The Courage to Walk in the Darkness: Turn Crisis into Opportunity

By Sung Kun Park and Sarah Park

The Courage to Walk in the Darkness offers a series of gentle yet firm messages from Pastor Sung Kun Park. This book will guide readers to grow in spiritual maturity and help renew their hearts to seek true and biblically centered living. When we lean on God with unwavering faith, we can overcome any hardships and courageously keep walking in the darkness of night until the bright morning arrives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Apr 12, 2024
• ISBN: 9798385210909

Sung Kun Park

Sung Kun Park serves the Saenuri Church (Berendo Street Baptist Church) in the heart of Koreatown in Los Angeles as a second-generation senior pastor. In his ministry of over thirty-three years, he has been highly regarded and known as one of “the most influential preachers” in the Korean-American faith community in the US. He was also one of the top ten preachers of South Korea, although his church was based in California.

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Preface

Take just one more step when everyone is ready to quit.

The following story is from Joseph M. Marshall’s book Keep Going: The Art of Perseverance. A Native American chief had a pretty daughter, and three young men proposed to her. In order to select just one, the chief gave them an assignment. It was to climb a high mountain in the back of his village seven times on a cold, raining night. The three young men made efforts to climb the muddy slope in the rain but struggled. By the third time they reached the peak, they were soaked in the mud, and the chilling air penetrated into their bones. By the fifth time, they all were exhausted to the point where they crawled on their knees. But they did not give up and persevered to the top. After the final and seventh trip, they all collapsed on the ground.

It was then that the chief asked them to get up and make one more trip. Two men responded angrily. Their energy was completely spent, and they couldn’t even move a finger. Such a request was outrageous to them. However, the third man, although equally exhausted, got himself back up, using the last ounce of his energy in his body. He made just another step, then fell to the ground. The chief selected him as his son-in-law. Why? It is true that all three failed to make another trip. Yet, the chief acknowledged the last man’s courage to take another step when everyone wanted to quit.

In our life journeys, the roads are not all easy and flat. At times, they are like rough slopes on a rainy night. In front of a long way ahead with an unclear view, many people may stop and give up. At such a moment, if we can take just one more step, looking unto God, it may transform our paths. God is pleased with our faith and courage.

Consider people of faith from the Bible. They all took one more step of faith, when they faced a limit or an impossible obstacle ahead. Abraham saw shining stars in the night sky, in a tent of despair. Moses took a step forward, in front of the impossible Red Sea. Samuel heard God’s voice in the dark hour of his people. David dreamt a future in the midst of a wilderness in Judah. Elijah heard the sound of a roaring rain from a distant, small cloud. Ezekiel saw a vision of the sky opening and a new morning of recovery while the Israelites were mourning. We need this kind of courage, rooted in faith. No matter how dark and hopeless the circumstances are, God will open the sky to a new morning, if we courageously take one more step.

The reality that we deal with is hardly easy. Many of us may have lost jobs due to recession, suffered closing business, or even lost homes. Some may have felt despair after a serious diagnosis or groaned in pain after going through a divorce. The cries of many young men cover the land as they work construction jobs to get by without a dream. To compare to a type of weather, it would be an overcast gloom, and to compare to a time, it would be like a dark night. What hope can we find in this grim reality?

The night for the immigrants may especially be more dark and lonely as they fight for survival on a completely foreign land. Many diasporas wipe their tears in secret, at a fast food chain, in a dusty sewing factory, or at the cashier’s register of a mart. If we are unable to whine or scream about our hurts, or if no one will even care about injustices we suffered, how can we sing about hope in such a cold reality?

Nonetheless, we must not give up. Let us take just one more step when everyone else has stopped. Then let us look unto the sky. God will have prepared a shining morning of blessings. Instead of anticipating easing of the circumstances or expecting a storm to stop, we can take courage in faith and take one more step.

Pastor Sung Kun Park

December 2015

Los Angeles

1

Walking on the Night Path in the Dark

²¹ When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. ²² Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. ²³ He pleaded earnestly with him, My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live. ²⁴ So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. ²⁵ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ because she thought, If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. ²⁹ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

³⁰ At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, Who touched my clothes?

³¹ You see the people crowding against you, his disciples answered, and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’

³² But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He said to her, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.

³⁵ While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. Your daughter is dead, they said. Why bother the teacher anymore?

³⁶ Overhearing[a] what they said, Jesus told him, Don’t be afraid; just believe.

³⁷ He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. ³⁸ When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. ³⁹ He went in and said to them, Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep. ⁴⁰ But they laughed at him.

After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. ⁴¹ He took her by the hand and said to her, Talitha koum! (which means Little girl, I say to you, get up!). ⁴² Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.

—Mark 5:21–42

Life has a pause

Michael Thomas was on his way to a business meeting and was driving in a hurry. The traffic light turned red as soon as he was about to enter an intersection. It was rush hour. Thomas was thinking, When it turns green, I’ll make sure to be the first one to jump at the signal. At this moment, his top priority was to get somewhere as fast as he could. But when the traffic light was about to change, he noticed a blind couple at that intersection. The husband was holding a child’s hand, and the wife was carrying an infant on her back. They must have mistakenly entered the busy intersection, just when the cars were ready to jump furiously any second. Thomas felt anxious. This is going to be bad. All the cars will suddenly brake to screeching stops, and the drivers will be mean and angry. Surprisingly, what Thomas expected to happen did not occur. All the cars remained unmoving in unison. No one screamed. As if time had paused for the blind couple and family, it was awfully quiet only at that intersection. Then someone said, To the right. He was helping the blind couple. Then someone else continued, Right, right. It became one chorus of many drivers. The family with disability followed the guiding chorus and safely arrived at the other end of the pedestrian road. The drivers all applauded together. Michael Thomas recalled that this was one of the most beautiful moments that he remembered to witness. This heartwarming episode is in the book 101 More Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit.

We live in the age of speed. The faster the better; we believe in the merit of speed. Cars, airplanes, internet connection, and mobile phones are all better if they are faster. Customers prefer faster service at restaurants. Recently, a coffee shop named Cielo opened in my town. It means heaven in Spanish. This coffee shop immediately took off to become a huge success. The secret was its speedy service. If a customer preorders, he or she can pick up the order without wait, not even one second. Because there’s no waiting, they call it heaven coffee.

But is speed really the secret to true success? Is it really better to be faster? Going at too high a speed may wreck our lives sometimes, and racing only with a forward focus may cause us to lose valuable things in life. A plan achieved is not necessarily a life lived with victory. What’s more important is the direction with life. The right direction and clear purpose would be more important than running fast. God sometimes places obstacles in our way in order to slow us down and even stop. If our life is at a stop, it’s a good time to examine our faith. God blesses us anew through this pause.

Why Jesus Paused

Jesus, too, had stopped on his way for an urgent matter. After Jesus had performed miracles and proclaimed his words in Decapolis, he went to Capernaum by boat. But multitudes of people gathered at Capernaum. They probably heard about him and his works in Decapolis. Among them was a synagogue leader named Jairus.

He managed the synagogue as a leader of the community. The Jews built basilicas in many regions as slaves of Babylon. There were three positions in this basilica or community hall. First, the hazan was an administrator that oversaw the general operations. Second, the rabbi taught the laws. Third, the synagogue leader managed the operations of the synagogue. Thus, the synagogue leader had been publicly acknowledged as a leader of the community. He was a respected figure in the region. Accordingly, he had reputation, power, and authority.

Notice that a synagogue leader of such status had kneeled before Jesus and bowed down. His twelve-year-old daughter was dying of a serious disease. No parent would sit around and do nothing when his or her child is dying. A parent would go the distance and kneel with humility if it could help the child. Because of his sick child, he kneels at Jesus’ feet and desperately makes a request. He asked Jesus to come to his home and pray for the daughter. Jesus understood the urgency, so he headed to Jairus’s home with his disciples.

There was another group of people besides the disciples who followed Jesus. Suddenly, an unexpected situation unfolded. A woman had come from behind Jesus and touched his robe without permission. She had suffered a chronic illness of hemorrhage for twelve years. This illness was considered unclean at the time. She had tried to be healed, seeing different doctors and trying various medications and methods but to no avail. When she heard that Jesus was passing through her town, she believed that even touching his robe would be enough to cure her illness. With faith, she touched his robe.

Jesus sensed that power went out of his body, then looked around. The NIV bible in English describes this part in more detail: He turned.  . . kept looking around (Mark 5:30–32). He stopped walking. He came to a full stop. Isn’t Jesus the son of God and the creator of the universe with all the glory and power? Yet Jesus stopped. And he asked the woman about her circumstance. After he heard of her courageous faith, he even blessed her.

Although it must have been a fortunate blessing to the woman, how would Jairus have felt, considering his urgent matter? Wouldn’t he have felt frustrated and impatient by Jesus’ stopping? At that moment, people from his home came and delivered the message of his daughter’s death. He might have blamed the woman, and perhaps even Jesus who stopped on the way. Jesus’ stopping brought upon the most unfortunate event to Jairus and his family.

When we face a dead end, what should we do? When we have to give up the familiar route of life, due to a physical illness or a special circumstance, what can we do? Why does God make us come to a dead end? If it was God who made us stop, there must be a reason. And the reason is to bless us, not to harm us.

A Blessing to Learn More Precious Things

God stops us to bless us. The blessing in the stop is our chance to learn more precious things. God has a reason to make us stop. We don’t get to stop by chance. There are precious things that we need to know and see. Because there was something he deemed important, Jesus stopped. It was the woman with hemorrhage. In his time in Jewish society, women held a very low status. Women were insignificant and didn’t even reach citizenship status. Moreover, this woman had a shameful illness. She had been suffering not just a few years but for twelve long years. Her condition prohibited entrance into the holy sanctuary. She probably wasn’t able to carry on a normal way of living in that society. She lived an isolated, miserable, and unhappy life. Then Jesus stopped for this woman.

Jesus’ values are revealed in this situation. He valued saving lives more than achieving some great milestones or successes. It’s his will that there is nothing more urgent and important than saving lives. While he is the big God who created the universe and performed amazing miracles, the same God also stops and pays full attention to me who is troubled and sick.

Jesus cares most about loving one soul. In contrast, people in today’s world seem to run in the opposite direction. People like to boast to others, so they lean towards advantageous and external achievements. They validate themselves on the basis of goals, achievements, and missions completed. On the outside, they love the fruits, yet in reality, there’s no true fruits that Jesus looks for. Jesus wants to touch and heal the hurts that are sitting deep in one’s soul. In the world that values mass and shapes, it would be difficult to realize the true value in life. We should pay attention to what makes man truly good and beautiful.

What is precious in life? Does it matter so much how fast we get somewhere, before others do? Would it be a successful life if we lived competitively so as to arrive at the next destination earlier than others? This is a myth. What’s really important is that we are able to stop to love others. We should have Jesus’ mindset that allows us to stop our busy footsteps to take care of one suffering soul. Jesus would not be pleased with our mechanical, goal-driven ways that help us achieve our own agenda while neglecting relationships. What would Jesus be pleased to see? When we love those whom we get to meet in our life’s journey and share genuine fellowships, he would be pleased. When God stops us, he wants us to see more precious things, such as caring and loving our family, friends, and neighbors.

A Blessing that Strengthens Faith

When God stops us in our tracks, he wants to give us an opportunity to strengthen our faith. When Jesus arrived at Jairus’s home, the daughter had already passed. It was all over for Jairus. Then Jesus said, Don’t be afraid. Have faith. Jairus must have thought, What use would it be to not fear or worry, after his daughter already died? Jairus might have asked in suspicion, What does it mean to have faith? Jesus meant that he should not look at the circumstance. Instead of the miserable predicament of his daughter’s death, he was telling him to look towards Jesus.

Jesus’ stopping on the way became a test of faith for Jairus. What Jairus was now facing was not what he wanted. Jairus wanted Jesus to heal his daughter in time. But his daughter died instead of being healed. Things went the completely opposite way. In such a situation as this, how can we trust in Jesus? In an undesired place, how can we believe him?

We may be asked the same question. It is in human nature to blame when we are in an unwanted situation. As life throws us into a miserable situation, we quickly tend to be frustrated and complain. At that moment, Jesus asks us, Can you still trust in me, even when everything is against you, and all your dreams and plans are impossible to reach? The right response of faith would be that we will always trust in him.

In Jesus’ words, fear and faith are in contrast. They have opposite meanings. When we have faith, fear cannot overtake us. When we have fear, we cannot have faith at the same time. In other words, they cannot coexist. In order to live life firmly in faith, we have to choose one. Our fruits in life would be different depending on our choice, whether we would be shaken by circumstance or whether we would always trust in God in all circumstances.

Peter once walked on the turbulent sea. Jesus first walked towards him on the water and asked Peter to get off the boat and do the same. So Peter got off the boat and tried a