Hm. Interesting.

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Review: At Home in Exile by Russell Jeung

Review: At Home in Exile by Russell Jeung

This is a truly unique book. And the best book I’ve read this year. Part memoir / sociology / theology / Asian corny hilariousness. It’s funny, it’s educational, it’s deeply moving. Russell moves into and ultimately finds home in the Murder Dubs of Oakland. But it’s not a triumphant American superhero story. Nor is it a sappy romance about ‘the poor.’ It’s a complex, humble story about how he…

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Why the Stanford Rape Case is on People Like Me

Why the Stanford Rape Case is on People Like Me

By now, most of you have heard about Brock Turner, the Stanford swimmer & Olympic hopeful, who received a shockingly lenient sentence for raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. Her brave and insightful statement about the sentence is what first caught my attention. There is now a petition to recall the judge, who was also a Stanford athlete. I’m not wise enough to know if recalling the…

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Entering 2016 as a Loser

Entering 2016 as a Loser

UFC’s Jose Aldo, weeping in his locker room, after his crushing 13-sec loss. He was undefeated for 10 years until December. As someone who only really started to get into both watching and playing a sport these last couple years, I’ve come to realize why athletes and coaches so often compare sports with life. In the sports I watch, losing has been one of the predominant themes this year. In…

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Reflections: Between the World & Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Reflections: Between the World & Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Dear Sons, I recently finished Ta-Nehisi Coates’ memoir, Between the World and Me. I expected to come into a deeper encounter with the experience of being black in America—and I did. But what I did not expect was to come into a deeper awareness of my love and responsibility for you. See, Coates is a journalist and a brilliant writer. He recently won a Macarthur Genius Award. But this book,…

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Mayweather v. Pacquiao Newbies FAQ

Why is this fight such a big deal? Floyd “Money” Mayweather and Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao are widely considered the two greatest boxers of our generation. But they have never fought each other. After 5 years of teasing and disappointing boxing fans, they’ve finally agree to a fight.

Also, if Pacquiao wins, he will the first fighter ever to hold lineal championship in five weight divisions. But…

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What's it mean to live with Hope?

Living with Hope

On Easter, I tried to give flesh to the idea of what it means to live in light of the Resurrection, aka Hope (listen here). The resurrection of Jesus wasn’t just some isolated divine magic trick. It was the first taste, first scent of what God has been promising us all along: the redemption of us all. One day, God will heal our wounds, erase our sins, reconcile our relationships, and reward us…

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The Real War on Christmas

It’s that time of the year again when the journalists, bloggers, and politicos debate over whether or not there is a War on Christmas. This is one of the humorous yet uncomfortable realities of living in a post-Christian pluralistic society. I happen to believe that there is a war. And I think it’s well captured in the picture above.

Yesterday, we had a worship service that some might call…

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"I Can't Breathe"

I Can't Breathe

I can’t breathe The unbearable weight of history Of subjugation, segregation, stop-and-frixation Boring down into my back Crushing my chest Strangling our souls Let me tap Uncle I will let you win I will surrender my cig If you will just let me breathe Now beneath the weight of dirt I’m waiting for justice

I can’t breathe The loss of another Son of a mother, a father, a brother This shitty record…

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My son's first schoolyard fight

Parenting in the wake of my son's first school fight

My 7 year old son, Evan, got into his first school fight yesterday. Like most school yard fights, it was mostly inconsequential. But it was a rite of passage for me as a father. (Why wasn’t this a rite of passage for him? Well, my son spars all the time — he is a scrappy but budding martial artist at our gym, Dragon’s Den.)

My first reaction, when my wife called, was disappointment and anger. We…

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Ferguson: Speaking as an Asian American + Christian

Ferguson: Speaking as an Asian American + Christian

This has been a pensive week for me. Ferguson, MO has been on my mind. But more specifically, the ringing challenge of certain Asian American friends who have called the relative silence of their fellow Asian Americans unacceptable, saying we owe a debt to the Black community because of the freedoms we’ve all gained in their fight for civil rights. And while these calls have unsettled me, I have…

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“Is my skin brown because I drink chocolate milk?" (Ch. 3 Reflections: The Early Years)

This post is long overdue – life got busy.

I love the question which opens this chapter, a question…

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Reflections: Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? – Ch.2

The author Beverly Tatum does something interesting in this chapter.  She dives into the complexity…

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Reflections: Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? - Ch.1

I’ll admit that race & ethnicity is something that I’ve only thought superficially about.  

This…

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I’ve been asked if I know Francis Chan. And the answer is: As well as I know Jeremy Lin.

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I've been asked if I know Francis Chan. And the answer is: As well as I know Jeremy Lin.

Recently, there’s a been a spate of incidences that have made a number of us Asian American…

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Children: To have or not to have. Is that the question?

TIME Magazine recently featured an articleabout couples who choose to go on without kids.  It’s…

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For true peace ...

For true peace of heart is to be found in resisting passion, not in yielding to it. And therefore there is no peace in the heart of a man who is carnal, nor in him who is given up to the things that are without him, but only in him who is fervent towards…

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