Bennett’s Baptism

This past March, Metro Church celebrated the baptism of baby Bennett Jang, daughter of Guirae and Heidi Jang. It was a beautiful picture of the unconditional grace of Christ. The church promised to love, pray, and walk alongside the Jang family as they raise Bennett in the truth of God’s Word, praying that, in God’s perfect time, she will come to saving faith in Jesus Christ and walk in the newness of life. The congregation witnessed a moving speech from Guirae as they welcomed her into the covenant family.

“We’re thankful for this baptism, and that you are all here with us today. Heidi and I just want to share a couple of brief thoughts.

I was watching Eric Dane’s incredible speech to his children that he gave right before he passed away, and he talked about choosing your friends wisely. Those words really stayed with me as we were thinking about what we are responsible for as we raise Bennett.

What we want for Bennett is that she would choose her friends wisely and that she would be surrounded by honest and loyal people who will walk with her through every season of life. As her dad, I would add this: it is not just friends who are important, but gospel-rooted friends. Life is going to hit her, both in hard and good seasons, and it is easy to rely on yourself.

In those moments, we want her surrounded by people who remind her who she truly is and that her worth is not found in what she does but in what Christ has already done for her. That is where our responsibility comes in: not just to hope she finds that kind of community, but for her to see that we seek it out and that we need it ourselves.

This matters so much to us because we have had to learn this the hard way. For me, my default in handling friction is to become anxious and try to manage everything, or to figure it out by myself and refuse to relinquish control. This shows up in a lot of ways, whether it is trying to prove myself or find value in what I can offer. Even when things are going well, it can quietly lead me into more self-reliance.

Despite all of this, what I have seen over time is that I have never really gotten through anything alone. God has used people as the catalyst, the follow-through, or the reinforcement to walk with me through the friction.

What they have helped me see, over and over again, is that getting through things is not about me figuring it out or proving something. I can get through some of the hardest trials, and even confront my own pride, ego, and sin, not because I worked hard at solving them, but because I have access to a strength that is outside of my own. Christ has already defeated sin and death, and I have access to that.

When I think about Bennett and what this means for her, I am reminded of how real the Gospel has been for us the past two years, especially in our marriage, when I did not have it in me to fix things or show up the way I should have. I was stuck in my own sin, indifferent to help from others and maniacal about measuring up, but they showed up anyway, reminding me what was true.

Somehow, I started to learn to let go a bit more, soften, and prioritize my marriage, not because I worked my way into it, but because something changed in me. And I knew that was not me. That is the power of the Gospel.

Because, normally, I can muster up the strength to push through things. Yet in that season, I did not have the strength or desire to change, and yet something still showed up.

In all the ways I naturally want to prove myself or build my own value, I am learning and still learning every day that I do not have to do that. My status is already settled. It has already been given to me through His righteousness. When I remember that, the anxiety starts to fade. The pressure drops. I am not gripping as tightly as before.

Our responsibility is to live anchored in that, to let her see what it looks like to trust Christ, lean on people, and try not to do everything on our own. That is what we want for Bennett: for her to experience that through people and through the Gospel.”