Remember the story that I shared last Sunday about my soccer tryouts? It was probably one of the most embarrassing memories I can recall during my high school years other than all the silly mistakes I made not knowing much English. As I was preparing my sermon, God brought up this shameful memory and highlighted an area that I overlooked because I was so caught up in not making the team. So even after I told the story on Sunday, I couldn’t shake off the thought of appreciation and love for my brother. Now that I think back, I should have told my brother how much I appreciated his loving and courageous act that he showed on that day. Can’t believe my brother, as a teenager himself, decided to come run with me for another mile or two after he finished the five mile run. I honestly don’t think I would have done that for my brother. Although I love him very much, I would have been very embarrassed of him and would not have had the courage to run out to finish the race together. No wonder I’m the younger brother!
Many of you may not know my brother Jacob. He is only two years older than me so we basically grew up together going to arcades, playing sports and even getting in trouble together in our early teenage years. When I was in 4th grade, I got in trouble with some older bullies in my school because I stood up against them. They threatened to beat me up after school for what I did. So that day my brother, along with some of his friends came out and protected me from those bullies. It sounds so silly now but it mattered greatly then because I was so scared that something might happen to me. Another memory that I have is when we got into big trouble because we stole something and lied to our dad. Long story short, my brother took everything on himself and kept me from getting a good “spanking” from my dad for what we did together. We lived in a house with two rooms at that time and I remember that in one of the rooms, my brother was being disciplined and in the other room, I was crying because of what my brother did for me. There are many more stories I can share but due to limited space I can’t. Just wanted to share that my brother has been there for me all along and I truly honor and love him for being such a wonderful brother to me.
Please understand that I’m not trying to brag about my family and how blessed I am. I shared about my brother because his love helped me to understand how Jesus loves and cares for me. And what I want to ask is that we need to practice such love toward one another in the context of church communities as well. We have been brought together as a family through the wonderful work of Jesus Christ.
There is a story of friends who brought a paralytic to Jesus in Luke 5. These men must have had a great desire (love) to see a paralytic get healed so they went out of their way to make sure that he is seen by Jesus. When they could not get through the crowd, the friends went on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. What a wonderful picture of how a faith community can be! These men didn’t care about what others thought of them. They were willing to do whatever it takes to bring their friend to Jesus. How many of us will go out of our way to help and minister to a brother or sister in our community? And how far will you go to bring someone to Christ? I just love how the bible describes that the paralytic was brought “right in front of Jesus.” There might be people in your life that you want to bring to Christ. What are you willing to do and how far will you go to bring that person “right in front of Jesus?” Something to think about…
BTW, my sister (Jenna) who might be reading this right now may feel left out that I didn’t write anything about her. I will do that in my next column!
From Pastor Brian’s Heart
February 21, 2016