Faith & Life

A Precise Diagnosis

One early morning, I suddenly woke up with a sharp pressure in my upper abdomen. It was a type of pain I had never experienced before, and I panicked, wondering if I had come down with some kind of illness. I hurriedly searched online, but even the so-called ocean of information couldn’t provide an answer. I tried to go back to sleep, but the pain wouldn’t subside, and I spent the entire night tossing and turning. By morning, the discomfort and burning sensation around my upper abdomen still lingered. The pain was so intense that even drinking water—or simply swallowing—became difficult. I immediately went to a nearby clinic. The doctor couldn’t identify the exact cause either, and simply advised me…

Hong Jeong-eun from Yongin, Korea

The Power of Gratitude

I currently serve as a social service worker. Thanks to this role, I’ve had the opportunity to participate in a work mission group, even while still a university student. At first, everything felt unfamiliar and difficult. Each morning, I could only think about wanting to go home, and I found myself admiring the other members who faithfully showed up to work every day. What changed me was something quite simple: a gratitude journal. The members of our Work Mission write and share gratitude journals every day. Whether it’s something small like being thankful for clear skies or a cup of coffee from the boss or something more serious, they always found something to be grateful for, even in the midst…

Kim Ga-gyeong from Gwangju, Korea

Who Has the Right to Forgive?

One night, after working late, I was on my way home when I saw a police car parked along the roadside near my apartment. A quarrel had broken out between a taxi driver and an intoxicated passenger. Curious, I stopped to observe. The passenger had vomited in the taxi, and the driver was demanding over 100,000 KRW (approx. 86 USD) in compensation. Feeling the amount was excessive, the passenger called the police. Initially, I too wondered if the taxi driver was asking for too much. But after hearing his explanation, my perspective shifted. The driver explained that vomiting incidents were not uncommon when transporting drunk passengers late at night. That’s why, before departure, he had clearly warned the passenger: “If…

Jeong Jae-pil from Anyang, Korea

A Spiritual Death Row Inmate

I read an article about death row inmates. It talked about prisoners who had been sentenced to death but remained in prison for years because their executions had not been carried out. The article mentioned that some of them were being transferred to other prison. I felt a chill run down my spine upon realizing that some of these notorious criminals—whose names I instantly recognized—were still alive. The comments section was flooded with criticism. Many people complained that housing them was a waste of taxpayers’ money, and some even insisted that their sentences should be carried out immediately. I found myself nodding in agreement—until I suddenly paused.
 “Aren’t I a spiritual death row inmate too?” People don’t usually feel sympathy…

Choi Hyeong-sun from Cheongju, Korea

My Mom’s Wounds

One afternoon, I received an unexpected call at work. It was the school nurse. “Your child injured his knee during P.E. I think you should take him to the hospital.” My heart dropped. I rushed to school without hesitation, swept my child into the car, and drove off—my mind a blank canvas of worry. Unsure where to turn, I contacted a few friends and was directed to a reputable orthopedic clinic nearby. After X-rays and several tests, the doctor recommended we go to a larger hospital. Thanks to prompt action, my child received surgery without delay. Once the crisis had passed, I called my mom. She anxiously inquired about her grandchild, asking again and again for details. When I finally…

Seo Jin-hee from Busan, Korea

Mom’s Kimchi

It was early winter. When I felt my phone vibrate, I had a hunch it was my mom—and I was right. She was calling to say the kimchi was ready and we should come pick it up. I didn’t even need to check the caller ID, because for the past three days, she’d been calling regularly with updates on the kimchi-making process. A few months earlier, Mom had given me a sack of dried red chili peppers—some she and my brother had grown over the summer, and another sack gifted by the neighbor. She had also left me with a heartfelt reminder: “Sweetheart, if I were still healthy, I’d clean and grind these for you. But I don’t have the…

Gu Yeon-hee from Suncheon, Korea

Mom’s Memory

While our mom was hospitalized, she couldn’t stop worrying about the vegetable patch she had planted. My sister and I confidently assured her that we would take care of everything, and went down to our childhood home. After spending the entire day in the field, our arms and legs felt like lead, and our shoulders and backs ached from exhaustion. That night, as I tossed and turned, my eyes landed on a thick notebook. “Oh my goodness . . . ” It was a journal—meticulously kept by our mom. I remembered how, after selling her modest harvest, she would sit down each evening to write in her ledger. That notebook held two years’ worth of her quiet, challenging life in…

Kim Seon-suk from Chungju, Korea

The Day I Helped My Dad

My dad delivers snacks and beverages to construction sites. It’s physically demanding work—carrying heavy boxes and, at times, even refrigerators—especially for someone over sixty. Although I often worried about him, I never really thought to help, until this past Labor Day when I finally made up my mind to lend a hand. When I told him I wanted to work with him, he laughed and said, “It’s going to be tough. Are you sure you can handle it? Don’t tell me afterward that you’re never doing this again.”
 That morning, just getting out of my cozy blankets to get ready felt like a battle. I kept thinking, “I work, too. Shouldn’t I be able to sleep in and rest on…

Park So-yeon from Seoul, Korea

Visualization Techniques

At work, I received an email offering a birthday gift—any book of my choice. Drawn by its title, I selected a self-help book that seemed light yet insightful. Among its chapters, one section left a lasting impression: Visualization Techniques.
 Visualization, the book explained, is the practice of mentally picturing the successful fulfillment of one’s goal. According to research, students who employed this technique in their studies significantly outperformed those who did not. The key to effective visualization lies in vivid specificity. The human brain responds more strongly to images than to words and often cannot distinguish between imagination and reality. To bring a goal to life, one must paint it vividly in the mind as if the scene were unfolding…

Kim Min-jae from Gwangju, Korea

Growing Pains

One day, my elementary school-aged son came to me in tears, saying his legs hurt. I massaged them, and he seemed to feel better at least for a while. But within a few days, the pain returned so severely that he couldn’t even bend his ankle. We decided to take him to the hospital the next morning. That night, I stayed up, applying hot compresses and massaging his legs. As I held my son, who tossed and turned in pain, I prayed that it was nothing serious. By the time morning came, his pain had vanished. It was as if nothing had happened. What he had experienced, it turned out, was simply growing pains. His bones were growing faster than…

Park Han-na from Daegu, Korea

Importance of Reading the Instructions Carefully

While out shopping, I picked up an electric whisk, hoping it would make my steamed eggs smoother and fluffier. When I got home, I inserted the batteries and gave it a test, but nothing happened. Thinking the batteries might be dead, I swapped them out for fresh ones, but still, it wouldn’t turn on. Just as I was about to call the store to complain, I noticed a small diagram printed on the side of the whisk. It showed the correct way to insert the batteries. That was when it hit me; I remembered a white sticker on that spot when I first opened the package. It had been the instruction label, but I had peeled it off without a…

Chu Bo-ra from Changwon, Korea

When You Run to the End

In May 2023, the women’s 5000-meter final took place at the Southeast Asian Games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. After all the runners crossed the finish line, only one athlete was still on the track—Cambodian national runner Bou Samnang. On the day of the race, her condition was so poor that even her coach advised her not to compete. But she couldn’t bring herself to give up the chance to represent her country in its first international event held at home. From the start, she fell behind, and the gap between her and the other runners kept growing. Eventually, she was the only one left running. To make matters worse, heavy rain began to pour down, with thunder and lightning flashing…

Sharing

There was a water carrier whose job was to fill the water jars at a wealthy household. He always used two jars. One was perfectly intact, while the other had a small crack that caused it to leak a bit of water. Because of the cracked jar, it took him more time to fill the jars. But he never threw it away. That was because the water that leaked from the cracked jar caused grass and flowers to bloom along the dirt path he walked every day, bringing a smile to his face.

What Happens If We Lose Our Sense of Smell?

“If you had to give up one of your five senses, which would you choose?” In a survey conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, the most common answer to this question was the sense of smell. Compared with sight or hearing, smell is often seen as less important. However, losing your sense of smell can seriously affect both your happiness and health. Without the ability to smell, even the joy of eating is reduced. The tongue can only detect four basic tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. But the rich flavors we experience when eating mostly come from our sense of smell. Smell not only enhances enjoyment, it also helps keep us safe. It alerts us to spoiled food, gas…

As Long As You Don’t Give Up Until the End

When a ball leaves the pitcher’s hand and reaches the batter, it takes only about 0.4 seconds. In that split second, the batter has to swing the bat and hit the ball. Because the ball moves so fast and its direction is hard to predict, even experienced batters find it difficult to make solid contact. That’s where the rule of the “foul” comes in. A foul occurs when the ball hits the bat but lands outside the designated fair zone. Normally, a foul counts as a strike, but once the batter has two strikes, fouls no longer count. Because a batter is out after three strikes, continuing to foul off pitches—even after two strikes—allows them to stay in the game…

Labor or Exercise?

Harvard psychologist Professor Ellen Langer conducted a study on 84 hotel housekeepers to examine their health. Although these workers were physically active due to their jobs, many still had high body fat percentages and elevated blood pressure. For the study, Professor Langer divided them into two groups. One group was told how many calories they burned while doing their regular cleaning tasks. For example, changing bed sheets for 15 minutes burns about 40 calories, and vacuuming for 15 minutes burns about 50 calories. She explained that their daily cleaning added up to 2.5 hours of physical activity, far exceeding the recommended 30 minutes of daily exercise. A month later, the group that received this information showed notable improvements in their…

A Truly Good Person

At work, there are some people others describe by saying, “They’re genuinely a good person.” These are the people who sincerely take on tasks that others might overlook, dismiss as unimportant, or think aren’t their responsibility. They quietly empty trash bins for coworkers, wipe down someone else’s desk, hand a cup of coffee to a tired colleague, or bring utensils to the table at lunch without being asked. Kind actions done when no one’s watching and small gestures of consideration for others often spread by word of mouth even faster, and people come to truly recognize them as good-hearted. Furthermore, when someone like that asks for help, others are happy to say yes.

The Birds That Cannot Fly

On the calm and quiet islands of New Zealand, there are over 20 species of birds that cannot fly. One of the most well-known is the kiwi, a national symbol of the country. Others include the kakapo, takahe, weka, and little blue penguin. The reason so many flightless birds exist in New Zealand is that the islands originally had no natural predators. With plenty of food and no threats, these birds had no need to fly, and over time, their wings became weaker and eventually useless. However, after European settlers arrived, they brought animals like dogs and stoats with them. These new predators put the flightless birds in danger, and many of them are now on the verge of extinction.…

What Takes Over My Heart

There’s a story about a merchant traveling through the desert on a freezing night with his camel. As the night grew colder, the camel asked if he could just put his nose inside the merchant’s tent. The merchant agreed. Soon after, the camel asked to put in his head, then his front legs, then his whole body—until eventually, the camel had taken over the entire tent, and the merchant was left outside in the cold. This story shows how letting in even a small wrong, thinking “it’s just a little thing,” can slowly grow until it takes over your heart. What starts as something minor can dull your conscience and leave you with deep regret when it’s too late to…

Why We Need Education

I watched a TV program where parents received expert guidance on how to educate their children. One child behaved as he wanted, without thinking of others. The expert gently guided his mother, helping her teach her son step by step what he should and shouldn't do so he could grow up without causing harm to others. If the son didn’t learn the first time, his mother was encouraged to try again a second or third time, and to patiently wait while the son learned to handle small tasks on his own. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”…

Kim Gyuri, Gumi, Korea