Today was Pastor Edmond Wong's memorial service. It was extremely humbling to see all these people come together to remember this man.

Well, in all fairness, Edmond Wong was not your average man. I did a search online to see if I could track down a good photo of the Wong family -- I snagged this one of him and Hosanna (his daughter) from her MySpace page -- and I came across a handful of bloggers who were also fortunate to know Edmond. One blog said "When I hear stories of him, I know he was a great man, an awesome cousin and an even better friend..." and another called his death "the passing of a warrior".

A warrior he was. Definitely. I stood in the San Francisco Christian Center from 11AM to 1PM with unstoppable tears. I don't know exactly why I continued to cry and cry, but I did. I was so moved to see people standing there with me to honor the work and the service of this man. See, with Edmond, his life was never about himself. As Philippians 1:21 says, "to live is Christ", and that sums him up completely -- his living was Christ. Completely.

As several pastors stood at the pulpit and shared a little something about Pastor Edmond, I began to cry more simply because of the commitment these men have made to share the Gospel. For some, like Edmond, their calling was specifically to pursue those who WANTED Jesus the least, but NEEDED Him the most. He was relentless in his ministry in the Tenderloin of San Francisco, reaching out to drug addicts, the homeless, and the ill.

I stand before you (sorta) having been born into a Christian family and still attending church on a regular basis, yet I feel like my walk with Him is still a struggle. The struggle isn't that I lack faith or that I don't believe or that I don't love Him wholeheartedly or anything like that -- my struggle is simply that I feel imperfect. Don't get me wrong, I know I'll never be perfect... but frankly, I should be better than what I am.

A man of God in everyone's eyes, Edmond confessed and repented for the sins of his past every single day. Maybe it was this certain acceptance he had of the things he couldn't change that brought him closer to the Lord. Perhaps if I could come to terms with my daily (yes, DAILY) struggles, I could get out of this rut that I've found myself in.

Let go. Let God.

God bless.