Justin Kim

All In!

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, and by all means, a man of God.  He was a smart man of God.  Supposedly, he was a child prodigy in the area of natural and applied sciences.  He was also quite good at math.  For example, he helped create two major new areas of research and he also wrote a treatise on the subject of projective geometry.  He did all this by the age of sixteen!  When I was sixteen, I was too busy popping pimples on my face and trying to make the varsity baseball team.  Not so with Blaise!  What a cool name by the way.  "Blaaaise"... sort of like "Blaze!"  Love it!  Maybe later on, if my wifey and I have a son and my wifey still doesn't like the name "Barnabas," we'll maybe name the kid "Blaise." 

Anyways, later on... Blaise abandoned his scientific work and devoted himself to philosophy and theology.  I've read one of his theological and devotional works entitled, Pensées.  Good stuff!  It was too deep for me at times, but I remember thinking... "Wow!  What a great and incomprehensible piece of work!"  He did have a religious conversion due to sickness and to a near-death experience.  He had a lot of pain in his body which disabled him.  His head ached and his bowels burned... his legs and feet were continually cold.  All of this made Blaise moody and irritable, but prepared him to desire another reality if you know what I mean.  In October 1654, Blaise was involved in an accident crossing over a bridge.  For some reason, the horses got spooked and ran off the bridge.  In the end, the horses plunged into the water and the carriage that Blaise was in nearly followed them.  Fortunately, the reins broke and the coach hung halfway over the edge. Pascal came out of this unscathed, but it did leave an indelible mark on his mind about death, life, and the realities of life after death.  On 23 November 1654, between 10:30 and 12:30 at night, Pascal had an intense religious vision and immediately recorded the experience in a brief note to himself which began: "Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars…" and concluded by quoting Psalm 119:16: "I will not forget thy word. Amen."  He wrote this down and always carried it with him wherever he went.  This piece is now known as the Memorial.

For me, one of the things that I really like about Blaise was his depth in thinking about life, death, and the realities of another world.  Blaise often approached the existence of God by asking us instead to assume the point of view of the gambler at a poker table.  Every gambler, he says, takes a certain risk for an uncertain gain.  If there are as many chances on one side as on the other, you are playing for the same odds.  And in that case the certainty of what you are risking is equal to the uncertainty of what you may win.  Now to apply this to our lives, what a person are wagering or what a person is riaking is his or her eternal life and happiness as compared with his or her finite life and unhappiness.  To say that there is an eternal life is a way of affirming the existence of God.  But how do we know that God exists?  We simply do not know.  The issue, then, is a matter of a wager.  There are four possible outcomes to the wager, which have radically different consequences.  Blaise says this...

1. If God exists, and we believe in Him, then our reward will be infinitely great.
2. If God exists, and we do not believe in Him, then we will lose out on this reward.
3. If God does not exist, and we believe in Him, then we've gained or lost nothing.
4. If God does not exist, and we do not believe in Him, then we've gained or lost nothing.

Why risk or put a unnecessary wager on a lose/lose situation.  Why not go "all in" in something you know can give you incredible reward and return.  If God doesn't exist and I was completely wrong about my faith... what have I lost?  To live as a believer involves incredible sacrifice but in the end, you've lost time, maybe resources, or pride... but what does all that matter if God didn't exist after all?!  You'd be in oblivion and you wouldn't know it anyways or you'd have reincarnated as a bug and that's that.  Game over.

Now, let's say that God doesn't exist and I didn't live for Him.  Then you've played your cards decently... you've gained nothing because after you die, you become nothing.  But you've also won nothing... because you're still nothing and that's that.  Game over.

But let's say that God does exist... and you didn't live for Him.  You're in "deep kimchi" then.  You've calculated your life all wrong and you've lived for all the wrong things.  Not to mention that your future, your eternal future looks incredibly dim.  Game is really over and you'll have to deal with your eternal debt!

On the other hand, let's say that God does exist... and let's say you've lived for God and love God and believe in God... in the end, you've won and you've gained everything.  I don't know about you, but I'm going "all-in" with Jesus!  

My Pimple

I have a giant size pimple growing on my nose.  I didn't realize that I was still in puberty!  It all began on Sat. morning.  I felt something on my face as I was washing up in the morning.  I didn't think twice about it and just went about my business throughout the day.  I went to a great picnic for our church marriage and family life ministry and then when I came back, there it was!  I was red in the face and I initially thought that I got sun-burned.  But upon a closer examination, I saw a mammoth sized pimple right on my nose!  I mean this sucker hurt and it was getting bigger and bigger!

 

 

So a pimple, or acne, is a very common skin condition that affects most teenagers at puberty.  But the only thing is... I'm not a teenager and I ain't in puberty anymore.  So what caused my nose to have a titantic zip?  I found out that a pimple begins as a blockage to a oil gland duct.  Something called sebaceous gland duct is blocked but oil from your face continues to be produced and the gland keeps getting bigger and bigger, a bit like a balloon.  Bacteria then grows in the blocked gland and produce fatty acids, which eventually bursts and releases the irritating material.  This causes intense inflammation and swelling which is what we see as the pimple.  I don't ever remember having too many pimples on my face during my teenage years.  I called my mom to tell her about my pimple on my nose and she just laughed at me.  She said that I'm too stressed and also that I'm watching too much television.  What?!  How can watching too much television get me a pimple?  My mom is crazy!

My wifey said my pimple has turned into a boil.  I said, "What's a boil?"  She said, "A boil is something larger than a pimple.  It's like the bigger, older brother of a pimple."  Oh boy... I've got a brother of a pimple hanging out on the tip of my nose and it seems he won't be leaving for awhile. 

I put some skin medicine on my nose.  Nothing.  I put some white toothpaste on my nose.  Nothing.  I felt the burn of both medicine but the boil keeps growing.  I had to go in front of my whole church on Sunday and preach in front of them.  I need all the help I can get when I'm preaching and I'm sure having my congregation be distracted with a giant pimple on my face didn't help either.  The worst was when my senior pastor and his wifey came up to me and said, "Hey Justin, what's wrong with your face?  Did someone hit you?"  I told them that I had a pimple on my nose.  Their reaction?  Laughter as they walked away.  I felt like everyone was just staring at my nose instead of really talking to me.  My wifey and I went to Borders the other night to just read and hang out and everyone kept staring at my nose.  At the check out counter, I was buying a few stuff when I noticed the cashier staring at me... straight at my nose.  I wanted to say, "It's not nice to stare so stop it or I'll have to pop my zit onto you!" but I pimply and simply said, "Thanks" as I walked away.

Man, this sucker hurts.  My wifey began singing, "Rudulph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" the other day.  That was not funny.  Even my daughter has gotten into the act even though she probably doesn't know it yet.  I was holding her in my arms when she kept staring at my nose.  She kept reaching to touch my red zit.  Once or twice, she actually punched and scratched my nose which made me yell out loud because it hurt so much.  And then I found Tabitha smiling and giggling.  So sad.  Even my whole family is making fun of me.  

My mountain of a pimple has gotten bigger this morning.  I hope it will get to a point when it's ready to be popped.  My wifey said she will help me.  I think we'll need a whole roll of a paper towel to deal with the junk that's going to come out.  My younger sister, Olive, would love this.  She loves popping pimples.  I remember her coming up to me like a deranged animal with saliva oozing out of her mouth asking me if I had any pimples for her to pop.  I let her pop a few and she was really good at all.  But the scary part was she'd be so excited and having the best time of her life popping my pimples.  I bet if she was here, she'd be so eager and excited to get her claws on my boil.  Any ways, pray for me.  My pimple hurts and it's also very embarrassing.  I'm glad though that I don't need to be insecure.  I have a wifey who loves me and a daughter who adores me.  I have a God, who despite his predetermined knowledge of my pimple on my face, must have felt that this was good for me and loves me.  His love and grace is more than enough for me.  Romans 8:28... "All things work for the good of those who love Him."  All means all... good things and bad things... bad things from pimples on my face to major disasters in life.  All means all.  All things work for my good!  I believe it! 

Pimple be gone! 

The Sun

It is 1,390,000 km in diameter and at its' core, the temperature is a toasty 15,600,000 K (or 15,000,000, degrees C).  I don't know exactly how hot this is, but it sounds hot enough to fry some eggs.  Our Sun, which is a "normal" G2 star, one of more than 100 billion stars in our galaxy.  Oh, by the way... the Huddle Space Telescope site estimates that there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe.  Some astronomers working with some German super-computer simulations estimate that the number may be as high as 500 billion!  Yikes!  That's a lot of stars and a lot of galaxies in the universe!    

I don't know why I'm thinking and writing about the Sun this morning.  I think it's because it was so dang hot last night that I couldn't sleep.  Bothell, WA is suppose to be cool and have no humidity, but I felt like I was back in Orlando, Florida yesterday.  My house felt like the inside of an oven.  Most folks out here don't have air-conditioning and we're no different from "most folks."  We do have a basement which has become a cooling off station for my family and I.  I once remember hearing a message by Louie Giglio about how massive the stars, the galaxies and the universe really is.  In light of that truth, how small we are and yet, the God who made everything in the universe knows and loves little people like me.  I remember being incredibly moved by that thought.  Haven't you ever felt so small in this gigantic world wondering whether you're heading in the right direction or that you're doing the right things in life?  For one whole year, I did my quiet times by just looking at pictures of the different stars and universes from a picture book of the universe.  I got the idea from the talk Louie gave and I bought the picture book from Borders Bookstore.  It was a good year because somehow, through meditating on those pictures along with some choice passages from the Bible, my insecurities seem to melt away.  Not all my insecurities, but certain thoughts of God's profound love and care for me were more real to me than ever before.  How can a BIG God love and know such a tiny person like me?  But He does according to Scripture and according to every fiber of my being... I believe without a doubt that He is real and that He knows and loves His children.  It's a powerful thought if you take time to consider it more deeply.  It will make a person be more secure and cause him or her to take some radical steps for the Kingdom of God. 

Going back to the Sun... our "normal" star was personified in many mythologies.  For example, the Romans called it "Sol" or the Greeks called it, "Helios."  The church often uses a word play to personify the Sun by calling it "the Son."  I can see why because of the similarities in many respects.  For example, like the Sun, the Son is the source of energy of the solar system, which makes life possible on earth.  All things revolve around the Son... like the Sun and without the Sun, life on earth would not exist.  Our planet would be a frozen dark ball, drifting dead in space.  Sounds like it would be the same thing if we didn't have the Son in our lives, in our universe.  We would be like zombies... alive and moving, but really dead and we'd be just drifting lifeless on this planet.