The Prime Time of My Life
Despite the pandemic, the time has flown by so quickly as it is already the season of harvest. It seems as if we’ve lost more than seven months since the pandemic began in mid-March. Around this time every year, we used to plan for events personally and within the ministry in preparation for Thanksgiving Day, but this year, we’ll likely have a rather strange, unprecedented Thanksgiving holiday. Nevertheless, God still continues to work for salvation in His good plan and will. Especially, He has allowed us to carry out a far more meaningful project during this pandemic, through a couple that is so lacking and weak, as well as the ministry. In this project, the gospel has been effectively spread by various missionaries since July, by sharing the bread of life among the poor and disabled in 16 countries (Luke 4:18). Praise the Lord! In spite of the danger of coronavirus, I am very proud and grateful that there are many Korean missionaries who share the gospel of Christ, along with meals, to save the souls of their neighbors who are alienated in poor mission sites. I see many young missionaries who are indebted to the Gospel, vowing to the Lord to become missionaries, and taking their young children to missions in order to fully devote themselves to God. They remind me of many American missionaries who came to the land of the uncivilized Chosun and were martyred while preaching the gospel. Without their hard work and sacrifice, today’s Korea and the Korean Church would not exist. It seems that the time has come to distinguish the wheat from the chaff, and the sheep from the goat, due to the pandemic. The thought that comes to my mind after turning 70 is the word “prime time”. For some reason, I feel as if “the prime time of my life” has not arrived yet. In general, “prime time” is the most splendid, successful, and honorable period of someone’s life. Just as the prime time of fruits and grains is not when their leaves are thick and their flowers are in full bloom, but when they are ripe and waiting for harvest, the concept of a Christian’s prime time should be different from that of the world’s. As mentioned earlier, I can’t begin to express how busy, yet inspired and challenged I am by communicating with more than 17 missionaries. I would like to share a letter from a missionary in Africa whom we support. She is the wife of a missionary who passed away abruptly of a heart attack about two years ago in the mission field, but she is still devoted to mission work at the site with her two young daughters. “Someone asked me: ‘When would you like to go back to if you could time travel? When was your prime time?’ I was asked if I wanted to go back to the time when I had a husband. But, Pastor Park, I would like to take a time machine to the very day before I am called by God to join Him in heaven. I think my hey-day will be the day the school has been completely built, the students are all grown as good soldiers of Christ when I have raised my daughters to be strong in their faith and they have their own families; it will be when I am waiting for my time to go to heaven when I hear the Lord say that I have taken up all the calls He has given me, and that I’ve worked hard. I’m running towards that day. Be encouraged, Pastor Park!”
I cannot explain how touching it was to read this message. The pinnacle of the Christian life must be the day when we meet the Lord. Therefore, the life of faith is a course that runs toward its pinnacle. Recently I have asked my wife when was her prime time, and she said in tears. “I have been enjoying the prime time of my life since I became disabled and was called to the disability ministry”. Of course, she cannot wait to see the Lord Jesus every day, which will be her ultimate prime time. Praise God!
“Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (Phi 3:12).
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