Good, Love, and Truth

Good, Love, and Truth

Let us worship God. God is good, love, and truth, which are all absolute and perfect. All goodness comes from God. All the good in the world is an image of God. Man fakes good. Therefore, not all that looks good is God.

God is love as expressed toward us by Jesus who died on the Cross with all our sins. God’s love is not an emotional love man has. Though man does not have the perfect sacrificial love, he has such love in part mixed with the emotional love. The emotional love is a consuming love and the love of Jesus quickens our souls. When we act by virtue of the sacrificial love, a new power is upon those who receive it. The love is power. Without love, the world fades due to the lack of power. Love is not just a concept but a real action. Love without action is no love. Love makes people move. There is fake love too. It leads to destruction. It brings evil into the world.

God is truth. Without truth, no one knows what is false. Therefore, without God, no one knows truth or false and the world falls into chaos quickly. Only truth makes us free. Wherever something else (idea, or policy) is set above truth, man becomes a slave to it and to those who make the decision about it. Humanity dies where there is no freedom. Therefore, where no God, no humanity exists. The history is the witness that there has been no humanity or peace without God.
 
Glory to God, Peace on Earth, Merry Christmas 2012. May the Grace of God be with you (December 8, 2012, KYP)

The City of Hope

The City of Hope
The City of Hope is the name of a cancer institute located in Duarte, CA, where HJ (my wife) and I regularly attended like students for almost a year to get her colon cancer treatment. I noticed that most of the hospital buildings bear the names of private donors. Hospital staffs were kind, punctual, and professional. They respected the dignity of patients. I give this hospital the five stars mark.
The other day, though not feeling perfectly well due to my weak bronchi, I was glad to visit with HJ the hospital to have her portacath flushed. This is to be done every four weeks. We took the freeways to get there as we had done before. It takes about an hour by our drive. The freeway 57 was okay, but 210 was clogged, so we took a local road to the hospital with no problem. We have learned all the local routes leading to the destination by experience. But, as we get aged, driving became no more fun. Besides, the LA freeway is not a country road.
The Starbucks free coffee in the hospital is fresh and good. I like the bold one, not wimpy stuff. But that day I did not get the taste. I knew it was all my fault, not Starbucks’. Something good is not necessarily felt the same way all the time. Before I finished my coffee, HJ finished her job. The chemo lab was filled with patients waiting for treatment. But they were all new faces to us. It reminded me of school. Though school buildings remain the same, students are replaced completely every some years, one generation after another. This hospital practice is likely to go on in this fashion until a magical breakthrough in medicine occurs.
Looking back, HJ and I encountered an unusual course which became a part of our life’s journey. The journey is an one way road. We would never be the same as before. We realized that our life here after all is temporary. Our fleeting years could be long or short in the measure of time. Being with a cancer patient was not easy. But I felt much blessed that I had nothing else important to do but to help her and to be with her closely. As Pat, our church member, put it, I also suffered from a cancer. Thank God. We survived a cancer. Our life style changed completely. My emotion at times was not suppressible. As a result, I can see a person’s life more clearly now. Life is a journey to somewhere! It is where the hope is. The hope gives us joy and peace.
On the last chemo day last July, we came out of the front entrance of the hospital. There were some patients carried into inside on wheelchairs as HJ was several times carried on a wheelchair pushed by a tired looking old man, me. We stood in front of the water fountain to take a picture of us (as shown herewith) to celebrate her successful completion. She looked so happy and so beautiful with her bright smile that I felt some tears in my eyes. We were delighted with the perspective that we be healthy and free again. (September 24, 2012, KYP)

Pascal Wager

St.Paul converted to believe in Jesus on the road to Damascus. He saw in his vision Jesus asking him, "Saul, why do you persecute me?" A miracle like this seems to happen to some, but not to me yet. Anyway, miracle does not occur at a man's will. So I even read about the Pascal wager, which I am going to talk about. As we all know, Pascal was a mathematician, physists, and philosopher in the 17th century when the skepticism of God was prevalent. But a few knows that he turned a theologian and believer in God in his later years. Though he could not prove scientifically the existence of God, he argued that people believe in God for varing reasons. He thought that, if people believe in God, there must be God. His argument sounded weak for the existence of  God, but he claimed that it is strong. In his spirit, I made up a story.

We have to start by a betting strategy. Do you buy a lottery ticket? I do every once in a while to make my insipid day excited even though with a vain hope. Here is the exciting story of an unsual lottery case. There are only two lottery tickets left unsold for which one million dollars is at stake. One of the two is worth one million. All you have to do to win is to buy one for one buck. Probably you are tempted to buy both for two bucks. Then you are sure to have one million, because one of the two is worth one million. But you are allowed only one. Then, would you buy just one? Will you save one buck, or will you wager for the fortune. If you say that one buck in your hand is worth more than one million in uncertainty, I will raise the stake to ten millions. you woud succumb to the temptation and decide to bet on the uncertainty. Though we want certainty, taking uncertainty is our way of life.

Believing God is like buying the lottery ticket to him who is agnostic, low minded, and a happiness chaser because of his ignorance of God. He starts calculation to figure out his belief. He knew that eternal joy in Heaven be warranted, if he believe in God and God indeed exist. If he do not believe in God and God really exist, he will be condemned to Hell forever. If he believe in God and God do not exist, he would lose very little. Whatever he invest for God is finite and whatever he would get beyond life is infinite reward or infinite curse. So, Pascal wager be profitable and everyone believe in God. Pascal was a smart mathematician indeed. My daughter one day told me that she would not deny God either lest she should be embarrassed, if it turns out after life that God exists. She is seemingly to take care of her life both now and beyond altogether.

If you think you are not just agnostic or low minded, please lead on. Have you ever thought that even a high minded man is to believe in God? The Pascal wager works, if happiness is replaced by justice, as follows: He is a fair person believing in justice. Justice requires love, hope, faith, obedience, and worship. But justice exists only if God exists in reality. Alas, he can not prove that God exists. But he recalls that his life has been long and arduous. He knows that, without faith, hope, and love, he would not have reached here today. So justice is real, so God is real. Therefore he believes in God.

But there are mediocre people who hate to think. Pascal takes care of them. For him who is neither low minded, nor high minded, a practical problem arises. He does not mind believing in God, because God is grace and will bring all good things to us. But his passion is irresistible. His passion is fame, richness, power, and sex. God is an obstacle and stumbling block to his passion. Oh man, nobody but himself can tame his (or her) wild passion. Even the Pascal wager does not work for him, let alone Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica. There is only one solution. He is to behave as if he believed in God and loved his neighbors. He is to make friends with those who already believe in God. His passion would wane as an illusion does. His belief will loom in the horizon.

What about the atheist? He is a helpless doubter. I have a longtime friend who said he did not believe in God. He knew that I am in capable of proving God. He made a fun of me believing in God. So one day I asked him, " Are you sure that there is no God?' He did not answer immediately. Fifty some years has passed since then. Not long ago, I made a call to have a friendly chichat with him. During the talk, he confessed that my old question haunted him all those years and that he rather decided to believe in God.

This was a mundane story about men and women poor in spirit wandering around and groping for God. Now listen to a heavenly word. St. Paul, who was an apostate of the Jews, tent maker, the Apostle of the Gentiles for Jesus, cried, " Whosoever believes in God shall not be ashamed." (August 22, 2012, KYP)

The day of infamy

The day the Japanese attacked America at Pearl Harbor. Hawaii is the day of infamy. People around the world, who valued freedom, never forget it. This awakend America and the world.

The 911 was the cruelest human attack ever occured in history. It happened in Manhattan, New York. Civilian airline planes turned into mass destruction waepons and killed over 3,000 innocent people under the name of Allah. The attack further directed toward the US Capitol was stopped by the sacrificial actions of courageous Americans.

On June 28, 2012, a surprise attack on the American values occured by the name of justice in the bright daylight. Is it tax or penalty? If it is penality, the constitutionality is in play. Therefoe it is tax. That is the verdict. The defendant obfuscates the decision with the rule book: "The end justifies the means. Let us do evil so that good may come. It is expedient to kill one person for the sake of the people." This happened at the heart of the American politics in Washington, D.C. This attack in its spirit is in my vieww bigger than the 911 and comparable to the Pearl Harbor. Americans want straight talk. Forget the pundit. Let us be courageous again. (July 4, 2012, KYP)

Don't cry! It is the power game.

Why do those politicians -- who praise the North Korean regime, yet live in South Korea, and hate America -- send their kids to America for study or permanent residence? This is a confusing question, which is over my head to answer, my friend Dr. C raised in dire exasperation for which I give him my sincere sympathy. Hoping to soothe his feeling a little bit, here is my take.

Politicians live on the power. They flourish with power and fade away with the demise of power. Historically, they have gained the power by trade: buying votes with money. They are not smart enough to have a political philosophy or conviction. Therefore they do not have much to sell potential voters other than to trade. Poor voters are accustomed to receive money for their votes.

So called conservative politicians so far have contributed to a large degree to shape  today's Korean economy and at the same time accumulated money more to perpetuate their power. But they do not seem to have the idea of the conservatism Americans understand. On the other hand, so called liberal politicians, not having much money to buy votes, drove themselves to capitalize the labor force  by demagoguery to collect their votes. We must undersatnd that the labor unions in Korea, when put together, have a dangerously big power, which can easily tip off the balance of the political power.

Politicians play poker games. They have two wild cards: North Korea card and national pride card. As long as they have a good hand, they do not use the wild cards. When they use a wild card or both, it means that something is wrong in their hands. They are also good at the sleight of hand. Past Presidents used time and again these wild cards to sabilize their tilting power, wasted astronomical amount of tax payers' money, and misguided the emotions of private citizens by blaming America for no legitimate reason (-- red herring). Koreans have their own national pride as any other nation has. There is nothing wrong with it. The problem is that the national pride is hijacked into anti-Americanism by some politicians and union leaders, whose sole purpose is to promote their agendas. It must be taken back from the sleazy leaders.

I know that no politicians wants to live in North Korea, because he knows that, as soon as he moves into there, he loses his power base and becomes nobody. He knows by heart that anti-Americanism is a fake propaganda used to consolidate the voting power to his advantage. He, in fact, loves America where life, liberty, and the pursue of happiness are among the unalienable rights. That is why they send their kids to america. (What they say is one thing; what they do is another -- left right hand trick.) Politicians are smarter than ordinary people like us. They are different breed of people. They are poker players. They bluff. We are often exasperated when the bluff sounded real threat to us. Then, they ask us our votes for the trick performed. They do not even bother to pay money for our votes this time. We are duped. Anyway, we all are gullible.
This is the end of my bloviation. (May 12, 2012, KYP)

The resounding Voice Unforgettable

In the afternoon on Saturday of February 18, Whitney Houston memorial service was held at her old Church of Hope in Newark, New Jersey and lasted over four hours. This signified a life and death of an artist and human being who will live long in our memories with her strife for life and beautiful songs. The FNC broadcasted the event in its entirety. We watched it from the beginning to the end.

She is reportedly died of drug overdose. She was only 48. But her funeral was somber  and celebration of her accomplishment. Though she is dead, her business will remain flourishing for a while -- Who knows how many years. The CD record sales have reportedly increased after the unexpected sudden death. Meanwhile, there seem to be disparaging eyes among some toward her, because she had been scandalous of drug addiction. Certainly this was her weakness. She paid dearly for it by death.

I am not familiar with her personal life. But I remember her resoundingly beautiful voice which filled the whole air of the world when she sang the Star Spangled Banner at the beginning of the Super Bowl XXVI. Her young frame was fit for the most beautiful dress in the world. She was a world's great musician -- a pop artist in history.

I understand how hard it was for her to maintain once reached top level. She might be seduced to follow Michel Jacken, Elvis Presley, and many other predecessors and resorted to drug only to succumb to death. It is not clear to me whether her struggle was for her fame or artistic achievement. Since she is gone, this argument could be at best speculative. Regardless of the verdict, the usage of drug can hardly be justified.

The cause of death is in my humble opinion the pride in the Biblical term. Why could she not think what she had accomplished is already good enough for everyone she cared about including herself? She had talent. She had beauty. She accomplished fame. She had money. But she might have been stuck with instability lurking in her. She was intelligent enough to realize nothing she had achieved is forever to keep.

The life is more then meat. The body is more than raiment. The life is more than fame and wealth. She  might have felt the prime of her talent and bodily beauty is in wane. She could not accept it as a fact. We are all mortal. Mortality looms as reality to a septuagenarian like me. Even, kings, queens, princes, princesses, nobles, rich, and famous could not escape from mortality. Death is our last enemy. The only person in history who claimed victory over death was from Galilee in Palestine 2000 years ago. He said only the sacrificial love can conquer death and showed it himself on the Cross. Hope becomes reality in love. He is risen.
(February 19, 2012, KYP)

A Rose Bowl Game

I was worried about HJ (my wife) making herself too tired to the detriment of her health that may  affect on her surgery schedule. She is to take a colon laparoscopic operation soon. But she insisted that she is alright. I knew she did not want to disappoint Cherry -- I call her darling daughter. Cherry has been a diehard UCLA football team supporter for perhaps million years that we have season tickets. We meet at the bowl multitude of people; with them our family mingle. We eat and drink; we yell and hold our breath with hope, joy, and disappointment. After all, we learn something at the end of the day, promising to come again to the next game.

Today is the last game of the season at the home ground, the Rose Bowl. Weather was chilly which is unsual to Californians. So we are prepared with warm clothes. Our tailgate party now has become an essential part of the game. HJ's hamberger was good. The warm barley tea was heartening our frozen bodies. Today's game is between UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) and UC (University of Colorado). At the stadium, the alumni cheerleader's yelling was even lauder signifying the season' end.

Here is an interesting saga. Taylor Embree is a wide receiver of UCLA playing today. The opponent team coach is Jon Embree, his father. Not very far from our seats are his family members: his grandma, mother, and sister. Their jersey shirts were custom made only for them and were half blue (UCLA) and half black (UC) intertwined like a circus costume. Everybody could understand their inseparable divided feeling, because their minds probably were for both to win, which was not their fate. Jon Embree used to be an assistant coach of UCLA for three and now is the first year coach of UC. A neck and neck score would have been less cruel to some of the family members. The lopsided 45:6 must have been heartbreaking. But Rick Newheisel (UCLA coach) is also at stake. His performance this year has not been very inpressive. This man might be fired unless this game and the other scheduled next week should turn into his favor. The sports world is indeed tough!

My sympathy went to Jon Embree, the loser of the day. What would have been going on his mind? He has to win as the first year coach to secure position. His son, Taylor Embree, has to win graduating this year and seeking professional football career. Would he pray for himself, or his son, were he given only one choice? He was aware of many kids of his son's age depending on him. He might have sensed that his emotion was devilish. But I am sure he prayed for the better performing team to win after all.
(November 20,2011, KYP)

A car Accident

We were involved in a car accident on a beautiful Californian day last November. It happened in the parking lot of a Korean market in Buena Park, California. The market is very popular and a gregarious assemblage of Korean people: the young and the old  and in between, new comers and old timers and in between, and the pretty and the ugly and in between. This indeed is a panoramic spectrum of people with varing shapes and different minds. The parking lot that day was packed with randomly moving cars, whose drivers might be searching for empty parking space or trying to head home -- Californians always look busy. You never know what sort of person you deal with until you actually face the situation. Here is my story:

HJ(my wife) with me in the passenger seat was for home, pulling out of the parking slot, and was about to pull toward the alley, when an SUV from the opposite parking slot pulled out backward to hit our car on the rear left hand tailgate light and its surrounding, and resulted in breaking the light fixture and making dent on the nearby body. The offending SUV immediately pulled forward to its original position. The SUV did not suffer even a scratch. Our car was stopped in the middle of the alley. We called the police authority only to learn that a minor accident in a parking parking lot is not worth their time.

The offending driver was an innocent looking Korean woman in her forties accompanied by a teenage boy sitting on her right. They looked young in our view, but in perplexity. We were ancient in their view, but in peace. It was clear that there were aware of the movement of their car before and after the collision. She hurriedly called her insurance agent and called him "Elder" in Korean. Then I guessed her agent to be an elder of a Korean community church somewhere, but not far from the place, which is common in Southern California.

We were to resolve the problem ourselves with none willing to stand witness for all so many observers present on the scene. The woman wanted to leave the scene quickly, telling me that she soon had to pick up her little child from school. This made me think for a moment and reflect back to our younger busy days raising kids. I care about young kids who would carry our still unaccomplished dreams. Though I could be duped by the lady, I decided to trust her integrity. I, using my cellphone camera, took several pictures of the accident scene at varing angles. I even blessed the teenage boy to be a good man, encouraged to study hard, and let them leave the scene.  We returned home with our car demaged.

I contected my insurance company to report the accident by providing the necessary information and pictures taken. Within couple of days, our car was fixed nicely and I paid the deductible. I expected the deductible recovered at least in part, since no fault was on our side in our view.

Months later, my insurance company called to inform us that the offender had denied their movement of their car at the collision and had insisted that, contrary to our belief, we pulled out backward to hit their standstill car. At that moment, the faces of the woman, teenage boy, and Elder, the agent, came to mind. Did Elder advise her to deny her action? Did the woman teach her son not to tell the truth? Didn't the teen have courage to stand for the truth? I was disappointed! The teen may learn from his parent expediency over truth. His consciousness may be darkened and diminished from his heart before full blooming.I prayed this not to happen to the boy.

I knew Elder playing the insurance business game. He took the position, without searching for the truth or with taking chance, that his client is not guilty until legally proven guilty, which is a very expensive premise. He played "the game of denial and observation" without knowing when to stop. (Remember California is a liberal state.)

I refuted their denial by reminding the insurance company, with a picture sent for the claim, of the collision spot indicated by the debris scattered on the ground which is the alley, and not the parking spot of their car. But the dispute had been dragged all the way to arbitration. Very recently five months after the accident, Our insurance company sent us a check fully refunding the deductible I paid in advance.

I am thinking of the cost of settlement involved here. Several thousands of dollars at least must have been spent in time and money over the five month period. No wonder the insurance premiums are so high in this country. If the offender had conceded her fault, the total cost must have been reduced thus making Californians less poor. The society without consciousness could be very expensive to run and bankrupt eventually like Greece and many European countries of today. (March 22, 2112, KYP)