by Pastor Patrick Cho

August 7, 2016 is a date that will forever be etched on my mind. That was the day that the Lord took Emily Taylor Choi home after a long and hard fought battle with stage four neuroblastoma. August 7 is the day after my birthday, and I know it seems petty and perhaps even self-centered to make that connection, but that is what Emily did to people. That was the way she touched pretty much everyone she came into contact with. You wanted to have any sort of connection with her, however small. Because of the way her parents, Aaron and Tina, graciously and selflessly shared her with the rest of the world through their Facebook page, many came to love Emily as their own.

I honestly didn’t even know what neuroblastoma was until I first heard about Emily’s condition, but since then I have learned what a devastating disease it is and how it affects so many families each year. Apparently, it is the most common form of cancer for small children. Emily was first diagnosed in December 2014 when she was nineteen months old.

One conversation I had with Pastor Aaron particularly stood out to me. It was about a year ago when we were visiting with the Choi’s. Aaron had mentioned to me that many people were commenting through conversations and social media about how encouraged they were at how strong he and Tina had been. But, he replied, he wasn’t strong. If anything, this trial revealed how weak he was and how he needed to depend on the Lord for every step of the process. What he said that afternoon resonated with me, and I did not make the connection then, but it also resonated with the teaching of Scripture.

So often we emphasize our weakness and insufficiency to make the point that in Christ we are strong and in Him we have our sufficiency. But perhaps the point is not to demonstrate the strength that we have in the end. Sometimes, through the Lord’s sovereign dealings with our lives, we are simply and plainly shown to be weak. And it is okay for us to be weak. This may be one of the key lessons to learn from passages like Psalm 82:3-4, “Vindicate the weak and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and destitute. Rescue the weak and needy; Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.” It isn’t so much that the Lord makes weak hands strong, but that He helps those who are weak with His strength. How encouraging is the psalmist’s conclusion in Psalm 109:27 after he calls upon the Lord for help and confesses his weakness, “And let them know that this is Your hand; You, LORD, have done it” (Ps. 109:24-27).

Weakness so often characterized the ministry of the Apostle Paul. He writes to the Corinthians, “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3). He does not say this to demonstrate how God made him strong, but instead to show how the Spirit’s power is made manifest through what he preached. The conclusion of his life and ministry was to boast in his weakness (2 Cor. 11:29-30). He gladly accepted his weakness because it allowed for Christ’s strength to be put on display all the more.

Perhaps we need to be re-instructed in our theology of weakness. It is especially in our trials and hardships that our weaknesses are emphasized, and it is okay for us to be weak. God is not degraded or dishonored by our weakness. Sometimes it is best simply to confess our weakness to the Lord and to call out to Him to be strong for us rather than in us. It is in light of this truth that I am particularly encouraged by Christ’s taking on flesh for us and understanding our weakness. Hebrews 4:15-16 reminds us that He sympathizes with our weaknesses so that He can better grant mercy and grace in our time of need.

To Pastor Aaron, Tina, their son Silas, their families, their friends, their church, to all who have been following the events and details surrounding Emily’s sickness and death, and to me: we are weak. As we confess our weakness, we hurt with this family in their loss and we pray that God would continue to be their comfort and strength.

I will never forget the moments our family was able to share with sweet Emily. We wish it could have been more often but sadly distance separated us. She absolutely glowed with her brilliant smile. I won’t forget that. I will also always remember her incredible strength to endure all the treatments to fight her cancer. She certainly was resilient. Emily, we love you and miss you dearly. We cannot wait to see you again. Praise God that the fight is over and now you can rest. Praise God that the sickness is removed. Praise God for the three wonderful years we had with you. They were God’s grace to us. And praise God that we can trust and rejoice in the hope of a glorious reunion one day in Heaven.