Joy went up to her teacher and quietly asked, "can she talk?" looking over at the girl who hasn't spoken a word to anyone since the first day of their preschool class.
"Yes she can, but she's very very shy", teacher explained.
"ok", she answered and trotted away.
As the teacher watched in curiosity, Joy went over to the girl in the corner and invited her to play puzzles with her.
She brought different toys one after another to the table and explained how they can play with the toys.
And she asked the girl, "do you know how to play this one?" the girl came closer and whispered in Joy's ear, "yes".
Joy turned to her with a big smile on her face and exclaimed, "See? You can talk!!!"
The girl smiled back and they together burst into laughter.
What is the heart of compassion?
It has to start with an genuine interest in someone and desire to reach out to him/her because of that interest and not out of obligation.
It's not placing myself in a upper position but simply being a friend to that person.
It motivates us to strengthen and assist that person in discovering his/her potentials and encourage the person to see that she is moving forward.
And it is to be genuinely happy about their progress and celebrate together for their big and small accomplishments.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Career development training session II:
I titled this post, “Career Development Training Session II” because it feels like God is my coach leading me from the bottom of my career development curriculum toward the top step by step without any errors. Of course, He’s the master of my life and the Good Shepherd who loves me. He’s a perfect orchestrator and awesome builder.
Since the time in January when I said “Yes” to His call to the journey of my lifecareer development, God has been so faithful and amazingly clear about the each step of my progress toward His goal. Although I still don’t have the ultimate picture in view (but I know that God knows exactly), I started to see his blueprints for my career development starting from the very fundamental level of it.
Training Session I: Why Do I Work?
I became very busy, meeting people for interviews asking for their experiences, advices, and etc., trying to find out my next step with the most reasonable and calculated way possible, still I wasn’t able to make any decision or was even sure what I needed to do next. I was becoming impatient, antsy, and doubting about this whole thing, losing confidence as I started to hit the reality wall. However, about a month ago while I was attending a conference, God repeatedly asked me this one question through sermons, seminars, and the words from my personal quiet time with the Lord. The question was: “Do you really love me?”
I wasn’t able to answer to this question because I knew after all this had already became my own agenda trying to serve my own desire, needs, and ambition. While I was hesitating, He clearly spoke to my heart that He loved me passionately no matter what. I didn’t need to prove myself to him but just accept His love for me. And only when I was able to say “Yes, Lord, you know I love you” because of the understanding of His passionate love for me, then He said, “feed my sheep”.
His love is Agape love, originated from Himself but our love is Phileo, it must be motivated by His love. Unless I understand His love and solely motivated by His love for me and my love for Him, what I will do through my life will be irrelevant to Him. He wants me to work not because He needed me for anything but to provide me an opportunity to express my love for Him.
After this first training session which hit the core and laid the foremost foundation of my career development, recently, God moved me into the second chapter of my training curriculum:
Training Session II: What is the Ultimate Goal of my Career?
It was to be the witness of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. He recently convicted me with a thought that never had crossed my mind for the last 5-10 years. God made me remember my extended family(my father, brothers and nephew) who are lost without Christ. Not only they’ve been spiritually dead but physically suffering, financially struggling, and our relationships are broken everywhere. They were going through all kinds of problems even more so in the last couple of months. Whenever I thought about them, my heart ached. Slowly over the course of time, I was losing hope for their salvation. I prayed for them without compassion. I tried to show a good examplary ethical life when all I did was making them feel unloved, judged, inferior and insecure. We both grew our resentment and bitterness towards each other, and there was no genuine talk about Jesus Christ between us. It’s been at its worst last couple of years.
But recently when I was attending our couple’s retreat, God clearly spoke to my heart, “I love them as I love you”. “I passionately love them and sacrificed my only Son for your dad and your brothers” I was shocked. “I’ve heard that you love the sick, needy, and poor, but you do love my family members who hate and reject you and constantly criticize me for my faith? Them too?” That was it. I thought they were completely hopeless and I didn’t have a drop of a compassion in me towards them. And I thought that I prayed for their salvation and did the best i could do. How blinded and self-righteous was I?
His conviction led me to repentance and God was asking me to take an action. He promised me that He would help me, give me the power to do extraordinary things for His sake, for bringing back the lost to him.
And what does it have to do with my career?
I realized some time ago that career is not my job. Career is everything I do in my life to bring glory to God. More than my occupation, the actual tool of career itself, I needed to clearly understand what I must do with and through my career. The ultimate goal is to be the witness of Jesus Christ to those around me and then to people in my community and so forth. Without the compassion for the lost soul and passion for God’s salvation for those who are lost, how does what I do with my life have any kind of relevancy to God and His Kingdom?
I praise God this morning that He is our Savior and lover of our Soul. He loves the world and EVERYONE that He created. Only reason that I am in him now is by His grace to reach out to those who are lost.
Luke 16: 27-31
“And he(rich man) said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.' But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'"
Only reason why I am alive today is to bring this truth to the people who have not yet accepted Jesus and on a conveyor belt that leads to the final exit door.
Since the time in January when I said “Yes” to His call to the journey of my lifecareer development, God has been so faithful and amazingly clear about the each step of my progress toward His goal. Although I still don’t have the ultimate picture in view (but I know that God knows exactly), I started to see his blueprints for my career development starting from the very fundamental level of it.
Training Session I: Why Do I Work?
I became very busy, meeting people for interviews asking for their experiences, advices, and etc., trying to find out my next step with the most reasonable and calculated way possible, still I wasn’t able to make any decision or was even sure what I needed to do next. I was becoming impatient, antsy, and doubting about this whole thing, losing confidence as I started to hit the reality wall. However, about a month ago while I was attending a conference, God repeatedly asked me this one question through sermons, seminars, and the words from my personal quiet time with the Lord. The question was: “Do you really love me?”
I wasn’t able to answer to this question because I knew after all this had already became my own agenda trying to serve my own desire, needs, and ambition. While I was hesitating, He clearly spoke to my heart that He loved me passionately no matter what. I didn’t need to prove myself to him but just accept His love for me. And only when I was able to say “Yes, Lord, you know I love you” because of the understanding of His passionate love for me, then He said, “feed my sheep”.
His love is Agape love, originated from Himself but our love is Phileo, it must be motivated by His love. Unless I understand His love and solely motivated by His love for me and my love for Him, what I will do through my life will be irrelevant to Him. He wants me to work not because He needed me for anything but to provide me an opportunity to express my love for Him.
After this first training session which hit the core and laid the foremost foundation of my career development, recently, God moved me into the second chapter of my training curriculum:
Training Session II: What is the Ultimate Goal of my Career?
It was to be the witness of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. He recently convicted me with a thought that never had crossed my mind for the last 5-10 years. God made me remember my extended family(my father, brothers and nephew) who are lost without Christ. Not only they’ve been spiritually dead but physically suffering, financially struggling, and our relationships are broken everywhere. They were going through all kinds of problems even more so in the last couple of months. Whenever I thought about them, my heart ached. Slowly over the course of time, I was losing hope for their salvation. I prayed for them without compassion. I tried to show a good examplary ethical life when all I did was making them feel unloved, judged, inferior and insecure. We both grew our resentment and bitterness towards each other, and there was no genuine talk about Jesus Christ between us. It’s been at its worst last couple of years.
But recently when I was attending our couple’s retreat, God clearly spoke to my heart, “I love them as I love you”. “I passionately love them and sacrificed my only Son for your dad and your brothers” I was shocked. “I’ve heard that you love the sick, needy, and poor, but you do love my family members who hate and reject you and constantly criticize me for my faith? Them too?” That was it. I thought they were completely hopeless and I didn’t have a drop of a compassion in me towards them. And I thought that I prayed for their salvation and did the best i could do. How blinded and self-righteous was I?
His conviction led me to repentance and God was asking me to take an action. He promised me that He would help me, give me the power to do extraordinary things for His sake, for bringing back the lost to him.
And what does it have to do with my career?
I realized some time ago that career is not my job. Career is everything I do in my life to bring glory to God. More than my occupation, the actual tool of career itself, I needed to clearly understand what I must do with and through my career. The ultimate goal is to be the witness of Jesus Christ to those around me and then to people in my community and so forth. Without the compassion for the lost soul and passion for God’s salvation for those who are lost, how does what I do with my life have any kind of relevancy to God and His Kingdom?
I praise God this morning that He is our Savior and lover of our Soul. He loves the world and EVERYONE that He created. Only reason that I am in him now is by His grace to reach out to those who are lost.
Luke 16: 27-31
“And he(rich man) said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.' But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'"
Only reason why I am alive today is to bring this truth to the people who have not yet accepted Jesus and on a conveyor belt that leads to the final exit door.
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