Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Articles

prayer in the morning

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Visit any traditional Korean church on a weekday morning between 6:00 – 7:00 am. You will most likely find people there praying and worshiping God. It’s called – Seh Byuk Gi Do.

Why is this such a phenomenon and why do we see this mainly in Korean Churches and not in Western Churches? Does this fervency and disciplined morning prayer attribute to the rapid growth of Christianity in Korea and amongst Koreans? Or are there too many variables that have attributed to the growth of the Korean Church? What can the Church in the Western World learn from this spiritual discipline of corporate morning prayer?

3 weeks ago, I went to a prayer meeting at my church and I honestly had a difficult time entering into prayer and worshipping God. It got to the point where I actually just wanted to leave because the time felt useless. However, I didn’t end up leaving – I don’t know if that’s just because that would make me “look bad” as a pastor (whatever that means) or if the Spirit of God was holding me back – but in the end, I didn’t leave. About 10 minutes after that internal battle, I felt the Holy Spirit doing something in my heart and all of a sudden I felt raw passion and began to fervently pray for the church in the 3rd world and individuals in Montreal, Quebec, and Canada. After that, I just sensed that God was calling our community of faith to gather more frequently to pray and worship. I didn’t know what it would look like, but I sensed that it would be okay and that God just wanted me to go ahead with it.

As a result, after 3 weeks and 5 early morning prayer and worship times, here I am writing this post and reflecting. I really wonder what kind of impact the early morning prayer and worship times made. I personally enjoyed them and loved connecting with God and with other followers of Christ, but I just wonder what kind of impact this made on others? Number wise, we consistently got about 5-6 people every time, but that’s hardly the issue. It’s not about numbers, it’s about transformation and impact.

“God…I obeyed and held those early morning prayer and worship times, but what do you want for the future? What are you calling our community of faith to? Please lead us and reveal your way to us. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

a breathing portrait

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I just came back from an amazing and encouraging time at my small group. We are studying Erwin McManus’ Soul Cravings, and as we were talking about destiny and our dreams for the future, a breathing portrait entered my mind. Here is my attempt to paint it out for you:

…God smiles and looks at us with excitement…

He extends his hand towards us as he begins to run,

although we reach out and grab hold of his hand,

we pull back and attempt to slow him down.

“How can we leave now?” we ask God, “what about all of our responsibilities and commitments?”

…God smiles and looks at us with excitement…

God motions to run with us, but we pull back and refuse, saying,

“Are you sure we are going the right way? I see so many people going that other way! They must be right.”

…God smiles and looks at us with excitement…

He reassures us that there is nothing to worry about and that we should trust him.

As he begins to run with us again, we hold back and say,

“Can we go tomorrow?


Here is my question for you:

If you have committed to follow God, are you really trusting him with everything? Are you running? Or are you still stretching, hoping that no one realizes you are just stalling time?

competition vs. achiever

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Some of you may not know, but I am an intense believer in the Clifton StrengthsFinder Assessment. Now I know the stigma that veils many assessments (i.e. assessments aren’t accurate, it will box me in, etc), but this StrengthsFinder assessment is extremely different. Based on millions of interviews and over half a century of academic research, this assessment accurately reveals what your natural talents are (I know because I’ve talked to countless number of people who have taken the assessment and loved it). Anyway, my goal of this post isn’t to sell the assessment, but to talk about a certain aspect of it. (In the future, I will continue to talk about strengths and talents.)

When I reflect on my past, I realize that I have never actually won many things. In all of my Tae Kwon Do competitions, I would always get third place or worst. In my short career as a 12 year old hockey player, I got the MVP award. Hahaha…okay I wish. Instead of the MVP, I got the MIP award – most improved player. And we all know that the MIP award is the award given to the worst player. Anyway, in all of that I have never actually won many things. However, even though I was deeply disappointed with not winning, I quickly got over it and went on with life. Why? Because “competition” is not one of my talents (themes) – “achiever” is!

If I had competition, then I would have a deep inner desire to win first place in all things. That is definitely not me. I don’t care if I get first place or second, all I really care about is working hard and doing the best that I can do. In other words, I have a great deal of stamina, and I work hard, but winning isn’t necessarily on the top of my priorities. Having said all that, I do like to win, but it’s just not everything to me.

Now what does all this information have to do with you?

Let me answer that question with a quote that my brother in law (Michael Hu) told me: “Know thy enemy and know thy self and you will win a hundred battles.” Sun Tzu Wu

In other words, in a culture where there is hardly any emphasis on self-knowledge, true greatness and significance will only be achieved when you discover the unique way that God has created you – the distinct fingerprints of God on your life.

significance

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One thing that unites us all as human beings is a desire or a craving for significance.

When you search deep down inside of your soul, you will find a deep hunger for significance. In fact, you don’t even need to do much soul searching to discover that craving for significance. Think about today, was there a moment when you wanted someone else to see what you were doing? Did you do something to please someone or to be pleased by someone? All of these are inklings of our craving for significance.

For example, even my act of writing this post or creating this blog hints at my deep craving for significance.

We all have this craving for significance. Some of us ignore it, some of us surpress it, and some of us even flaunt it. I believe that do any of those would be less than human and less than noble. What we need to do is embrace our craving for significance and honestly look at it.

In what one area do we really want significance? Is it in your career? relationships? academics? Let’s get a bit more detailed. What do you really value? What is the desire of your heart? What is the one thing that you want to do on this earth before you die?

When we embrace our craving for significance, look at it long enough, and peel back all of the layers, we see one thing…

…the fingerprint of God.