In case you're curious about how I became a fan of Kpop, it all began because of this group, GFriend.
I became aware of this group in September 2015 when they performed live outdoors during a rainstorm in Seoul, South Korea. In the course of the performance (recorded on Youtube above), various members of the group slipped and fell eight times! And yet they picked themselves up to continue and complete the performance to the wonder of the audience.
It came to my attention via a Time Magazine article (reproduced just below). Time Magazine, which normally doesn't cover Kpop, was impressed by the "never say die, never give up" attitude of this group.
As someone who has experienced disappointment and failure in both my personal and professional life, this resonated with me. The loss of my marriage, my family, my home, my career, were all catastrophic events and certainly not so readily compared with a bad night on the stage.
Nonetheless those days following the separation and divorce were awful days. So oftentimes when faced with those experiences, people can and are tempted to give up and to never try again, to drop the mic and go into hiding. The church, instead of being a place of solace and forgiveness becomes a place of accusation and recrimination.
This is in a sense, my own story. And yet through the kindness of my pastor, Gary Tawa and another Brazilian pastor, Jairton Melo, I was reminded that the message of the gospel is one of restoration and redemption. In the perfectionist Asian American theological orientation, we need to hear that message again and again.
So I congratulate GFriend for picking themselves up off the ground and coming back to perform with grace and vigor. May all of us who struggle and fail, be encouraged to do the same.
