Crushes? -- tehehe

I wonder: when we face a crush (and this includes guys too), is there an upright and Biblical way to handle our emotions?

In Hiding

It's not clear why Adam and Eve hid from God after eating the Garden's forbidden fruit. Did the couple fear confrontation? Did they fear punishment? Did they fear death? Or my personal guess, did the fruit of "knowledge of good and evil" reveal to them that their sin has forever separated them from God?

It's not clear why the two hid from each other either -- sewing clothes out of fig leaves and "making coverings for themselves." Why did they feel the need to hide from each other? What effect did sin and shame have on their relationship?

In either case, the Bible simply gives Adam's reply: "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

Fear. Nakedness. Hiding.

I don't think Adam really believed he could outrun or hide from the omniscient and omnipresent God. I think he hid because he just felt so, so ashamed. Maybe even to the point that he believed God could no longer accept him.

It's difficult to expose our shame, our sins, our failures, our flaws,and our inadequacies. Sometimes I can't even admit when I've gained 5 lbs, or received a bad score on a test, much less deeper issues like chronic sins of envy, lust, hatred, gluttony, and pride. But I've been witnessing that not only does God embrace us despite our impurities; He works through them to create ultimate good. How bizarre, strange, and yet so incredibly magnificent.

In my failures, I'm learning to embrace the flawed woman that God has built me to be. Not only so, but I soon want to boast of my weaknesses, so that it will be evident it is Christ who works in me.

"Noonchi"

My mom swears she has this thing called noonchi. It's actually kind of cute. At graduation, she said she analyzed the boys who were there, and using her expert noonchi, she said she picked out the most "marry-able" guy (I disagreed with her for obvious reasons... haha. I don't think I could ever see my guy friends that way.)

In Korean culture, there's a concept called noonchi. Loosely, it can be translated as being intuitive, mindful, and quick-witted; or more simply, it's having the ability to understand the things unsaid. The purpose of noonchi is to recognize people and things for what they really are without any direct communication of it.

When it comes to ministry, I really think God can use people with noonchi to reach out. There's a line in "Everything," by Hillsong, that captures the essence of having eyes for His people:

"Open our eyes,
to see the things
that make Your heart cry
to be the Church
that You would desire"

There are so many people to be loved, many hungry souls to be served. One of my ministry struggles has been noticing others' needs before mine, especially in times of my own stress and brokenness. When I'm burning out, I'll turn my noonchi radar off so that I could use my energy to focus on getting back on my own feet.

But I really want to follow Christ's example. Even after accomplishing miracles, after feeding the multitudes, after traveling on foot to different towns, after giving multiple sermons, after answering people's difficult questions, Christ still looked at them with "compassion," and He served them for "they were like sheep without a shepherd."

Philippians 2:3-8 becomes more and more real to me every time I revisit it:

³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. ⁴Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Lord, let the interests of others be known to me! Open my eyes so that I can see the Church the way you do, and expand my heart so that I may serve people the way Christ did. Help me to understand people and their needs, to initiate intentional relationship, to see the conditions of people's hearts, and most importantly, embrace them in love.

(That's so interesting. I typed in "intuition" for an image search, and half the images were of eyes.)