{"id":670,"date":"2010-02-06T09:38:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-06T09:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2010\/02\/oops-it-was-all-a-mistake-you-guys-are-great\/"},"modified":"2011-11-01T15:07:22","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T19:07:22","slug":"oops-it-was-all-a-mistake-you-guys-are-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2010\/02\/oops-it-was-all-a-mistake-you-guys-are-great.html","title":{"rendered":"Oops, It Was All A Mistake! You Guys are Great…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It is my understanding the California native and Arizona resident, now Protestant missionary, Robert Park, has been released from imprisonment by North Korea authorities.<\/p>\n<\/iframe>\nHe looks so young in the video clip.<\/p>\nIf you weren\u2019t following his adventures, this past Christmas Mr Park crossed the border into North Korea carrying a letter calling upon the dictator Kim Jong Il to stop suppressing (Christian) religion, to shut down the gulags and then to retire from office.<\/p>\nThe twenty-eight year old Park has since issued a public statement explaining how he discovered he had been misled by Western propaganda, but thanks to his visit he had discovered the openness and generosity of the North Korean state, its wonderful Pongsu (Protestant) church in Pyonyang, and fervently apologized for his previous views.<\/p>\nWhen he first crossed over that frozen river on Christmas day, I wondered about what he was thinking.<\/p>\nSt Francis famously went to Egypt and met the sultan Melek-el-Kamel, where he offered to show his faith by walking into a fire. And that\u2019s just one story of the faithful witnessing their faith before infidels, even at the peril of their own lives. The litany is long.<\/p>\nAnd while not published, I suspect the litany of failed volunteer martyrs is rather longer\u2026<\/p>\nThe idea of being burned for one\u2019s faith is one thing. The reality is a bit hotter.<\/p>\nI understand.<\/p>\nAnd I rather admire this young man both his reckless adventure and his subsequent abasement.<\/p>\nDiscovering what one is actually willing to say or do to save one\u2019s skin can be a shameful but also a valuable lesson.<\/p>\nTurns out one never knows.<\/p>\nAs the sage said, \u201conly don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\nThis discovery one doesn\u2019t know can open the door to cynicism.<\/p>\nBut I hope not.<\/p>\nReally not knowing can also open the way to compassion\u2026<\/p>\nI know in my own life it hasn\u2019t been my successes where I learned and became something deeper. It was my failures, my tumble into not knowing, really, really not knowing.<\/p>\nAnd of course, who knows what this experience of not knowing will lead to? That\u2019s the glory and the mess of this experience. One doesn\u2019t know\u2026<\/p>\nWhether Mr Park goes on and pursues a public ministry or slips into a more quiet life, or finds a third way, I wish him well.<\/p>\nAs I hope for all of us in this hurting world, but particularly for those willing to throw themselves into the great mess.<\/p>\n(May we use our heads as well as our hearts in the enterprise\u2026)<\/p>\nAnd, most of all, may we each of us discover the deep way of not knowing, the way that actually opens the path to liberation for ourselves and others\u2026<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Let The Mystery Be - Iris DeMent H.Q.\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nlaoR5m4L80?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/33904114-728211602275253571?l=monkeymindonline.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is my understanding the California native and Arizona resident, now Protestant missionary, Robert Park, has been released from imprisonment by North Korea authorities. He looks so young in the video clip. If you weren\u2019t following his adventures, this past Christmas Mr Park crossed the border into North Korea carrying a letter calling upon the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Oops, It Was All A Mistake! 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