Some lessons that I received through four funerals
in The New Year 2019
- Mrs. Jung Sook Yoo: Grace
When I think Mrs. Jung Sook Yoo, I think about her favorite hymn, “Amazing Grace”. She used to be lost, but she was found when she started coming to our church and accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior and Lord and had eternal life. She knew the depth, width and height of the grace of God’s salvation. So when she was in a nursing home, she really wanted to come to church and worship God with thanksgiving in her heart. When I think about Mrs. Yoo, not only that the word “grace” came to my mind but also 1 Corinthians 15:10 – “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”
- Elder Richard Oh: Peace
My father-in-law Elder Richard Oh loved to sing the hymn “When peace, like a river, attendeth my way”. When I thought about this hymn, I asked myself first time last Friday during the Morning Prayer, “How can he sing ‘When peace like a river attendeth my way When sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say It is well, it is well with my soul’ when my father-in-law was suffering so much that I can’t imagine until he passed away?” How could he sing “When peace like a river atthendeth my way” when he was suffering? How could he enjoy singing “It is well with my soul”? When I think about him who died peacefully in the Lord, not only the word “peace” comes to my mind but also Philippians 4:6-7: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
- My junior high school friend Pastor Rubin’s mother and
- Pastor Narmandach from True Love Church in Mongolia: Love.
When I entered this New Year 2019, I had privilege to preside Mrs. Jung Sook Lee’s graveyard service on January 4, Friday and then one week later on January 11, I presided my father-in-law Elder Richard Oh’s graveyard service in the same cemetery. Between those two funeral services, I attended my junior high school friend Pastor Rubin’s mother’s funeral on Monday January 7 with another junior high school friend named Glen. When we sat down on the chairs in the church, the thought came into my mind that Glen lost his mother and his youngest son last year and I lost my father-in-law and Mrs. Jung Sook Yoo who loved me very much. It was little bit a queer sensation that we were both attending our friend Pastor Rubin’s mother’s funeral service. But the precious grace that I received during Pastor’s Rubin’s mother’s funeral service was that I was challenged by what she did until she passed away. I heard that she posted 1 Corinthians 13 on her room wall and her grandchildren’s pictures and she kept praying for them. Since this New Year’s motto is to love one another (Jn. 15:12), I planned to sing the Korean gospel song ‘Love is always patience’ as an offering song, her life challenged me to not only sing that offering song but also to live a life loving one another staring from my family.
Last Monday when I was working out, I found out through Facebook that Pastor Narmandach (25 years old) from True Love Church in Mongolia passed away. I couldn’t believe it. I still remember when I went to Mongolia about 4 years ago, I have memory that I played basketball with him and had lunch together as well. I heard that Pastor Narmandach passed away when he was sitting on a sofa during a break at the united churches seminar. So, I watched articles, photos, and videos that I uploaded frequently on the Mongolian True Love Church Facebook every day for the past week. I was sad when I saw the picture of his grave. When I think about the True Love Church pastor, his wife and the whole church members, my heart went out to them and I had been praying for them. The heart that God had been giving me through Pastor Narmandach was to pray for his three prayer requests that he asked me and my church to pray for. The first prayer request doesn’t apply it because he passed away. His second prayer request is to pray for his non-believer relatives. The third prayer request is to pray for True Love Church. So I also encouraged my church members to pray for his two prayer requests. But what really made me to think was that when I looked at the writings of the True Love church members’ on the church Facebook about Pastor Narmandah, I saw a consistent memory about him. And the consistent memory was that they all felt love from Pastor Narmandah. The challenge this gives me is ‘What kind of consistent memory will people have when I die?’ I was challenged to live the rest of my life to love my neighbors before the Lord. Through Pastor Rubin and Pastor Narmandah, I received six lessons from 1 Corinthians 13:
(1) Love is patient (v. 4),
(2) Love doesn’t take into account a wrong suffered (v. 5),
(3) Love endures all things (v. 7),
(4) Love is kind (v. 4),
(5) Love doesn’t seek its own (v. 5)
(6) Love hopes all things (v. 7).