not met. But you cannot just expect someone to give something to you without you giving something first. Thus, being disappointed is a chance to search and find out what you can give, or what you are supposed to give. Then repent that you did not give enough and then determine to give more.

Thus you don't need to be unhappy when you get disappointed. You have ability to make yourself happy, knowing that you are also making your audience happy. And your audience is---God.

Cain killed Abel

In Genesis 4:8, Cain kills his brother Abel.
In Cain, there was hatred toward Abel, thus he killed Abel. No matter what the situation is, the simple point was that there was hatred in Cain which caused him to kill Abel.

In Genesis 33:4, Esau was about to kill his brother Jacob, but he "ran to meet him (Jacob), and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him", and they wept. In Esau, there was hatred toward Jacob, but somehow something happened to that hatred and Esau did not kill Jacob.

In these two similar stories, similar point was there was hatred, and the different point was in Cain that hatred was not dealt with but in Esau that hatred was somehow dealt with.

Therefore, the problem is that there is hatred and what has to happen is that hatred has to be dealt with. No matter what kind of logical explanation is given to justify the situation of either Cain or Abel, the fact is the existence of the hatred, and as long as this hatred exists, every logic and explanation ends in vein. Therefore, we need to figure out the way how to deal with this hatred and how to eliminate it. It seems that God couldn't do anything about this part. Somehow God had to let them deal with this situation.

What I am saying is that you cannot just blame people for what they do to you no matter how unrighteous it might seem to be. You cannot ignore the fact that they hate you for some reason and that hatred might have caused them to do evil things to you. You need to reflect on what could have caused them to hate you. What was your part which you could (or must) make a change, so that you could cause to eliminate that hatred? Especially if it seems that God cannot do so much to change him during this situation, it is my part to make a change. Otherwise, you may win a battle, but what if you lose the war?

Thank God for snow!

It has been a pretty warm winter this year with not much snow till yesterday. Last night was a big snow storm warning...and yet, it's already stopped...

Since I began to think about our new mission statement, it has been a good time for reflection. I was very hungry at one moment. My wife didn't have time to cook and she just prepared for me an instant beef bowl. When I started to eat it, I felt so good. It tastes so good. Then I realized, wait, who am I eating this for?

My goal is that even a small action such as eating, or small action such as even breathing, I want to be able to do it with a clear idea of who I am doing that for, and of course naturally and genuinely. And the first "who" I want it to be God, naturally and genuinely. I find myself still long way to go. But, remember, I am the hero of the drama. And my audience is--God. For his joy, let me exist!

Thank God for religion (?) -- (5)

It is very important to be religious.

It is not very important whether I belong to some religious organization or not--whether I am a registered member of a certain religious organization or not. Some think as long as he is a member of this religious organization, he is guaranteed to go to Heaven. Anyway we will find out when we arrived in the other world. However, even before getting there we can examine whether I am to go to Heaven. (maybe need further discussion about this sometimes...)
The more important thing is what kind of life I am living--much more important than which religious group I belong to.

Some people want to belong to a certain religious organization because they want to "be saved." There is nothing wrong to want to "be saved." However, it is good to examine what it means to "be saved." (may need further discussion...) But one thing we need to be clear is our motivation: why do I want to be saved? For whose sake do I want to be saved? Is it for myself? Or, is it for God?

Thus, there are some people who belong to religious organization because they want to do the Will of God to build the Heaven (even at the cost of their lives) For those people it is more important to do the Will of God than to belong to a certain religious organization. For them what is their motivation? They may be interested in being saved but they may be more interested in saving God--or make God happy. They may want to exist for God instead of begging God to exist for them. Then they will be more interested in doing the Will of God than saying, "Lord, Lord, didn't I do this in your name? Didn't I do that in your name?" Why the Lord would have to say to them, "I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers!" (Matthew 7:23) while they are doing many things in God's name? This is a puzzling question, but when we try to focus on their motivation it makes more sense. It may not even be that the Lord judge them, but even before that it would be their conscience that would judge them, because our conscience always encourage us to live for others instead of wanting others to live for us.

Thank God for religion (?) -- (4)

I believe that religion is very important in human life.

However, those who belong to any religious organization must be aware of its (potential) problem, as someone pointed out by saying that the religion is an opium.
Religion (religious organization) tends to kill people in the name of God (or its high authority)
When it uses the name, God, they tend to lie (provide one information to convince its members of its authenticity but not provide--or intentionally hide--other information which might challenge that conviction)
It tends to create a culture in which people tend to justify what they do by saying, "Lord, Lord, I am doing this in your name, doing that in your name..." (however, for, in fact, their own benefit) and intentionally/unintentionally hides what their conscience would be telling them to do. Thus, it tends to deny honesty, sincerity, genuineness, authenticity, humility, eventually to become an institution which exists for its own benefit, by having leaders who will be in pursuit of power and money. The leaders would be learning in such process the effective workable mechanism of how to control the people by using the name of God and their faith in God.

These are, I believe, some mistakes which have been committed in many religious organization already. But how can you really be sure these things will never happen in your particular religious group? We, human being, are not perfect. We always need to be humble, and make effort to consult our conscience all the time. God is warning us even through the mouth of atheist what His people must be aware of so that they can truly be doing the Will of God.

Thank God for challenges (?) -- (2)

The time of challenges is also a good time to re-examine who I am --or, in other words, what is my motivation--what do I really want? Here the Bible says in Matthew 7:21...

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter."

In a way, the "one who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' " could represent those who want to gain (receive/take) something from the Lord; while the "one who does the will of My Father" could represent those who want to give something to the Father. The former wants to receive and the latter wants to give. This is the two different kind of people; one being selfish and the other being selfless. Anyway, this is a very good barometer to check where I am.

Ask yourself, "Why am I saying to Him, 'Lord, Lord'? What's my reason? Do I want recognition from Him? Do I want appreciation? Do I want his sweet love?, or, Do I want to avoid being excommunicated by the church community if I don't call Him, 'Lord, Lord'? Do I want to be accepted by the people as a good member of this faith community, and then be able to live peacefully in this community? Do I want to stay in that 'comfort zone'?...etc."

Instead of wasting your time for doing those things above, it is much better to find out what truly is the will of the Father, and then just do it! Don't expect recognition. Don't expect appreciation. Don't worry about being excommunicated by the faith community by doing the will of the Father. God knows what you are doing, and especially He knows your heart. He will respond to you according to what kind of heart you have for Him. He knows who is a truly filial son, and He also knows who is not a truly filial son even though he thinks he is.

A sad thing about the faith community is if this lying, or deceiving (yourself!) becomes the part of the culture of the community, in spite of what they say with their mouth. This is one of the traps in so called "religion". In the name of God, religion could do astonishing evil, and religion has in its mechanism the way to make its people blind by using the name of "God" or the "Lord". Religious people must open their eyes, or open to what their conscience have to say to them, instead of deceiving themselves to just keep living "religious" life, which doesn't have the sense of honesty, authenticity, genuineness, humbleness/humility--all key element necessary to build a spiritually healthy life.

Thank God for challenges (?)

The times when you are receiving challenges are so very special.
The reason why we sometimes do not appreciate the challenges is that something is wrong with our value system. If we have a clear value system to value such a thing as "eternal happiness", "my getting closer to God's heart", or, "spiritual growth towards oneness with God", something of this kind, then challenges are, in general, something very precious to find these values. In other words, without "challenges", it would not be easy to gain these values.

Therefore, it totally depends on our mindset, value system, or internal attitude toward my life. Anyway, after all, what do you expect to gain out of your daily life? temporal stimulation, or something everlasting? The question is what do you really want? Even though you may have lived in a culture in which you are expected to hide something, pretend certain way, or anyway not to be honest and genuine, still you cannot deny that you do have your conscience which has such a clear standard of goodness. Only when you follow the standard which your conscience presents to you, you can truly be satisfied and happy. Oh, my God, really thank God for giving us such conscience!

Thank God for the value he gives to me

I realized lately that my value is determined by what I value.
Of course my value is absolute, in a way, because God created me. However, how much my value is realized/substantialized is not up to God, but up to me--is determined through what kind of life I live. And what kind of life I live is determined by what kind of things I value most.
We are given our freedom to choose what we value. We could value different things:
Some value money.
Some value power, or position of influence.
Some value knowledge.
Some value recognition, appreciation, or respect which they receive.
Or, like "popularity" among the people.
Look at young people; being "cool" seems to be widely valued among many youth.

Depending on this value system I respond or react to our environment/situation, and then create/build who we are out of what we go through. It may sound nothing special but I was so amused to find out that what I value will determine what kind of person I will be creating/building--while I am allowed to spend this limited "lifetime" on this earth--which is really "limited"!

So called "great people", such as Mother Teresa, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., etc. (not to mention about the Lord Jesus Christ) have become who they are by what they value in their daily life. Those who have ability to create heaven in the midst of the hell--how can they do that?--by what they value. Therefore, we can learn from our fellow human beings about our own potential--how I could also become somebody who I myself can respect and adore--opportunity is open to us all.

Therefore, our life is a chance.
It is an amazing opportunity which has an endless potential, depending so much on what choice I make out of my free will. My creativity counts.

Hatred blinds your ability to make a right judgment

I heard this somewhere in the Hae-shin (Sea God) movie. I feel this is very true. That's why we need to love our enemy, because if we keep hatred, you cannot see the truth and you will go the wrong way.
Of course it is not easy not to hate someone who knowingly cheats someone with a wrong reason and someone who is close to you receives the consequence. However, we need to figure out the way how to still not to hate that person. If God allowed that to happen, then we need to find out what kind of intention is behind it, what we should learn from it, and what kind of good change we can make out of it, etc. We need to even challenge God to find out what he wants to see happening out of this.

Loneliest place--can I thank God for that?

This is a so difficult question, and so many different answers possible.
God knows your heart
God knows your situation
There is a reason why God put you there
And you have your free will to figure out this puzzle
Someone who suffered the most might have the best answer to this question, which could help those who can relate to this question
It is because he might know the way how to appreciate the suffering and how to find the most precious thing in the midst of the suffering
But anyway, what other people does is just there to support you
And the most and the only important thing is how you use your free will to figure out this puzzle
God trusts you
That's why you are there.
Words, however, may not help when you are in the midst of that situation...
But still He is there, He is with you
He just cannot do certain things for some reason...
Just talk to your conscience...