Just imagine if once per week, you were given 875,000 of whatever you wanted. 875,000 of anything is a huge number, let alone that same amount to be given to you once per week. You could be given 875,000 dollars a week. That would total $45.5 million per year! In my case, I would want 875,000 Giordanos’ Pizza coupons per week. As much as I love, and as much as I eat Giordanos Pizza, 45.5 million coupons per year would more than guarantee me the thorough enjoyment of eating my favorite food from my favorite restaurant every meal of every day for the rest of my life!

But what if you were given 875,000 people each week who came just to listen to you talk? What would you talk about? What could you possibly say to 91 million ears per year? This is the exact challenge that Dr. David Cho faces each Sunday in Korea. Dr. Cho is the founder, and senior pastor of the world’s largest church, all 875,000 members. On Sunday November 13, I had the honor of attending a service at my family’s church. As it turns out, the senior pastor at my family’s church is a good friend with the same man who has the ability to spiritually influence millions of people each year, reaching from small villages in Korea to large metropolitan cities like Chicago. On that Sunday in November, Dr. Cho came to suburban Chicago to speak to my family’s church. At first site, I was amazed at the little and fragile stature of Dr. Cho. Yet I was duly amazed as he opened his mouth with his large and profoundly clear message on activating one’s faith. In his message, the main conclusion was to believe in faith instead of feelings.

That simple 6 word conclusion has proven to be a very significant struggle in many of the individual’s lives who are associated with our organization. I have had those within the foundation tell me that believing in faith is the hardest thing to do. From that perspective, when you take a closer look at faith, what exactly is faith? You cannot see faith; how do you know you have enough belief in faith; and even if you believe that you have faith, is it the right type of faith? These questions are things that we deal with on a daily basis. Yet what I have found is that questions of faith, and surrounding faith, are not the hardest part to deal with. As it turns out, most people that we work with are more likely to believe in, or even want to believe in a higher power that affects and/or influences their lives. The real struggle comes in the second part of Dr. Cho’s conclusion, not believing in feelings. From a young age we are all taught from our parents, family members, teachers, counselors and anyone our senior to listen and respond to our feelings. In a larger societal sense, existential feelings and the ability to express them have always been a bench mark of a well acculturated individual. Whether or not we heed this advice is another matter…none the less, the ingrained sense of self related through feelings is consistent.

In the story of Jeremiah and King Zedekiah (Jeremiah 38:14-23), Jeremiah disseminates requested information to King Zedekiah that Israel needs to surrender to Babylon, in which case the city will be spared and no lives will be lost. And if Zedekiah does not surrender, the city will be burned down and he and his family will lose their lives. As Zedekiah mulls over the decision, looking around at his palaces, gold, city walls and his stature as king, he decides to not believe (or have faith in) the word Jeremiah received. Shortly after, Babylon invaded and the city was burned and Zedekiah and his family all perished.

The importance of this story lies in the plain fact that not every way the Lord has planned for us and our eternal well being is the easy, or ego boosting way. Therefore if we choose to rely on our feelings and our surroundings as we see it, we will never be able to open ourselves up through an unyielding belief in faith, to the prosperous world we were meant to live in. As Bible scholar W. Robertson Nicoll states, even when people see the probability of disaster ahead, they will wait a little longer to see if they can rescue something more. What they have always seems more to them than what they are. And friends, I am here to say that what we are, who we are, and who we represent should always mean more to us and our belief system than what we have.

Thank you and God Bless,

Andrew Marin