hello adventure!

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[kennethchoi]

FOCUS.

If I have learned one thing from my MCAT studies thus far, it has been that focus is an important part of achieving. I think this applies to everything, and especially in high stakes environments.

As the modified saying goes, it’s not just practice that makes perfect, but perfect practice. The quality of the practice is so important for success. The ability to lock into a goal and to only focus on the things that matter is an important mindset to have in order to accomplish something of worth.

When performing on stage, it’s important to zone in on the music, on the expression, and tune out everything else. When playing a sport in front of a crowd, it’s important to tune out the audience and only focus on the important part of the game. When taking a test, it’s important to completely tune out as much as possible and be completely immersed in the experience.

Successful people have focus. They focus on what is important and they go after what they want. They get locked in. If you want to accomplish great things in your life, consider developing a focus so strong that nothing can deter you.

[kennethchoi]

Reflections from GYC 2017

Days written: 12/30/17 (Sa); 1/02/18 (T); 1/8/18 (M)

I wanted to write a little bit about my experience at GYC this year. This is my fifth time at GYC. The first time I went was in 2010 when it was in Baltimore. I originally went because of a friend that I met from East Coast Korean campmeeting in 2010. I went to GYC in 2010 with Joseph Kim. It was was one of the first times that I had traveled somewhere away from home without people to chaperone me. The years that I have been to GYC are 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2017. This is the first year that I broke the trend of going once every two years. Even though I have been to GYC last year, coming here has been extremely refreshing nonetheless. I am reminded of God's love and the things that He wishes to teach me. I have been inspired and encouraged by so many individuals who have trusted in God and done everything that they can to work for His mission and purpose. The more I listen to pastors and various laypeople speak at this conference, the more I want to let God lead in my life so that He can do BIG things in my life. Also, while this is my 5th time at GYC, this is the third time that my mom, Hannah, and Jessica have been here and the second time that my dad has been at GYC, and the second time that our whole family has come to GYC together since 2012. I am very thankful for the familial spirituality. I've come to understand the importance of community in our Christian experience especially from being at my home church after coming back from Korea and hearing Pastor Jason speak about Christian community. It makes sense in that interacting with other people challenges us and sharpens us as we sharpen them as well. At the most intimate of communities should be the family unit, which is experienced in the home. Christian community is most regularly and intimately experienced in the home and having our whole family come to GYC helps me to understand Christian community better.

If you have never been to GYC before, I would explain it as a place to learn about various aspects of Adventism and to connect with young Adventists from all over America. There are lots of people here. Several thousand people. A question that has come to my mind while attending this conference has been: How does being a part of this conference, Generation of Youth for Christ, play in with my everyday Christian experience at the local church level? There's so many things that I have learned that it is extremely difficult to boil down everything into a single post. But if I were to choose the top three things that I felt and experienced while at GYC, it would be these three things: the opportunities of ministry, the power of prayer, and the necessity for self-development.

There are so many opportunities for ministry. It's funny because there are times when we say, "I would help out and get more involved in ministry, but the church that I am a part of is not doing anything so I can't help out. If only there were more opportunities, then I would be doing this and that." Rather than thinking that, we should be the ones to be proactive and seek out opportunities for ministry. There are so many ways to minister to people. What is ministry? It is reaching out to others and sharing the gospel with them. It is essentially service combined with the gospel. There are so many ways that we can do this. We just have to be somewhat creative and look at what we have to offer. I was really inspired by a guy who is around my age, who was a third generation Japanese-American, who went back to Japan to develop a canvassing program in Japan . I was very inspired by a guy who looked to be in his early 20s who gave a seminar on music and writing Christian music. The work of Pathways to Health is another example of an extremely practical ministry that focuses on physical healing as a way to spiritual healing. The thing that I see in common with these ministries is that each of them came from people who were not afraid to try something new. There are so many ways that we can make the gospel accessible for others. It really comes down to brainstorming and figuring out what we can do with our talents, spiritual gifts, willingness, and dedication.

Power is prayerful. In Steps to Christ, there is a quote that says, "Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as a friend. Not that it is necessary in order to make known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive Him. Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him." Prayer is very personal. What I am starting to realize is that prayer needs to be very specific. Sometimes we pray for things in a way that even if our prayers were answered, we would not know it. For example, when we pray for God to be with someone, how do we know if our prayers were answered or not? But, if we were to pray in a way as to ask God to help to start going to church again, or to develop a personal relationship with God, that's something more tangible. I'm learning about the power of intercessory prayer and lifting up others to God. A question that has been brought to my attention regarding prayer recently. It is a question about what prayer actually does: When we pray for something, does God actually do what we ask for Him or does it simply make us feel better about ourselves, which motivates us to do the thing we ask for? It is a question about whether prayer involves the supernatural or simply boosts us in our natural state of being. This question was difficult to answer at first, because I have no scientific proof about how prayer works, but that is the problem with the question in the first place. If we put prayer in a category that can be explained naturally, then it becomes no longer a supernatural feat based on faith. CS Lewis, in his book, Miracles, talks about the possibility of miracles and the nature of miracles before even actually talking about specific instances of miracles. He talks about a viewpoint of miracles from a naturalism point of view and contrasts that with a supernaturalism point of view. He states that people have either one of these views. If you have the first view, then you will justify miracles, if there were any, with natural actions and effects. It means that anything that happens in this world can be explained solely by natural causes and even if a miracle took place, one would justify the miracle with various causes. If you have the second view, you believe that there are things that are outside of natural causes and that there is something greater than us that can intervene in ways that we cannot necessarily explain scientifically. Although Christians should believe in a supernatural, in actuality Christians can be operating on either level, depending on their view of whether God actually intervenes in our lives or not. If one believes in the naturalistic viewpoint, one would say that prayer simply helps us feel better about ourselves which allows us to accomplish the thing that we ask help for. If one believes in the supernaturalistic viewpoint, one would say that when we pray, God actually blesses us with His wisdom and guidance and intervenes in order to help us. Ask yourself which view you have about prayer. It will really influence the type of prayer that you pray and what you expect when you do pray for something. I believe in the supernaturalistic explanation and I believe that when we pray, God actually intervenes on our behalf. And the more I think about it, the more reason we should pray for others, because praying for ourselves is one thing, but to pray for others is expanding God's influence to greater measures. It is not to say that God doesn't reach out to other people just because we don't pray for them, but it is to say that if we are praying earnestly, He will honor our requests.

After having been inspired by such amazing spiritual people at GYC, I have seen the need for personal self-development in various aspects of my own life. These people who have accomplished much in the Christian church didn’t do it by sitting around waiting for opportunities. They started somewhere. The idea is to better your life intentionally rather than to hope that by some good fortune opportunities will come our way. That is why I have created a theme for 2018 that ties many of my New Years Resolutions together: 110%. I frequently hear about life being like a roller coaster in describing relationships, spiritual life, school life, and I see how those things are all a part of how life goes. The roller coaster happens when things that seem outside of our control start shaking our foundations. My idea for 110% is to tally up the habits that I’ve kept in the year of 2017, and to amp it up by 10%. This means that first you have to identify parts of your life that you care about and tally up various accomplishments that you made in the past year. I like to plan my goals by making a mind map. At the center, I put 110%. From the center circle, I have the components of life as I see it: spiritual, mental, social, music, physical. With the exception of music for some, I feel that four out of these five categories broadly capture what life is for us. I realize that it is difficult to progress in life when we don’t necessarily have specific metrics for determining our level of progress, so the method I am using somewhat resembles the school grading method. I don’t use grades, per se, but I tally up very specific components of each of those categories that I want to grow and improve in. For example, one of my goals in the “mental” category is to read books. In the year 2017, I read 20 books. Taking that number and making it 110%, the number of books I set out to read in 2018 is 22. The cool thing about this overarching goal of 110% is that is can be applied over a span of several years. It’s not just a one time thing. It follows the principles of compound interest. If I continue this pattern, then in 2019, I will read 24 books; in 2020, 26 books; in 2021, 29 books, etc. The number grows more each year. I apply this idea to my spiritual goals too. One of my spiritual goals is to study the Bible. I can count the number of books of the Bible that I have studied somewhat thoroughly in the year of 2017: 0 full books. So for the year of 2018, I will study 1 book through. If you are starting a goal for the first time, then I suggest simply starting with what you feel comfortable with. And if the tally count for last year was 1, then 110% of 1 is 1.1, but I suggest simply increasing the number by 1 until it goes up to an increase of 2. Perhaps I can expand more on this goal in later posts, but it is my main idea for amping up my 2018.

I realize that much of this post is simply my own ideas, and is not really talking about the specifics of what I have learned at GYC, so I apologize if you were looking more for specifics, but you can learn those yourself if you go to Audioverse.org and listen to sermons and seminars that were presented at GYC. If you made it this far into the post, here are a few questions to ponder: 

What specific talents and characteristics do you have that you can use to serve God?

When you pray, do you really expect to receive anything or are you simply praying for the sake of duty? 

What are you doing to improve your life on a daily basis? Do you have any New Years Resolutions for 2018?

Time spent writing this post: 54 minutes

[kennethchoi]

Sit down. Be humble.

December 16, 2017 Saturday 10:32 PM

This week was the chillest finals week that I can remember since grade school days. I only had two finals. My first exam was on Monday morning at 8 am, and my second and last exam was on Thursday morning at 10:30 am. It’s only been a few months since I’ve officially commenced on this pre-med route. It’s somewhat ironic that I have to be in school for a year, given that I only needed 3 more classes to complete my list of prerequisites. The classes that I need are biochemistry, g chem 1, and o chem 2. This semester, I took biochem from La Sierra and g chem from a community college that is right next to my house. My life right now is chemistry. I think I’m one of the few people who has taken general chemistry and biochemistry concurrently.

Something funny to note is that when I have so many things to do, I complain that I am too busy to spend time doing things I enjoy and too busy for God, but when I don’t have as many things to do, I get so lazy and in turn, sometimes don’t even do the things that I think I should do and merely wish that I could be doing something more productive. This reminds me of what Paul said to the Romans: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. . .Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, one the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:17-20,24). I think that the laws of inertia and friction both play a large part in every person’s everyday life. When you are busy, your engine is just going on and on, but once you stop, it is really hard to get it going again. And once you do, it seems like there are so many factors that oppose your efforts. This is what I have noticed in my Christian life.

When I decide that I want to do something good with my life, it seems like there are countless forces at work that oppose my efforts. It’s like I am using my efforts to push a block along a plane, and while friction is opposing my efforts, I think I can go even farther and say that there are additional forces that are acting against my efforts. What I am talking about is spiritual forces of good and evil. Although I do not naturally tend to think about the supernatural and the realm beyond our physical realm, as a Christian, I do believe that the supernatural is a very real aspect of life that we so often live obliviously to. Paul says to the Ephesians: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). How foolish we are to live our lives without taking into perspective the grand scheme of things. If we really believed that these forces are constantly at play in our lives, how much more would we ask God to be with us and guide us in our minutest actions. This is essentially the Great Controversy in play between Satan and God. Earth is their battlefield and we are their pieces. One team is able to use manipulations and the other team must follow the rules.

Recently, I have been very proud of myself spiritually. With each passing week, I am experiencing God’s blessings and thinking that I had done something to deserve His good treasures He has bestowed upon me. What have I done to deserve anything from God? It’s not because I deserve anything, but because He chose to give all for me and for you: “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Jesus Christ from all eternity” (2 Timothy 1:8-9). The moment we think that we have done something to deserve God’s blessings is the moment that self-sufficiency will begin to creep into our lives and take a foothold in us.

I spoke at my home church twice within the past two months, and to be honest, I feel quite good about it. Last Saturday, I spoke about living a consistent life, where our inner and outer selves coalesce into one congruous identity. I spoke about not loving God once a week, but having Him be an integral part of our lives any and every day of the week. One example I specifically gave was that we should act the same in our lives as how we act at church. There should be consistency, and this consistency should be a righteous consistency, not a consistency of neglecting both our personal and public lives. Gungor released a new song earlier this year called “Who We Are” that talks about living consistent lives as Christians. Their application is toward refugees and lending a helping hand to refugees, but the message can be applied to simply being consistent with our claims and our actions. The first verse of the song goes: “All the world watches as the people run, From the fiercest storm to the fierce unknown. Will we watch and wait, turn and close our door, Or will we be who we've always said we are?” In theory, it’s easy to say that we are going to be a certain way, but in practice, it’s not always that simple.

The irony of this whole post is that on Thursday night, as I was driving home after exercising at the gym, I had Shane and Shane playing from my car sound system, when I noticed that a semi several cars in front of me was turning left in a crowded part of the street. Some of the cars behind me were changing lanes to avoid waiting behind that semi. I noticed that the car directly behind me was signaling to change lanes, and right about as they were starting to accelerate to pass the holdup, I started changing lanes in an attempt to break past the semi as well. What happened was that he almost hit me and I had to stop my car halfway in between both lanes and he honked at me for what seemed like 3-5 seconds. Usually, I would let this go, but something snapped in me at that moment and I immediately decided to retaliate. As soon as I got into the other lane, I followed his car very closely and let out a duplicate honk for about 3-5 seconds. I would have felt alright about the situation if it had simply ended there, but this was the first time that someone gave me the finger. After he did that, he sped off super fast, but I was even more mad. I sped up and accelerated like a madman to keep up with him and we eventually came to a red light and I was stopped directly behind him. My blood was boiling. I don’t remember if I honked or not this time, but I flashed him with a high beam about 4 or 5 times. He gave me the finger again and sped off. I took it too far. While I was listening to Christian music. In a moment when I thought I was good with God and living a good Christian life. After I got home, I was so shocked and confused at how I had acted. I was puzzled. How did that happen?

What I realized is that no one is invincible. Good Christians have struggles. Pastors have struggles. Everyone struggles. The moment I thought that I was doing alright, was the moment of my downfall. In that moment, a spirit of discontentment and anger seized me in a single moment. It only takes a moment for us to choose God or to abandon Him. Peter lived with Jesus and yet denied Jesus three times in a single day. Even though Jesus told him he would do that, I’m sure Peter never expected it would happen like that. What is needed is humility. To have humility even when things are going well. To have humility especially when things are going well. It’s natural to be humble when we aren’t doing so great, but it’s harder when we are staying afloat. James gives the challenge to be humble: “But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:19-20). In the midst of our trials and successes, let us remember where we stand in this spiritual landscape, sit down at Jesus’ feet, and humbly receive His words in mind and spirit.

12:20 end 10:32 start _____________ 01:48 total time

[kennethchoi]

The Other Side of Telemarketing

December 7, 2017

Thursday

0813 PM

0800 PM *phone rings* It's a number not in my contacts.

Caller: (With an Indian accent) Hello? Hello....

Me: (Hesitant on responding. I'm almost about to hang up, but change my mind) Hi.

Alex: Hello! My name is Alex. I am calling from a company called Great Destinations. Our company is inviting you to be one of our guests in our grand opening. Our company is willing to give you a complementary vacation.

Me: (Still not sure at this point if this is a pre-recorded message or someone actually talking with me) Ummm okaayyyy...

Alex: How do you feel about it?

Me: I appreciate the call, but I think what you're doing is not good.

Alex: I know it sounds too good to be true right? Because nothing comes for free in life.

Me: Well, some things do come for free in life, but if you were to get a call from this number, would you...

*Line disconnects*

Me: (Calls back. "Welcome to Verizon Wireless. The number you dialed has been changed, disconnected, or is no longer in service.") Thinking to myself: That's weird.

0817 PM *phone rings again*

Caller: Hello!

Me: Hi.

Alex: My name is Alex. I am calling from a company called Great Destinations. Our company is inviting you to be one of our guests in our grand opening. Our company is willing to give you a complementary vacation. It involves no money on your part. It sounds great to you right? (Reading from the same script word-for-word.)

Me: Somewhat.

Alex: What?

Me: Continue...

Alex: We're willing to compensate your time. Our company is willing to give you a complementary vacation.

Me: You told me that already. What's your point? You're saying the same thing over and over.

Alex: Sorry, I'm new here. I'll introduce you with our manager. (I'm assuming that this first person is the one who screens out who might fall for this trick and those who might not. I was curious to see where things would go from here so I kept talking, acting somewhat interested.)

Caller #2: Hello. You can use this in Las Vegas or Disney Land, Lago Land. (For the record, the person said did not pronounce Lego Land correctly.) Valid for a year. At the back of your mind, you're wondering, what will be the catch. The catch is very plain and simple. All you have to do is come down to our office and listen to our 90 minute presentation. Are you married?

Me: I don't want to say over the phone, because it's personal.

Caller #2: I just want to make sure you guys are qualified. Are you between 25 and 70?

Me: I don't want to say.

Caller #2: I am just trying to make sure you are qualified. You are, of course, between the ages of 25 and 70, correct?

Me: Maybe, maybe not.

Caller #2: Excuse me?

Me: I'm sorry for wasting your time. But you should be ashamed of yourself. I don't think you should be calling people and scamming them.

Caller #2: What we are doing is giving you a sample. The best advertising is from word of mouth right?

Me: Well yeah, when it's from someone you know, not from a random person. What is your name?

Sam: Sam *****.

Me: Okay Sam. Let me ask you a question. Are you a smart person?

Sam: What do you mean?

Me: (Matter of factly) Are you an intelligent person?

Sam: We can say that we are all intelligent.

Me: If you got a phone call from someone you don't know, would you answer that?

Sam: We are only doing a pacifist work.

Me: You have to wonder if what you're doing is the right.

Sam: I've been working here for 5 years. I am Filipino. I am the one that provides the needs of my family.

Me: Is there something that you can do to help your family without tricking people? I understand that you might be getting paid well and all, but there's gotta be something else you can do to earn money.

Sam: If you think the offer is good, take advantage and if you don't, just decline the offer. Guaranteed no strings attached. I believe I made myself clear. Why don't you try attending our presentation?

Me: Have you been to the office to hear the presentation yourself? I'm assuming you are working in an office in California? And also, I don't know if you realize this, but the number you are calling from is odd as well. When I tried to call back, it said that the number was not valid.

Sam: We are not from the United States. We are a calling scheme using a toll-free number.

Me: I see. Have you been to this place in California before?

Sam: My dad is from California. Since I was 7, my parents got separated.

Me: How old are you?

Sam: **. How old are you?

Me: (In a serious, yet calm tone) I'm sorry I asked you because I personally don't feel comfortable sharing my age, but the reason I asked you is because I understand that you're probably doing your job because the money is good, but I just want you to think about what you are doing and realize that tricking people and scamming them for money is not good. I looked up your company online and I see countless reviews telling that it's a complete scam. I'm sure you know about that, or you are pretending not to know. I want to suggest to you that you should try to find a job doing something else.

Sam: (A bit more reflectively and after a short pause) Thank you for your suggestion. Although I can't see you, I can tell that you have a big heart. I wish that I could have a friend like you. I don't want to take any more of your time, but thank you so much.

Me: Mmhmm. God bless you.

Sam: Thank you.

Call lasts for 17 minutes. Ends at 0834 PM.

Why did I do that? Why did I talk with Sam? Lately, I have been thinking about why I do the things I do or say the things that I say when approached with certain types of situations. For example, being Asian-American, I frequently get asked the question, where are you from? To which I answer USA. But there have been times while traveling in foreign countries, getting asked that question so frequently gets frustrating, and instead of answering USA, I start to answer Korea to get people off of my case. In the end, telling them that I'm from USA confuses people because that's not what they are expecting, but people should realize that not all Americans are white. By saying Korea, I'm avoiding a possible conversation to make it easier for myself. I think we do a similar thing when we receive scam phone calls. We don't even answer or we listen for a few seconds before hanging up. And through it all, we never really get to understand where the other person is coming from. So, I decided in an instant, that I would try to help that person see where they are wrong in order to help them. What are some things that you do to get people off of your back when you can help them by clearing up some misunderstandings? I don't think we should do this in an attitude of being better than others, but in helping them to see something that we can see that they may not be able to see. What are you going to do if you see someone with a terrible misconception of a certain idea? Are you going to ignore them and let them go on with it, or are you going to do what you can to help them? As a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, this is something that I am working on. When people have misconceptions about God, church, or my beliefs, am I going to say something like, "Well as long as you believe in God, you're fine" or "Different people have different beliefs, and God still loves everyone" or am I going to take the time to really explain why I value the Christian experience, why I follow the Sabbath, or why I try to have a healthy lifestyle? When difficult conversations arise, don't back down. Step up to the occasion when it comes.

[kennethchoi]

Conquer morning tiredness

10/17/17 Tuesday

On a given day, when you wake up to your alarm screeching early in the morning, how excited are to get up? How often do you jump out of your bed, energized and ready for a brand new day? Definitely not on Mondays. Maybe you’re only super excited for a new day when classes are canceled, but rather than getting up, you’d probably sleep in a little. If you experience tiredness when waking up in the mornings, and would like a crystal clear mind in the first few minutes to hours upon waking up, I highly recommend checking this post out.

Alarm clocks are only a recent addition to one’s daily routines. Back in the day, people woke up with the sun and followed the daily patterns of sunrise and sunset. The natural circadian rhythm is very closely correlated with the natural process of earth’s rotation. There are two major factors that mess with our sleep cycles, which are artificial lights and alarm clocks. The former prevents us from sleeping shortly after the sun goes down and the latter disrupts the natural pattern of sleep cycles, which are typically about 90 minutes in length.

I recently came across a video by a YouTuber by the name of Thomas Frank who shared a video entitled “How to Stop Being TIRED All the Time” and was inspired to write this post. Thomas’s suggestion was to use an alarm clock as a backup. For example, if you need to wake up by 6:45 the latest in order to get to work or school on time, don’t set an alarm at 6:00 or 6:15 or even 6:30. Just set the latest alarm possible so that you won’t be late. And then train your body to wake up naturally over time. That’s one suggestion I resonated a lot with. A second suggestion is to get into the habit of sleeping at a consistent time. I recommend cutting off electronic communication at least 30 minutes prior to sleeping.

While I was living in Korea for a year, I implemented these two strategies into my own sleep schedule. I started teaching at 9:50 am during my second semester and so each night, I would get ready to sleep around 10:30, which was when I would put my phone on airplane mode every night during that time, and do some leisure reading before going to sleep. My alarm was set at 9:30 and still, I woke up before my alarm every single day. I don’t know exactly what time I woke up because I wouldn’t check my phone for the time until my alarm went off at 9:30. Actually, because I didn’t know the time, I was quite productive, working efficiently because the alarm could go off at any time. In addition to using this method, I gave myself a rule: I was not allowed to go back to sleep unless it was obviously still twilight hours. It worked really well. I felt more energy than ever before and I got into a really consistent system.

Do you get tired in the mornings? Do you wish you could wake up with a clear mind and not fall prey to the snooze button? Do you wish to make the most of your life? Do you wish to have a productive day from the very get go? Do you want to live the best life possible, one with joy, enthusiasm, and motivation? Do you wish to live a whole life, one that is whole physically, spiritually, emotionally, and socially? Do you wish to let technology control you or do you wish to have control over it? Do you wish to have control over your life or to let life control you? Do you wish to master your own life so that you can master the world? Then do two things: turn your phone on airplane mode and use your alarm clock as a backup. Let your body’s natural circadian rhythm be the primary signal to wake up and let the alarm clock be secondary. Your life will change.

9:52 9:14 _____ 0:38 minutes

[kennethchoi]

adventure vs routine

There’s an interesting thought. Adventure vs routine. Is it true that these two things are on a spectrum? When you think about it, many people live for the weekend. They seek to get through the drudgery of the daily tasks of the week to get to the thrill of the weekend. People work hard long months to get a week of vacation. Are you like that? Am I like that? Why is it that there is a dichotomy between the two? Is it not possible to find adventure within routine? I think it is very possible. This is what people refer to as finding joy in the process instead of simply the destination. They say that the journey is just as important, if not more important than the end goal. Is that true? Which is more important? The journey is the routine, and the end goal is the adventure. Yet, while this comparison makes sense, I think process vs destination is still a different spectrum than adventure vs routine. Process and destination both refer to two components of a single overarching scheme. Adventure and routine deal with two completely separate things. Or so it seems. It’s a balance. There’s always a balance to everything we seek. Solomon even echoed this idea when he said that there’s a time for everything and proceeded to list contrary things such as: killing and healing, searching and giving up, embracing and a time to shun embracing. I even wonder if he would have included “a time for adventure and routine” in an expanded edition of Ecclesiastes. Both adventure and routine are necessary for a balanced life. Too much adventure and spontaneity, and you lose track of your goals and direction. Too much routine, and you lack creativity and passion, getting caught up in the details. Focus on what’s important. Enjoy life. Be serious. Be light. Have a routine. Go on an adventure.

11:08 end 10:56 start __________ 00:12 minutes

[kennethchoi]

No Excuses

September 12, 2017 (Tues)

Without realizing it, I make excuses for the condition of my life. Instead of taking the active role, I find myself falling victim to my circumstances. In these situations, I tend to feel bad about myself, telling myself that I am not meant to be in this sad situation, that I deserve better. But then what do I do about it? I listen to some music that makes me feel good that doesn’t actually change my situation. I think about getting a gym membership, but I don’t exercise however I can because I don’t think a home workout is as thorough and intense as a gym workout. I wish that I had more to do, but then with my time, I sleep excessively and get started on my day super late. I want one thing, but my actions are showing that I don’t actually want what I say I want. How can I reconcile these two conflicting desires? I have a desire to be great and do good, but with my life I am not living how I want to live. It’s like what Paul said in Romans 7, how what he wants to do, he cannot do and what he does not want to do he ends up doing. I faced an interesting dilemma today. The idea came to me that when I start feeling sorry for myself is when I start eating a lot more junk food and my personal health falls out the window. However, even while realizing this, I went to the freezer and pulled out a Haagen-Dazs ice cream bar. This is the situation that I am in right now. I have a desire to be great, to have a vision, a master plan for my life, yet it seems like things are pulling me down. I am not one that is quick to assign spiritual explanations in the place where logical explanations seem apt, however, I had an aha moment today while reading Wild at Heart by John Eldredge, who posits: “The devil no doubt has a place in our theology, but is he a category we even think about in the daily events of our lives? Has it ever crossed your mind that not every thought that crosses your mind comes from you?” (154). Today I realized that my efforts are being thwarted by Satan himself. I’m not trying to free myself from all culpability, but I am trying to say that there is an aspect of our lives where negative thoughts and feelings can come from Satan trying to discourage us.

I had a resolve, a determination to change my life for the better. The thing is that whenever I decide to change an aspect of my life, it seems like the change only lasts for so long before I start reverting to my old habits. This is what I am most afraid of. That I will only be able to keep up at what I truly want for so long before having a change of heart. I know that life is not only about your feelings and after a certain point, it is about how you choose to react to your circumstances. Just like love and relationships. After a certain point in your relationship with your significant other, you may not feel the same euphoria that you felt when you first began your relationship with them. During a time like this, are you going to stop loving them because you aren’t feeling a connection, or are you going to choose to love them regardless? The same goes for our choices in our priorities. Someone who starts exercising may be in love with the feeling that exercise gives in contrast to the normalcy of their life. However, as many know, the gyms are filled with people in the first few weeks of the new year and soon become very empty as people give up on their resolutions and gyms happily collect their customers’ money.

Without realizing it, I had been blaming others for my lack of exercise. I was upset that LA Fitness would charge $30/month. My dad also recently told me that there was a deal that 24 Hour Fitness does through Costco for $399 for 2 years. He told me that he could get me that deal sometime last week, and I have been relying on it to get me started on my exercising routine. Come to think of it, ever since I got home from Korea back in the middle of July, I failed to develop a regular exercise routine. I kept on saying that I would start once I got a gym membership, or once I found a place to play basketball with others in my neighborhood, but seeing where I am now, I can clearly see that this way of thinking has got me almost nowhere. It’s been almost 2 months since I got home and I still haven’t developed some sort of fitness plan for myself. I know that I will be excited once I get my membership, but it’s not even about having a membership or not. It’s about developing regular habits wherever I am. What am I going to do if I am in a place where I don’t have a gym to go to, like when I was on my travels in Southeast Asia last summer with my dad. It’s easy to blame my surroundings for how I am and the way I am acting. This is, as Stephen Covey would put it, a reactive—not proactive—way of thinking. I blame my situation and use it to justify the way that I am living. I tell myself that if I were in medical school right now, I wouldn’t be so unmotivated. I would be waking up early, sleeping earlier, and exercising better. I would have a routine so that would keep me grounded. Why is it that I feel the need of a set routine in order to do what I need to do? If something is truly important to me, I should focus on it with all my energy regardless if I am required to do it by my affiliation to an institution or not. If waking up early is important to me, then I should do it even if I have nothing scheduled at 8am in the morning. For some reason however, it is a big challenge for me these days. Waking up early, while ideal, is something that I have been struggling with. It’s not even waking up early per se, but being consistent with my sleep and wake up schedule. From September 2009 until December 2012, I kept charts of when I slept and when I woke up to see how consistently I was going to bed and waking up and to calculate the number of hours I slept each night. It was something I did for a few months when I was in elementary school, and something that I felt would help me in sleeping better, because the first step in improving yourself is awareness, about being aware of your habits. I have to say that starting this sleep chart again has helped me to become more aware of my terrible current sleeping habits. It’s not the number of hours of sleep that I am getting that is the problem. I’d say that I have been averaging about 7-8 hours of sleep in the past week and half. The bigger problem is that the time I sleep and wake up have been so vastly different, ranging from 11:30pm-3am and 6am-10am respectively. Also, the number of hours I have slept range from 5.5-10 hours. Without doubt, this kind of sleep pattern has been ruining my mood throughout various parts of my week. It’s time I change this. My goal for the rest of September is to have a record that shows that I have slept within the 11:30pm-12:30am range and woken up within the 7:30-8:30am range for a total of 7-9 hours of sleep per night. My goal here is consistency. This is something that I realize is going to be one of the biggest challenges for me in the upcoming months as I take part-time student loads during the 2017-18 school year: consistency. My goal is to become as consistent as possible in as many parts of my life as possible. What I don’t want is to be a certain way because external factors made me become that way. What I want is to be able to have control over my life even when I am not being pressured with external constraints. Let’s get to work.

[kennethchoi]

3 lessons about teaching

5/3/17 Wednesday 5:12 PM

Reflections from Teaching

Teaching can be repetitive. Even though you teach different topics every day, you need a day-to-day structure that’s in place so that you are not recreating an entire class structure every time you teach. My basic structure for teaching geometry and algebra has been the same since the beginning of this semester. We teach on a block schedule, so planning out 100 minutes per day can be a bit challenging, but I have figured out a basic format that I am quite comfortable with. I start the first 15-20 minutes of each class period with a quiz. Yes, a quiz every single day. That’s like 90 quizzes for each class in a semester. And then the next 10-15 minutes or so are used for the students to grade each other’s homework while I go over the answers. And then the students complete a small activity for the next 10-15 minutes. After the first period has passed, the students take a 5 minute break. After the break, I explain the section and the students take notes for about 20 minutes. Then the students do a small in-class assignment (such as filling out vocabulary/making constructions/classwork) and do homework for the rest of the class period.

Change things up. After a while of teaching a certain subject, I realize that in order to keep your sanity, you have to change things up from time to time. This doesn’t mean changing up your order/structure of doing things, but means changing up little details within the bigger framework. For example, you cannot really change the time that your class is going to be held, but you can rearrange the order of which you conduct your class.

There is always more to learn. I realized that there is a difference between just simply teaching the material and knowing it myself. I did really well on pretty much all my classes in high school and I did fairly well in college too, but there’s a big difference between knowing the information and being able to teach it to someone else. Also, to do it in an interesting way is another challenge itself. I am quick to learn concepts, so taking information and presenting it in bite sized pieces for others to understand is something that I am learning.

[kennethchoi]

Lessons + Questions  from Thailand

I just came back from a mission trip to Thailand. It was my second time visiting Thailand, the first time was during the summer of 2016. Here are some things that I learned during my previous 1.5 weeks in Thailand.

Our previous experiences always come back to help us in some way. Nothing that you experience is a waste of time, unless it of course actually is a waste of time, like playing video games, or sleeping all day and doing nothing. The three years of Spanish that I took while I was in high school have helped me tremendously when I spent two summers canvassing in areas where there are many Spanish speakers. My trip to Thailand last summer was just for fun, but I believe that having been there once gave me an advantage when I went there again. I knew what conditions to expect and how to get around some places. When our group went to tour around Bangkok, I was able to tell the group which places they should go and was able to lead the group. It’s easier to lead people when you have walked that same path before. This was my fourth mission trip that I have been on. I strongly believe that the three mission trips I have been on prior to this one have helped me gain much wisdom about the nature of serving in impoverished places. This is why I believe that we should always step up to taking new chances and opportunities when they come. They will come back to help us and others in the future.

If you can travel from one place to another, you are blessed. It’s usually not easy to cross the border from one country to another without proper documentation and paperwork. The place where we worked was in northwestern Thailand, 15 minutes away from the border of Myanmar (Burma), where we worked with Karen refugees. It may or may not have been legal, but we went from Thailand to Burma by simply crossing a river with a boat. The Karen refugees can cross the border into Thailand, but they can’t go more than an hour away from the border, because security limits them to a small sliver of Thailand. For the rest of the blessed people in the world, we can quite easily travel from one place to another in the world.

I love pad thai. I could eat it every day for the rest of my life. At least, that’s what I think. When it’s available to us, in Thailand, I never hesitate to order at least once a day my favorite Thai dish: pad Thai, which literally means fried Thai. Each place makes it a little bit differently, but I love the general taste of spice-filled, slightly sweet and sour stir fried noodles.

Is less more? The place we stayed at during our time in the mission field was bare. We stayed in a school building that had a roof and tiles on the floor, but no walls. We slept on tile floors in an open building. There’s so much to complain about when we have little. We had squat toilets where we had to manually pour water down to flush. We had no real showers so we had to scoop water onto ourselves. But the funny thing is I didn’t really mind. I don’t know if I could live in those conditions for my whole life, but what I realized was that even though I didn’t have much, I felt really blessed. When I came back to Korea, I saw my studio apartment, and was so happy to have my own space, my own shower, and everything to myself. I think it’s really hard to go from having so much to having so little, but once you accustom yourself to having a little, we adjust quickly. There is a popular saying that less is more. In terms of physical belongings, is this true? If you asked me if I would rather live in Thailand on a tile floor with manual squat toilets or in Korea in my own apartment, I would most likely pick the latter. Maybe less is more, but I would still pick more than less if I were given the option.

Is mission work more important than daily life work? This is a question that I have been wondering ever since I went to Bolivia with KAYAMM in July of 2016. Whenever I see people who are very passionate about what they do, I feel a sense of awe and respect for them. Often times, when people talk about their dedication to full time mission work, they start their story by describing the work they did before they started their full time mission work. In doing so, whether intentionally or unintentionally, there becomes a contrast between their previous work and their current work. I noticed that when people talk about their current work, they often tend to describe their previous work in a less positive light. One example is when I was attending the teacher dedication ceremony held for all of the graduating education majors. One of my colleagues, in her speech about why she chose education started off by saying that she had originally tried studying for nursing, but that God had led her to teaching. Then in my head, a question formed: Are you trying to say that God would not have approved of nursing? I’m not saying that God did not lead you to teaching, but how do you know that teaching was from God and nursing was not? When we heard Dr. Kim’s testimony about how he and his family moved to Bolivia to serve as missionaries, he tells the story of how his family used to live very comfortably on a dentist’s salary, but that he felt empty inside. The question I had in my head was, Do you never feel empty while doing mission work? And I realized that the answer to that question was that we can feel empty in anything we do, whether it be secular or sacred work. I am currently reading a book called The Call by Os Guinness and it talks about the importance of secular as well as sacred work. It says that we have two main calls: Our primary call is to serve God and our secondary call is what we do for a living, be it sacred or secular work. To answer the question, I think that mission work is just as important as daily work, neither more or less important. But in whatever work we do, we should be fully committed to God in our primary call.

[kennethchoi]

Three Fat Men

I like to fly Southwest. Great deals. 2 Bags. Cool way of seat selection. But just one thing. I forgot to checkin. My position was C4. Going with the logic that there are 180 seats, because each boarding group letter (A,B,C) goes up to 60, I assume that anyone who gets a C position will be sitting in a middle seat somewhere on the plane. With that mentality, I decided to go for the closest to the entrance/exit of the plane, which meant sitting in the middle seat in the front row of the plane. Decent leg room. Quick access to the lavatory. One problem. Three fat men. (I include myself in the count). Let me describe them to you.

The first guy. The guy in the aisle seat. He was overflowing into my seat. When I got there, the armrests were all up and I didn’t have much room, so I asked if he minded if we put the armrest down. I thought that if the armrest were down, the delineation between the seats would give him the idea that I wanted my own space. Nope. His elbow was basically in my lap.

The second guy. The guy in the window seat. While the first guy was overflowing horizontally, the other guy was overflowing vertically(?) Basically, the seat seemed too small for him. From the way he was sitting, I reckoned he was about 6′3″ or 4″ and his shoe size about 13 or 14. I have size 12 feet and my shoes looked small next to his. We put that armrest down too, but the armrest served as no barrier between my space and his.

The third guy. The guy in the middle seat. While the two guys to either side of him were taking up 1.2 and 1.1 seats respectively, the guy in the middle seat was left with 0.7 seats for himself. Typically, he takes up about 0.9 seats, so 0.7 was a bit of a squeeze for him. Using his elbows, he vacillated between 0.7 and 1.0 seats. Every so often, he would dig his elbows into the elbows of the other passengers, trying to send a nonverbal cue, but neither one of them really took any notice of it. When he was reading a book, he would purposely use a large motion involving the elbow moving in a circular motion to turn the page.

No verbal compromise was taken. However, the three fat men came to a nonverbal compromise which was this: The man in the middle seat sat for a great deal leaning forward in the chair, while the other two men took 1.5 seats each.

[kennethchoi]

Isaiah 26:9

With my soul I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early

[kennethchoi]

Isaiah 26:3

You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.

[kennethchoi]

Thoughts about the drive to GYC

GYC was in Houston this year. We made the drive from California to Texas. The beginning part of our trip went by so quickly because California to the western tip of Texas actually isn’t that terrible of a drive. The dreadful part is once we get to western Texas (El Paso), because it seemed like it took the same amount of time to get from El Paso, TX to Houston, TX as it did for us to get from CA to TX. Driving is insane. Especially when you drive through the night. We didn’t stop at all. Drove for a straight 20 hours. After being in Korea for 5 months, driving was something that I actually missed. We passed so much of our time in the car by listening to The Chronicles of Narnia audiobooks. It was really fun getting acquainted with the Narnia stories again. I particularly enjoyed The Magician’s Nephew with Polly and Digory. The drive was reminiscent of several other road trips I have taken in the past, such as the drive from LA to Berrien Springs in 2012, the drive from LA to Seattle and back for GYC 2012, the drive from LA to Orlando for GYC 2013, the drive from Berrien Springs to Orlando in 2013, and the drive from Berrien Springs to LA in 2016 after graduation. I guess I like driving.

Imagine being a truck driver as a job. I heard they make a lot of money, but think of how mundane and dry things must get being on the road all the time. Nobody to talk to. Music also gets boring after several hours. I also heard that they have a small bed and a few things to get cleaned up when they spend the night at those truck stops in the middle of the freeways.

Imagine having to travel without technology. How long it would take us to get from one place to another. It would be pretty much impossible for Koreans to be living in America unless they crossed while the Bering Strait was frozen. The likelihood is slim. Imagine how Jesus and his disciples got around Israel. A ton of walking. I like walking, but I don’t know how I would feel about walking more than a few miles.

When we have technology, it’s really hard for me to do a task without using the available technology. For example, because we have cars, why would anyone want to ride a buggy to work, or even walk to work if it’s less efficient? Also, when I had my first flip phone, I didn’t have a ton of complaints about it not being high tech enough. I was glad to have a device that could call and text. But after switching to a smart phone, it would be so uncomfortable to switch back to a basic phone.

When we’ve experienced something that is advanced, it is difficult to return to a basic form of it, but we do this in our lives. We experience great spiritual lessons and are inspired by sermons and the effect stays for a while, but then we fall into a mentality of laxity after a few weeks or months.

[kennethchoi]

Daily Proverb (Ch. 17)

The book of Proverbs is nice because it has such great advice for our daily lives. This book is one that is better to read slowly and take in each verse rather than reading through a large chunk of it at a time. It’s also very easy to start reading the book of Proverbs. Since it has 31 chapters, you just read the chapter of the day that it is. This is not something that I do all the time, but I just remembered this recently and read Proverbs 15 and 16 and tomorrow’s chapter is Proverb 17. If you try this, take time. See how each verse applies to your life. I would recommend reading it out loud to help you stay focused and add in comments about how each saying applies to you. Here’s a few examples of how I go through some of the verses.

Proverb 17:15 says: “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, Both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD.” What I find interesting is that often times, is that I spend more energy on students who are misbehaving during class while letting good students that are doing the right thing just slip my attention. It’s like I am more focused on helping the bad students be good rather than helping the good students feel acknowledged.

Proverbs 17:17 says: “A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity.” Is this true? Does a friend love all the time? There are times when a friend might be busy and might not be there for someone during a hard time. They are a “friend”, so maybe this verse should say good friend instead.

Proverbs 17:20 says: “He who has a crooked mind finds no good, And he who is perverted in his language falls into evil.” Several times, I have heard students swearing and have justified it in my head, saying, Oh they just swear when they’re with their friends, but I’m sure they don’t do it in public. And I haven’t really confronted them about it. I am starting to see that even swearing, even though it might seem like a small thing, has the tendency to influence a person and a few negative words can lead someone down a worse path in the future. I should say something like this if I hear students swearing again. I’m not telling them not to swear because I said so and because it’s bad. I’m telling them because it’s not helpful to their overall representation of themselves.

[kennethchoi]

Visit Original Link

This is a hymn that I sang in four parts just for fun. It’s about becoming more and more like Jesus. It’s not professional, so listen to it without judgment por favor! :P

The lyrics are

아버지여 나에게 기도하는 방법과 주님같이 되는법 가르쳐주소서 의심없이 주따라 살게하여주시고 죽을때도 주의뜻 행케하옵소서 짧은세월 살동안 주의사업받들며 곁길가지않도록 도와주옵소서 성부성자 하나듯 우리하나되는법 알게하여주시면 주님닯게되리

후렴 예수님과 같이 되기원하오니 매일그분 더욱더 닯게하옵소서

[kennethchoi]

God’s love for man

There is no other love like His. Children of the Heavenly King! Precious promise! How wonderful to think about the great love of God for a world that did not love Him! Thinking of God’s love makes us feel very humble. This thought, as shown by Jesus’ death, should bring our minds close to God. When we study the character of God, we see God’s mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness. We also see His righteousness and justice. We see many proofs of His infinite love and tender pity. They are far greater than the sympathy of a mother for her disobedient child.

그분의 사랑과 같은 사랑은 없다. 하는 왕의 자녀! 귀중한 약속! 하나님을 사랑하지 않는 세상을 위한 그분의 위대한 사랑에 관하여 생각하는 일은 얼마나 놀라운 일인가! 하나님의 사랑을 생각하면 우리는 매우 겸손해진다. 예수님의 죽음으로 보여 준 바와 같은 하나님의 사랑에 대한 생각은 우리의 마음을 하나님께로 가까이 이끌 것임에 틀림없다. 우리가 하나님의 성품을 연수할 때 우리는 하나님의 자비와 온유와 용서를 알게 된다. 우리는 또한 그분의 공의를 알게 된다. 우리는 그분의 무한한 사랑과 따뜻한 동정심에 대한 많은 증거들을 본다. 그것들은 불효한 자녀에 대한 어머니의 자애보다 훨씬 더 큰 것들이다.

(Steps to Jesus/생애의 빛)

[kennethchoi]

Five Steps to Finding Your Passion

Discovering what you love most is an adventure in itself.

I found this article several weeks ago and thought it would be nice to share with the Tumblr world. Life is an adventure. It is not so much about the destination as it is about the journey. Part of the journey is finding out about yourself and what you love. Here are the five steps from Dr. Susan Biali’s article on how to find your passion.

1. Inventory your talents 2. Pay attention to who makes you annoyed or jealous 3. Think of what you loved to do as a child 4. Notice when you lose track of time, or what you hate to stop doing 5. See your passion hunt as a fun, joyful adventure

I hope you can find your passion and live the adventurous life you were made to live!