Work as Worship
This art installation was simply called “Work.” If you could see this art installation up close, especially the table, you’d see a timeline of my various vocations through the years. I’ve worked in theaters, Radio Shack, as an electrical engineer, and more. Most of you know I’ve also spent a lot of years in Christian…
Read MoreThe Chinese Grocery Stores of my Childhood
I grew up at this corner, 8th Avenue and Balboa. This particular picture was taken 1939. Though this grocery store predates me by some 30 years, It was still a grocery when I was growing up. In fact, we had lots of grocery stores in the 1970s, seemingly on every corner. Besides this store, I…
Read MoreFalling Upward: Wilderness
(Credits: Art installation and portrait credit Bethany L. Herron Photographer ; Photographer Event Photo credit SMG Foto “There is no greater disaster in the spiritual life than to be immersed in unreality.” – Thomas Merton My unreality was thinking that people would accept me more if I knew more, if I did more. Unreality was ultimately…
Read MoreFalling Upward: Authenticity
I’ve spent so much of my life trying to prove myself to others. And a lot of this proving has been done on a stage, as I wrote about in the second paragraph here. In the picture above the lamps shining on me denote stage lights, to represent how the stage was a place…
Read MoreThe Book I’ve Waited over 20 Years to be Written
A Book Review of “Ministering in Honor-Shame Cultures” by Jayson Georges and Mark Baker The “Dark Ages” of Ministry for me in the 1990’s Where was this book when I needed it over twenty years ago? At the time, I and ministry colleagues who were called to reach Asian, Latino, and African-American students … Continue reading The Book I’ve Waited over 20 Years to be Written
Read MoreFalling Upward: Work
“Work” is the name of this art installation. This being my first post of 2017, it’s not because my writing has gone dormant. If anything, I’ve done my most significant, painstaking, yet rewarding writing this past year. I’ve been busily casting my story into words, art, and video that I presented at a dinner and…
Read MoreWhat if Jesus was born in my ancestral village in China?
The picture above was me and a distant cousin in the ancestral town of my roots. What if Jesus were born in my ancestral village in China? Now in those days, a decree went out to all ABCs (American-born Chinese) that all ABCs need to return to their ancestral village to be registered. Now Joe…
Read MoreEmbracing my 50th Birthday
I was born in 1967. Turning 50 is one of those “never thought it would ever arrive” milestones. I remember when my dad turned 50, in 1985. I always thought it peculiar how my dad could pull Frank Sinatra and Patti Page songs into his head from 1955 as if it were yesterday. Today, I…
Read MoreThe Gospel: The Ultimate Covering for our Shame
“For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.” Heb 12:2 (NET) Jesus took on all our shame so that our shame can be ultimately covered. My endless quest for “covering” …
Read MoreStepping into the Transitions of Others
Difficulties, illnesses, graduations, moving, a new position, leaving a career…Life is full of transitions. They can often be stressful but also awakening. Unfortunately, transitions caused by massacres like the Orlando one are increasing in number. Obama’s administration alone has had to address 15 such massacres. Transitions are happening on every level, from personal to national…
Read More