All the Trees of the Forest Sing for Joy

This past Saturday, Sandy and I enjoyed an outing with three of our colleagues from the international faculty. We traveled together to Gyeongju, the ancient capital city of Korea, and Bulguksa, a monastery that is nestled up in the mountains above Gyeongju. The cherry blossoms were at their height and many of the other trees and shrubs were beginning to show their many hues of new-growth green.

Cherry trees fill the hillside along the pathway up to the entrance of Bulguksa.

Just inside Bulguksa's main gate, we come to a lovely mountain pond.  The newly constructed monastery enclave can be seen in the background above the stone bridge.

Here's a close-up of the cherry blossoms with the new-growth of green leaves beginning to unfold.

As we walk along the path that encircles the garden pond, we can look back toward the monastery gate.

Another stone bridge leads over a slow-flowing, spring-fed stream that trickles down the mountain and fills the pond.

More cherry trees surround the monastery's 10-foot tall bell suspended in the center of this structure. The bell's low-tones mark the hours of prayer.  The entrance to the old monastic enclave can be seen along the left side of the photo.

This is the most popular perspective on the ascending stairs to the main temple enclosure.  The second stairway (in the distance) is called "The Stairway to Heaven."

Here we are with Lynn & Debi in front of one of the other temple buildings.  Lynn's husband Roy took the photo.

Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord. ~ Psalm 96:12-13

Taciturnitas

Dennis Okholm, a professor at Azusa Pacific University, wrote a wonderful little book entitled Monk Habits for Everyday People.  The subtitle particularly caught my attention: "Benedictine Spirituality for Protestants."  Ever since my wife and I had the opportunity to participate in a retreat at the Pecos Benedictine Monastery in New Mexico nearly five years ago, I have been increasingly interested in the lessons I can learn from this tradition. 

Prof. Okholm's book makes those lessons very accessible.  For example, take this story from Okholm's own efforts to practice one of the disciplines taught by St. Benedict in his Rule, the discipline of taciturnitas.

"Recently, on an Ash Wednesday, I was encouraging students to think of one deficiency in their lives that they could attack with a spiritual discipline during Lent.  Never afraid to barge in where uninvited, a member of the class in the back row (the source of much consternation for college professors) asked, 'What deficiency are you going to attack?'"

"I had to be honest, so I answered, 'Actually I've got several, and I need to decide on one by the beginning of the first full week of Lent.  I'll let you know.'  But I knew what it would be, and , true to my word, I soon announced to the class that I needed to learn to listen better to others, so I would be attempting to talk much less in some small study groups of which I was a part."

“What I attempted – with a mixed degree of success – was what Benedict insists upon all the time for his monks in . . . the Rule – namely, restraint of speech. He does not command silence (silentium) but restraint (taciturnitas), because sometimes silence can be a bad thing, such as when someone needs help with directions or counsel . . . When a monk speaks, he should do so gently, seriously, briefly, and reasonably.”

Beside the advice from scripture that he cites (Ps. 39:1-2; Prov. 10:19; 18:21), why would Benedict be so concerned with a topic about which we hear so little in the church? Michael Casey answers with a litany of possible dangers of talk: ‘It restricts our capacity to listen; it banishes mindfulness and opens the door to distraction and escapism."

"Talking too much often convinces us of the correctness of our own conclusions and leads some into thinking they are wise. It can be a subtle exercise in arrogance and superiority. Often patterns of dependence, manipulation, and dominance are established and maintained by the medium of speech . . . . So if we want to grow in grace, we must learn to talk less and listen more.” (pp. 43-45).

Wise instruction worth my careful attention and adherence.

So . . . What's It Take to Find a Good Chinese Restaurant around Pohang, Korea?

This past weekend, my wife and I had the pleasure of returning the favor of hospitality to our new friends from Seoul, Kurt and J.Sun.  They had traveled Friday along with their friends, Sam and Suzanne, over to the southeast coast to tour in the beautiful island of Tongyeong.  Then, Saturday afternoon, they gave us a call to let us know that they were on their way driving north and anticipated arriving at Handong in a few hours.  We had made reservations for them at the Pine Beach Hotel on Chilpo Beach. (This particular hotel gives all guests from Handong a 30% discount, so we thought that this would be an ideal place for them to stay).  Chilpo is one of several less crowed areas (at least at this time of the year) to the north of downtown Pohang. The hotel itself sits back from the sandy beach with a beautiful, unobstructed view of the sea to the east.

As the time for their arrival drew near, we walked across campus to greet our visitors in front of the University's chapel -- the prominent landmark that greets everyone at the top of the entrance drive leading up the hillside from the new highway that now runs through the valley below our campus. I had suggested to Kurt that he might want to by-pass Pohang as they drove up from the south around the city on the new highway and come in from the west. What I did not realize, though, was that the highway is so new that all the its interchanges have not been completely constructed, and when our friends tried to enter on to the new Interstate (since there are no "states" in Korea, I guess I should call it the "Interprovincial" highway), they could only travel east back toward Daegu, and not west toward our campus.

This unfortunate bit of misdirection resulted in their arrival being delayed until a little after 6pm. Once they did arrive, though, we were able to take a nice strolling tour around the campus with notable stops at All Nations Hall to see both Sandy's and my offices. Then, we continued our walk along the south campus drive and reached our apartment for a short time of light refreshment and conversation, and yes, all six of us were able to squeeze into our studio, though some of us had to stand. (By this point in the story, you might be asking yourself what all this has to do with finding a Chinese restaurant, so here is where the plot thickens).

Our friends had been traveling quite comfortably over the past two days in their Honda Accord – adequate room for four, but six would be a bit tight. So, I called my trusty TA, Mr. Mok, who in turn, summoned a taxi in which Sandy and I would ride through the countryside to Chilpo Beach – the taxi being the guide for our friends to follow in their Honda. (Have I mentioned the tendency of Korean cabdrivers to drive as excessive rates of speed along even the narrowest of roadways?) Picture this – the time is about 7:30 in the evening. The sun has set and darkness is now covering the countryside. One lone taxi speeds along a narrow road followed at varying lengths by a Honda Accord that is clearly doing its best to keep up with each twist and turn along the way. Finally, we drive into the parking lot of the Pine Beach Hotel as the beach is shadowed in the dark of night.

In the distance, the flickering neon sign in the window of the hotel’s famed Chinese restaurant glimmered, and just as we step out of the cars, that sign’s light was extinguished. I suggested that it might be a good idea for our friends to go ahead and check-in so that we could confirm that the room reservations my TA had made were in fact being “held” (those of you familiar with the Jerry Seinfeld Show will recall that what is important is not just the “making” of the reservation, but the “holding” of it) through the evening. Thankfully, the rooms were still available – although one had only twin beds and not a single full-sized bed. Having secured the rooms for our guests, we now set upon to find a Chinese restaurant since the one that we had promised to them in the lobby of the hotel had indeed closed its kitchen just moments before our arrival.

My first thought was to call Mr. Mok and have him order from another nearby Chinese restaurant that I knew delivered to Handong; so I hoped it might also deliver to the hotel where we were on Chilpo Beach. When the innkeeper learned of my plan, though, she recommended that we drive a short 5 minutes north into the next village where she assured us we would find a delightful Chinese restaurant that would be quite suitable for our needs. What I only just then learned, however, was that our friends had not stopped to eat a regular meal all day. They were – and I think this is the first time in this blog that I can actually use this word in all its fullness – famished!

So, rather than waiting for a delivery from a restaurant that I knew, we – all six of us – piled into the Accord – the taxi was long gone by now – and set out to find that Chinese restaurant in the next seaside village up the coastal roadway. True to the innkeeper’s estimation, J. Sun spotted the sign for the restaurant within a short 5-minute drive. But as we turned into the yard in front of the building, we noticed a lady coming out the front door onto the porch. It looked as if she was just about to close and lock the door and turn-off the light.

In a flash, J. Sun pealed herself out of the front passenger seat she had been occupying with Suzanne and ran over to the restaurant owner with what must have been perceived by this dear little lady as a dire request for dinner. I didn’t overhear the exchange, but within mere moments, we were all warmly welcomed into the restaurant as the lady and her husband turned the lights back on and began to fire-up the stove in the kitchen.

What a relief! For the next hour or so, we all sat cross-legged with chopsticks in hand around the center table in the restaurant’s single dining room and enjoyed a wonderful feast of several entrées, including but not limited to, sweet and sour pork along with hand-made noodles and black beans – the local substitute for fried rice in these parts. At the end of this very long day for our new friends, we were able to share a delightful meal together with fervent fellowship around the table of a well-found Chinese Restaurant on the eastern seacoast of beautiful Korea just a tad north of Chilpo Beach.

That’s what it takes.

My Testimony to God's Grace, Mercy and Faithfulness

Last week, the campus pastor asked me to give my testimony at the weekly faculty chapel service that was held this morning.  I thought it best to write out my story in order to keep the telling of it under the twenty-five minutes I had been allotted. Here is what I said:

My parents were devout Lutherans. So, shortly after my birth, they had me baptized in their home congregation, Immanuel Lutheran Church in Boonville, Missouri. I was confirmed in the Lutheran faith at age 13 and expressed an interest in studying for the ministry at that time. Although I had an “academic” understanding of the person of Christ through my upbringing in the church and even an inclination to pursue the ministry, it was not until my freshman year of high school that I came to personal faith in the Lord Jesus.

My algebra teacher spoke with me one day after class and asked me if I was saved. He also pointed me to a number of Bible passages that spoke about a personal relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He encouraged me not only to read God’s Word, but also to study it seriously. I began to attend Bible studies at my teacher’s home on a weekly basis and also during my lunch break from school in the basement of a Baptist church across the street from the high school. I developed friendships with believers from a variety of evangelical and reformed churches. After about one year of study, I came to place my trust in Christ’s work alone for my salvation.

At this point in my life I began to study the Scriptures with an even greater intensity and seriousness. I attended St. Paul’s College High, a Lutheran school located in Concordia, Missouri, for my remaining two years of high school. My direction, though, changed from ministerial training to Christian education, and I made a decision to resign my membership in the Lutheran church in order to fellowship with a small group of believers who met as an assembly of Plymouth Brethren. My decision to leave the Lutheran church was extremely hard on my father whose family had been Lutheran for generations. I did not, however, realize the extent of his disappointment at the time.

Instead, I was being significantly influenced by my reading of the biographies of both George Mueller and Jim Elliot. In addition, while attending a church youth retreat in St. Louis at the South Side Bible Chapel, I met the young lady, Sandy White, who would later become my wife. Throughout this formative period in my life, my parents continued to support me and gave their blessing for both my upcoming marriage to Sandy and our decision to go into full-time ministry as a school teacher with Victory Christian School operated by South Side Bible Chapel, the Plymouth Brethren assembly where Sandy had grown-up and where we would be members.

In August of 1978, Sandy and I were married at South Side and in that same month, the church ordained me to full-time ministry as a teacher at Victory even though I had not yet completed my undergraduate education. I continued to take classes at local colleges during my two years of teaching middle school students at Victory. During these years of teaching, I developed a particular interest in the many legal issues facing Christian schools and ministries, as well as parents who were seeking to home school their children.

After consulting with a number of older brothers and my parents, my wife and I decided to move to South Carolina where I enrolled in Bob Jones University in order to pursue a pre-law course of studies. I believed that the Lord was now leading me to serve others through becoming a lawyer. So, Sandy and I and our 7-month old son, Caleb, traveled over 700 miles to a new place away from our families for the first time.

We spent three years in South Carolina. In addition to my studies at university and working a full-time job, we were actively involved in our local church another Plymouth Brethren assembly -- where I served in both the preaching and teaching of the Word. Upon graduation, and the growth of our family to three children, we returned to St. Louis in the summer of 1983.

We renewed our fellowship with the believers at South Side, and I entered law school at Saint Louis University. During my three years in law school, I continued to serve my church through preaching and teaching. My ministries also expanded to working with college-aged young people. At law school, I assisted with the establishment of a local chapter of the Christian Legal Society and led Bible studies on campus.

After graduating from law school in May 1986 and passing the bar later that summer, I joined a large firm in downtown St. Louis to provide for my wife and now family of four children – our youngest, Justin Mark, had been born in the middle of my second year at law school. I had started the professional stage of my life journey. Still believing that God has called me to use my profession to serve others, I attempted to develop a practice in the area of First Amendment law. I found, however, that the demands and restrictions of being an associate in one of the largest law firms in St. Louis did not complement my pursuits.

Instead, I became distracted by the wiles of “big firm” practice, and after about six years, I was nearly consumed by the world. All the while, though, I continued outwardly to serve in my local church. I was drawing near to God with my lips, but my heart was growing farther and farther away from him. Through a series of challenging circumstances over the next three years of my law practice, I began to experience deeper and deeper bouts of depression largely due to my leading a duplicitous life.

At one point, I remember distinctly driving my car into the parking garage of the office building where I was working, and as I drove down into the garage, I felt as if darkness itself was completely enveloping me. It was my Psalm 88:18 experience. Do you know that verse? I think it must be one of the saddest verses in the Bible. Heman the Erzahite sighs and says to God: “You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.” I turned my car around, drove straight back to the big two-story colonial house I had had built to show all my friends how successful a lawyer I had become, got out of my car, went into the house and went back to bed.

Sandy was concerned that I was ill, but I told that I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I didn’t want to do anything; I didn’t want to talk to anyone; I just wanted to go back to bed. She left me there for several hours, but later she came back to the bedroom and said to me: “I don’t know what is wrong with you. I only know that you need to get back to doing what you used to do.” By that, she meant, I needed to get back to reading God’s Word on a daily basis and journaling my thoughts and ideas, my prayers and concerns. A few days later, by the grace of God, I started back to doing what I had been taught to do in the early years of my walk with Lord.

I was restored in my faith through meditation upon Scripture, prayer and the discipline of journaling. Within the next few months, I ended up leaving that large law firm I had been working for the past nine years, and  joining a small firm of Christian lawyers. In January, 1995, my family and I also decided to move our church fellowship to a small gathering of believers who met at place providentially called Grace Bible Chapel.

This transfer out of “law” and into “grace” was accompanied by my desire and interest to return to full-time ministry. The elders at Grace Bible Chapel invited me to spend a year praying with them about an opportunity for me to serve in a pastoral-teaching ministry within the church. That year turned into 18 months, after which the church ordained me in May 1996. Having now left behind the practice of law, yet another stage in my journey had begun. Over the next four years, I committed myself to ministry in the local church. My elders also encouraged me to start theological studies at Covenant Seminary, and I continued there as a part-time student for the next seven years.

During that same time period, I also started teaching on a part-time basis at Missouri Baptist University as a lecturer in law. In January, 2000, the University offered me a full-time appointment to its faculty as an assistant professor. This marked a new stage in my journey. The course of my life over 25 years to that point had been marked by my respective callings to teaching, law and ministry. These three strands were brought together in the opportunity to serve on the faculty of Missouri Baptist. I began teaching as an assistant professor of Interdisciplinary Studies. Later, I was appointed Chair of the Division of Social & Behavioral Sciences and then, Associate Academic Dean of Undergraduate Studies.

The high-light of my years of teaching at Missouri Baptist was the opportunity I was given to develop a senior seminar focusing students on critical thinking and analytical writing skills. The course required the students to read broadly and to consider what it meant to live an examined, an integrated and an offered life according to one’s calling. The theme of this course became the challenge I would use to conclude every class session of every course I have taught from then until now: Question Everything! Hold on to the Good!

In the fall of 2003, I had the privilege of meeting two professors from Handong while presenting a paper at an academic conference in Florida. Those two were Professor Hee Eun Lee and Professor Guk Woon “Kuyper” Lee. They told me about a young university in Korea called Handong, and they invited me to apply for a summer visiting professorship.

The next summer, after completing my seminary studies at Covenant, I traveled here to Korea for the first time and taught a course on Antitrust Law at Handong International Law School. Upon my return to St. Louis that fall, I continued to serve on the faculty at Missouri Baptist until August, 2005 when I began teaching as a part-time lecturer at Fontbonne University and also started my PhD studies in Theology & Culture at Concordia Seminary.

For the next two years while teaching and studying, I also served as a chaplain to the legal community in St. Louis, Missouri through the Christian Legal Society’s Spirit of St. Louis Pilot Project in Marketplace Discipleship. In conjunction with this ministry, I was ordained as a pastor of discipleship by my current home church, West Hills Community Church.

After completing that project, I continued to teach part-time as a Senior Lecturer at Fontbonne University as well as study in the Theology & Culture PhD program at Concordia Seminary. Last summer, I received an invitation to come back here to Handong as a visiting professor of American Law in the undergraduate School of Law’s U.S. and International Law program.

God has led me on a long journey. It has taken many turns -- from my Lutheran family upbringing, through the Plymouth Brethren to now serving at a Baptist church. Along the way I have been a student at a Fundamentalist University – Bob Jones, a Jesuit Law School – Saint Louis University, both a Presbyterian and Lutheran Seminary – Covenant and Concordia. I’ve taught at a Southern Baptist and a Catholic University – Missouri Baptist and Fontbonne – and now, for this academic year – I teaching here at Handong.

All in all, as I look back over my nearly 51 years upon this earth, I realize anew that it has only been the grace, mercy and faithfulness of God through Christ Jesus that has brought me through. I continue to look forward to the opportunities for service that the Lord has yet ahead of me as I continue to seek, by His grace and strength, to fulfill both His calling to teach and His purpose through serving others in this my generation. I can confidently say, as I know you too will confess, that it is only: “By the grace of God [that] I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.”

If the LORD had not been my help,
my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
When I thought, “My foot slips,”
your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up.
When the cares of my heart are many,
your consolations cheer my soul.
Psalm 94: 17-19

The Ministry of Holding One's Tongue

Brother Bonhoeffer taught the importance of speaking fewer words, especially when the more words spoken would tend to tear down others rather than build them up. In his chapter from Life Together devoted to the "ministry" we owe one another in community, he places the "ministry of holding one's tongue" as the first.

Bonhoeffer counsels us to practice these ministries in order to guard against the natural tendency toward ascendancy and control that arises in every human community. This grasping for power is frequently accompanied by condemning and judging others in the struggle of the natural man for self-justification.

In response, Bonhoeffer writes: "Often we combat our evil thoughts most effectively if we absolutely refuse to allow them to be expressed in words. It is certain that the spirit of self-justification can be overcome only by the Spirit of grace; nevertheless, isolated thoughts of judgment can be curbed and smothered by never allowing them the right to be uttered, except as a confession of sin . . . . "He who holds his tongue in check controls both mind and body" (James 3:2ff). Thus, it must be a decisive rule of every Christian fellowship that each individual is prohibited from saying much that occurs to him."
. . . .
"Where this discipline of the tongue is practiced right from the beginning, each individual will make a matchless discovery. He will be able to cease from constantly scrutinizing the other person, judging him, condemning him, putting him in his particular place where he can gain ascendancy over him and thus doing violence to him as a person. Now he can allow the brother to exist as a completely free person, as God made him to be. His view expands and, to his amazement, for the first time he sees, shining above his brethren, the richness of God's creative glory."

Through my on-going experiences with students, colleagues and administrators up to this very day, I continue to learn the wisdom of Brother Bonhoeffer's words that affirm, in nearly every context and circumstance, the adage: Fewer words are best.

A Teacher's Dilemma

One of my students recently posed a question that prompted me to pause and think.  The student attends my Tuesday and Friday morning class on Legal Argumentation.  The purpose of this course is to sharpen both the students' analytical thinking and their legal writing and speaking skills. I had given the class their first writing assignment -- a research memorandum.  I emphasized the importance of their writing in a clear, concise and convincing manner. 

I also stressed to the class the importance of choosing the right words in arguing the position they had determined was correct. Finally, I charged them to observe the wisdom of the Chinese proverb that you see written at right. It reads: "Fewer words are best." I'd been told that it may also be translated: "Fewer words are beautiful." It was this last bit of writing advice that confused my student and gave rise to her question.  

"I thought you were supposed to be teaching us to write like lawyers. Why do you say that we should use fewer words? I thought lawyers always used a lot of words." 

I had to admit that her understanding of lawyers -- and American lawyers, in particular -- was indeed correct. Lawyers are professionals who use words -- lots of words -- to make their point and advance their clients' interests. In fact, I have often admitted to my students that as a recovering lawyer, I suffer from a professional disability -- I talk too much. In a meager attempt at self-justification, I offer the weak excuse that after ten years of a law practice where I essentially got paid by the word, I developed the nasty habit. 

But, my student's question presented me with a dilemma. To teach effective writing and speaking skills, I have to use words. But the more words I use, I am actually doing the very thing I'm trying to teach my students to avoid. If I use fewer words, I fear my teaching will be ineffective; if I use more words, though, I won't be able to demonstrate the principal lesson of the course. What's a teacher to do? 

Is it possible to teach, write and speak effectively with fewer words? The wisdom of that Chinese proverb is consistent with the teaching of Scripture.  James admonishes us to be "quick to hear, slow to speak." (James 1:19) Solomon, too, teaches us:  "Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool's voice with many words." (Ecclesiastes 5:2-3).  And finally, Jesus himself warns us that "on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak." (Matthew 12:36)

If I am to follow these instructions, I will need to slow down and choose my words with care.  Yes, it is possible to be an effective communicator with fewer words, but it takes time.  In fact, it takes more time to compose an argument in a clear, concise and convincing manner than it does to come up with one twice as long.  Thus, I must be slow, not hasty, to speak a few careful, not careless, words.

I don't know if my student realized how telling her question was.  It prompted me to remember to practice first before I seek to teach.

Tell Me All Your Thoughts On God

On Wednesday this week, I gave the talk in our student English Chapel.  I had been asked to address the question: Why to Christians believe in the Trinity?  Here's what I had to say.

Cordell P. Schulten at HGU Wednesday Chapel Mar. 31, 2010 from younghoon Mok on Vimeo.