I Missed Church And God Still Showed Up | #005 | Not A Perfect Christian

I missed church this week—and honestly, I felt guilty about it. Between a big tennis match, helping my grandma after her washing machine broke, marathon training, long work shifts, and life moving faster than expected, I wondered if I was falling behind spiritually.

But God reminded me that He's not limited to a church building.

In this episode, I share how a canceled work shift, a laundromat, a game of bingo, a podcast, and one simple question—"Have you looked at the cross?"—completely changed my perspective.

Sometimes God's greatest lessons happen in the ordinary moments we almost overlook.

🎙️ Join me as I share another week of real life, honest faith, and the reminder that we're all still figuring it out.

Transcript

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Hello everyone and welcome back to Not a Perfect Christian. I hope you're all doing well. If you're new here, I'm not a pastor, I'm not a Bible scholar, I'm definitely not a perfect Christian. I'm just a regular guy trying to figure out life, faith, and God one week at a time. And this week, I didn't go to church. Before everybody panics, hear me out, hear me out. Thursday missed young adults. Saturday missed church. Sunday working. Let's just say I wasn't winning any church attendance award this week. Why I'm doing this podcast? Part of me felt guilty. But then I remembered something. God knows exactly where I am. And somehow, even though I didn't make it to the church, God still found a way to teach me something. So let me tell you what happened. Thursday night I was supposed to go to young adults, but I had to pick up a friend from Dana Point. So I missed it. Then Saturday came. I wanted to go to church, but we had a huge tennis match. We came into the match undefeated. The other team had only lost twice all season. We knew it was going to be a battle. And it was. Four lines went into super tiebreaks. Even point mattered. Every game mattered. I'll tell you how it ended later. So right after the match, straight to work. It's 9 p.m. after the game. So Sunday morning I got off to work and drove to San Diego to visit my grandma. My grandma lives by herself, so I try to visit her every couple of weeks. Family is so important to me. One day these visits won't be possible anymore. So I try not to take them for granted. This week she got a room at Saikwan and asked if I wanted to come. Of course I said yes. Now, before anybody judge me, I'm not a gambler, but I will absolutely drive my grandma to bingo. And let me tell you something. My grandma is a machine. Last time she had so many bingo cards I thought she was running a small business. At one point, I think she was playing bingo for half the casino. Honestly, if there was a bingo Olympics, my grandma would bring home the gold medal, for sure. We laugh, we talk, we spend time together, and honestly, those simple moments mean a lot to me. I stayed overnight because my grandma had a room at Saikwan. Originally I was supposed to work Monday morning, but my company canceled my shift. At first I thought, well, there goes my paycheck. Then my grandma told me her washing machine had broken. And suddenly I realized why I had that extra time. The timing was perfect. Instead of running back to Orange County, I stayed and helped her. We loaded her dirty laundry into the car and took it to the laundromat. Then we went grocery shopping. And if you've ever cared bottle of water for your grandma, you know those things are heavier than they look. At one point I was carrying laundry, groceries, and enough water to survive the apocalypse. But honestly, I'm grateful my shift got cancelled. Because if it hadn't, I wouldn't have been there to help her. Sometimes God's timing doesn't look spiritual. Sometimes it looks like a broken washing machine. And honestly, if you told me a broken washing machine would teach me something about God, I would laugh at you for sure. But to be honest, I was thinking about it. And I was like, okay, God, what's the lesson here? But for a while I got nothing. So, anyways, after helping my grandma, I drove back to Orange County and went back to work. Then my company called and gave me even more chef for the rest of the week. At that point, my calendar and I were no longer friends. I was tired, not as sermon tired, real tired. Somewhere between tennis, bingo, laundry, work, marathon training, and trying not to become a zombie, I was listening to a podcast called Unlearn Wisdom by Johnny Chang. He shared a story about losing one of his closest friends. He prayed, believed, hoped, and his friend still died. His friend commits suicide. So Pastor Kim asked him, Are you questioning God's love? Johnny said, Yes, 100%. Then Pastor Kim asked how you look at the cross. And I was like, huh? At first I thought, what does that have to do with anything? Then it click. If you're questioning God's love, look at the cross. If you're questioning God's heart, look at the cross. Because God gave his only son for us. The cross already tells us where his heart is. And I realize I do this all the time. I look at stress, I look at work, I look at uncertainty, I look at nursing, I look at the UCI Master's opportunity, I look at my marathon next month, I look at everything except Jesus. Sometimes I spend so much time staring at my situation that I forgot to look at the cross. Maybe some of you feel guilty when you miss church. I know I do. But this week reminded me that God isn't waiting inside a building hoping I show up. He can meet me in a car, he can meet me at work, he can meet me at laundromat, he can meet me through a podcast. He can even meet me at a bingo while my grandma is destroying everyone. God isn't limited to a church building. I know everyone knows this verse. It's uh John 3 16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. Trusting God means saying, Lord, your will, not mine. Even when I don't understand, my first full marathon is next month. Nobody runs 26 miles in one step. You just keep taking the next step. Trusting God feels the same way. Sometimes I want God to show me mile 26. God says, just trust me with mile one. And if you're wondering how the tennis match ended, we won. Standing 3-2. So four super tie breaks. Everybody survived, barely. Undefeated team still undefeated. My heart rate is finally back to normal. God is good. Looking back now, it's funny. I spent the whole week thinking I missed church. But maybe God was teaching me all week. He found me at a telescope. He found me in a car. He found me at the laundromat. He found me at bingo. He found me through a podcast. He found me while helping my grandma. And he found me in the middle of the exhausting week. This week I learned something beautiful. I missed church, but God still showed up. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for meeting us even in a busy season. Thank you for speaking to us through unexpected moments. Help us trust you when we don't understand. Help us stop staring at our situation and start looking at the cross. Remind us that your love never changes. Teach us to trust your heart even when we can't see your plan. In Jesus' name, amen. Remember, we're not trying to become a perfect Christian. We're simply taking one step closer to God every day. Thank you for listening. God bless you all, and I'll see you next Monday.