"I Am Doing a New Thing": Unmasking the Mask & Tearing Down Walls
A defining characteristic of Asian culture is the maintenance of face for the sake of honor. Even if life is falling apart, Asian people will enter into public spaces with their masks on and convey to the rest of the world everything is alright. Sometimes we wear masks and build up walls to protect ourselves. In the process, we end up hurting ourselves even more though. The past several months have been difficult for me, especially in my ministry work. Several family members and friends both near and far know what I have been going through, but for the most part, the rest of the world does not know. It's been a season of ambiguity and not-knowing, waiting for God to see what he does next. There's been hurt and pain. There's been lack of communication and miscommunication. There's been unspoken expectations and assumptions. We often hope that the Church is a place where people can come and seek refuge from the hurts of the world. The reality though is that sometimes