Issue #7 - Learning to Listen in a Season of Loss

As the calendar turns to a new year, I find myself pausing to reflect on the significant milestones of the past eighteen months. It has been a season marked by farewells. In August 2024, my father passed away after a battle with Parkinson’s Dementia. Just over a year later, in September 2025, I lost my mother to complications following heart surgery.

My father and I shared a strong relationship, but for much of my life, our conversations centered around me—my family, my ministry, and church planting. By the time I realized I wanted to know more about his story, the fog of Parkinson’s had settled in deeply. He could no longer stroll down memory lane or share the deeper longings of his heart. Our conversations became fragmented, and I came to the painful realization that I had assumed I had more time.

Determined not to make the same mistake, I made a concerted effort to approach my relationship with my mother differently after my father passed. I wanted to listen more carefully—to understand her struggles, her motivations, and her joys. As we sifted through our family history together, I uncovered profound sacrifices I had never known about.

I learned that she lost her own father at just sixteen years old. I learned that she left school so she could work and support her brother through law school. I learned about the quiet heartbreak my parents carried when they couldn't afford to return to Korea for my uncle’s funeral.

I didn’t know these things because I had never taken the time to ask.

This realization has convicted me, and it has begun to shape my spiritual life as well. I’ve come to see that my faith journey has often been one-sided. Too often, my prayers have centered on me, my needs, and my requests. But true curiosity about God should compel us to discover, to ask questions, and to seek His heart, not just His hand.

I invite you to join us in "Rooted and Ready." Let us take this opportunity to draw nearer to God, to ask the deep questions, and to establish a relationship with Him that goes beyond the surface.

-Jin