Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

craving

is money evil?

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“Money is the root of all evil” – we’ve all heard it before, but is it true?

We can’t live without money, but too much money can consume us and change us.

We think money can buy us and bring us everything that we want, but is it true? John D. Rockefeller after making millions of dollars admitted, “I have made millions, but they have brought me no happiness.”

Deep within us, all of us want to be loved – it’s a natural human craving. No one is born with an innate craving for money. Babies and children don’t even understand the concept of money! What we are born with is an innate craving for love and acceptance.

However, when our innate craving for love and acceptance isn’t met, especially as adolescents and adults, money enters the scene. Money is the love and acceptance of our culture. We use money to buy ourselves love. We use money to buy ourselves acceptance.

Therefore, perhaps the reason all of us want excess money is because deep down inside of us, we are all craving for love and acceptance.

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understanding our culture

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I just read a great post from murphy24p about the relationship between culture and church.

He had these four categories “un-churched,” “de-churched,” “over-churched,” and the “churched.” As I was reading this post, I noticed that the centre point of his discussion was how individuals related to the church. Then I wondered, what would these relationships look like if we placed the cravings of the human soul as the centre point?

Here are my categories:

The Unreflective: These individuals have an understanding of the Church and Christianity that is based mostly on second-hand knowledge. In other words, their perception of the Church and Christianity is from pop culture, weddings, and funerals. Therefore, they never go to church, nor examine the claims of Christianity because they believe they already know what it’s all about.

The Hurt: These individuals have personally been hurt by Christians and/or by Churches. As a result, they see Christians and the Church as a bunch of hypocrites. They resonate with Karl Marx in believing that “religion is the opium of the masses.”

The Seeker: These individuals are more in tune with their self-identity and realize that they have these unquenchable cravings and thirsts in their life. As a result, they seek to quench these cravings in any way that they can, including through the examination of Jesus Christ.

The Sojourner: These individuals realize that life does not end when they die, but that there is eternal life through Jesus Christ. As a result, they see their time on earth as temporary and mission-oriented. There is more to life than this.

changing the perception of church in Quebec (radio appearance)

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I just came back from discussing, ‘Conversations with the Homeless,’ in a radio interview with Jeffrey Mackie on CKUT 90.3 FM. If you missed it, you can listen to it here. I come up a few minutes after the clip begins.

In the interview, I also mentioned the church that I am currently serving as a Youth Pastor in River’s Edge Community Church. At River’s Edge, part of our core mission is to change the perception of Church in Quebec. This isn’t some randomly chosen mission statement, but it is uniquely tailored to our situation here in Quebec because of all the past church-related hurts and scandals that have affected and misconstrued the perception of church in Quebec.

As a result, rather than following the line of many churches today in constructing a modern facility to house our church gatherings, Lorenzo DellaForesta (our Lead Pastor) decided to go the route of obtaining and meeting in an abandoned Catholic Church. River’s Edge is not Catholic, and it is in fact the Catholic Church that many Quebecers have been hurt by. As a result, why we would we meet in a Catholic Church? Isn’t that the stupidest thing to do? Sure, maybe it would have been stupid to do it 10-15 years ago. However, considering the times we are in now, it is actually one of the most strategic things to do.

Why? Because there is an overriding sense of spirituality that pervades our post-modern culture. As a result, what many individuals crave for isn’t a modern version of Christianity, but a post-modern, spiritually-oriented community of faith that meets in a designated sacred space.

conversations with the homeless (radio appearance)

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This upcoming Friday July 18th, I’ll be appearing on the radio, CKUT 90.3 FM at 8:30 am. You could also listen from the internet by clicking here.

I’ve been asked to appear on a radio show with Jeffrey Mackie to comment on an event we did a month ago with our youth ministry – Conversations with the Homeless.

We did the event for a couple of reasons.

Did you know that there are approximately 2100 verses on the poor and the oppressed in the Bible? That definitely says something in itself. Did you also know that in one of Jesus’ first sermons, he proclaimed that he was not only called to share the good news to the poor, but to also act and set them free from their oppression? (Luke 4)

As a result, I know that all of us have had contact with the homeless. My question to you is: What was your response? Did you ignore them? Did you give them something? Did you demean them? etc.

The easiest “charitable” thing to do for individuals who are homeless is to give them food, right? Well, instead of merely meeting their physical need, and feeling good about our “charitable” work, we thought we would take the next step and do something different – something that many people refuse to do and in many ways, something that is actually more difficult. We decided to give them our time. In other words, conversation.

I hope you can tune in and hear the interview.

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.