Jubilee Life Coach: Daily Meditations

Jubilee Life Coach: Daily Meditations is a Christ-centered podcast for those who want to follow Jesus not only in belief, but in daily life.

The word Jubilee comes from the biblical Year of Jubilee, a time of release, restoration, and freedom from debt. In the fullest sense, Jesus Christ is our true Jubilee. In him, we are forgiven, set free from the debt of sin, and welcomed into the joy of God’s kingdom.

To be Christian is to be more than religious. It is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ the King—to belong to him, to listen to his voice, and to follow him with trust, love, and obedience.

Life is not merely about surviving the day or chasing success on earth. In Christ, we are called to live as citizens of heaven here and now. That means learning to walk in his presence, reflect his character, and bear witness to his kingship in the ordinary moments of everyday life.

Coaching here means a Christ-centered and gospel-driven way of helping believers grow in sanctification and spiritual fruitfulness. It is about encouragement, wisdom, reflection, and practical guidance for living faithfully before God. Not self-help, but Spirit-dependent growth. Not mere inspiration, but transformation in Christ.

Through these daily meditations, you will be invited to slow down, reflect on Scripture, fix your eyes on Jesus, and learn to live with greater freedom, faith, and joy in him.

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Jubilee Life Coach: Daily Meditations

Min Jin Lee

October 07, 2026 • Jubilee Christian Life Coach • Season 1

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In 1976, a seven-year-old girl landed in New York expecting Cinderella. She found Queens.

Back in Korea, Min Jin Lee had read her mother's set of Grimm's fairy tales. So she stepped off the plane looking for ball gowns, castles, and white horses. Instead, she says, it looked just like Seoul, only without the Korean people. She did not yet have the words, in English or Korean, to say she had been misled.

Her uncle John, a software engineer at IBM, had sponsored the family. Five of them settled into the living room of his two-bedroom apartment in Elmhurst, where his own family of four already lived. Her aunt was not thrilled. Her uncle did what he could. He bought a giant supply of bananas, a luxury in Korea at the time, and told the children to eat as many as they liked.

Many of us who came as children know this story by heart. Maybe not the bananas. But the living room, the borrowed space, and the quiet gap between what we imagined and what we found.

The quiet girl in the slow class

Reading came quickly for Lee. Speaking took years. "I couldn't talk to anybody," she told David Remnick. That had been true in Korea too. Her school sorted children into accelerated, normal, and slow classes. Her two sisters tested into the fast class right away. She spent two years in the slow one. Her parents, she says, simply did not expect much from her.

Then there was a first-grade teacher. Lee had finished her worksheet and was wandering at the back of the room. The teacher called her up and told her to hold out her hands. Lee thought she might be getting a present. Instead, the teacher struck her hands several times in front of everyone. Then she called Lee's mother to report behavioral problems.

For decades, Lee assumed it was her fault for being a dreamy, goofy kid. When she was 49, her mother finally told her the truth. The teacher had come to their home wanting money.

That quiet girl went on to Yale, practiced corporate law, and spent twelve years writing her first published novel. Ten years later came Pachinko.

Through an IFS lens

In Internal Family Systems language, a child who is shamed often leaves a young part behind. That part stays frozen in the moment, holding a belief like "It was my fault." Richard Schwartz calls such parts exiles, and he describes the beliefs they carry as burdens they were never meant to hold (Schwartz, 2021). Brené Brown describes shame as the painful belief that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging (Brown, 2012).

Notice what loosened Lee's burden. It was one true sentence, spoken late, by someone who knew what really happened.

A Reformed corrective

IFS hopes the Self will be the healer. I see it differently. Curiosity, calm, compassion, and the other C's are real gifts. But they are fruits of grace, not a spring that rises from inside us. The One who lifts shame is God. Christ endured the cross and despised its shame (Heb. 12:2), so that His people would no longer be named by it. Ed Welch's Shame Interrupted (2012) is a gentle guide to how God does this.

A word from the Bible

Lee calls herself obsessed with diaspora. All four of her planned novels, she says, are about it. She believes it is a permanent condition and that it will only grow. She also named kinds of diaspora most Americans overlook: people who move because the water runs out, because the schools fail them, or because the jobs are gone.

Then she reminded Remnick where the word comes from. It is a Greek word from the Bible, first used for the scattering of the Jewish people. She wants readers to see that newcomers are changed by a place, and that they change it too. "It's my job to make everybody Korean, David," she joked. "I think Koreans are awesome."

She is right about the Bible. The New Testament uses the word for Jews living among the Greeks (John 7:35) and for the twelve tribes scattered abroad (James 1:1). Then Peter does something surprising.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

1 Peter 1:1 (ESV)

Peter takes Israel's old word for scattering and gives it to the church. And notice the word in front of it. These believers are elect exiles. Their scattering was not an accident. They were chosen "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1 Pet. 1:2). Sinclair Ferguson, in his teaching series on First Peter, gives one lesson a title every immigrant understands: "Do We Belong Here?" (Ferguson, 2024).

Peter's readers would have known how God first spoke to exiles. Jeremiah sent a letter to Babylon.

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Jeremiah 29:7 (ESV)

"Where I have sent you." Babylon was a disaster. It was also a sending. God told the exiles to build houses, plant gardens, and pray for the very city that had carried them away. Tim Keller drew from this letter a path between two temptations: losing ourselves in the city, or walling ourselves off from it (Keller, 2012).

Lee says she changes the molecules in the air wherever she goes. I believe the gospel says something deeper about God's scattered people. We are placed, on purpose, to be a blessing. On Sunday, God gathers His people. On Monday, He sends them out again. That is diaspora too.

History has failed us, but no matter.

Opening line of Pachinko (Lee, 2017), which Lee calls a thesis for all her books

Ordinary people

History, Lee says, remembers rulers, winners, and losers. Ordinary people and how they coped mostly disappear. Her novels try to give them back. And in the words "no matter," she hears a call to be defiant.

I share her care for ordinary people. Many who read this blog are missionaries, pastors' families, and immigrants whose sacrifices no textbook will record. But Scripture lets me say it a little differently. History has not failed God's people, because God has not stopped writing it. Peter's scattered believers were not forgotten. He called them chosen. Our defiance has firm ground. We have been "born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Pet. 1:3).

Six days a week

Near the end of the interview, Remnick asked about the Bible. Lee reads it six days a week. On Sundays she is at church. She started at 26, after learning that Willa Cather read a chapter of the Bible before she began to write (Flock, 2018). She has now read it through seven times. Leviticus once bored her. Now she admires it. She called the Bible "such a stunning story about one person, God."

She also admitted, with a laugh and stronger words than mine, that she is not that good of a Christian.

I smiled at both lines. The second is the honest confession of every believer I know, including the one writing this. The first is close to what Geerhardus Vos and Edmund Clowney spent their lives teaching: the Bible is one unfolding story, and God Himself is at its center. And here is the good news for all of us who are not very good at it. Peter's exiles were not elect because they were good Christians. They were elect because God chose them.

Perhaps you came to this country as a child, expecting castles. Perhaps you serve today far from the place you call home. Your scattering may also be a sending. The God who sent His people to Babylon has not stopped sending.

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to another episode of Jubilee Life Coaches Blog. I am Coach Brian. I have been a pastor for over 30 years, and lately I have been working as a Christian life coach. I bring a balance of Christian counseling and reform theology to our worldview. Today's episode is about a novelist who arrived in America as a quiet seven-year-old and what the Bible says about God's scattered people. In 1976, a little girl landed in New York expecting Cinderella. She found Queens. Her name is Minjin Lee. You may know her as the author of Pachinko. Recently, she sat down with David Remnick of The New Yorker to talk about her new novel, American Hagwan. I will put the link in the show notes. Back in Korea, she had read her mother's set of Grimm's fairy tales, so she got off the plane looking for ball gowns, castles, and white horses. Instead, she says, it looked just like Seoul. Only without the Korean people. Her uncle had sponsored the family. Five of them moved into the living room of his two-bedroom apartment in Elmhurst, where his own family of four already lived. Her aunt was not thrilled. Her uncle did what he could. He bought a giant supply of bananas, a luxury in Korea back then, and told the kids to eat as many as they wanted. Many of us who came as children know that story. Maybe not the bananas, but the living room, the borrowed space, and that quiet gap between what we imagined and what we found. Reading English came quickly for her. Speaking took years. I couldn't talk to anybody, she said. Her two sisters tested into the fast class at school. She spent two years in the slow class. Then there was a first grade teacher. Little Min Jin had finished her worksheet early and was wandering at the back of the room. The teacher called her up and told her to hold out her hands. She thought she was getting a present. Instead, the teacher struck her hands in front of everyone. For decades she believed it was her fault. When she was 49, her mother finally told her the truth. The teacher had come to their home wanting money. In the language of internal family systems, we might say a young part of her stayed behind in that classroom. It was holding a burden that was never hers to carry. And notice what began to loosen it. One true sentence, spoken late by someone who knew what really happened. As a reformed Christian, I would add this the one who finally lifts our shame is not something deep inside us. It is God. Hebrews tells us that Christ endured the cross despising the shame, so that his people would no longer be named by it. Now, Min Jin Li says she is obsessed with diaspora. She believes it is a permanent condition in our world and it is only growing. And she reminded Remnick that diaspora is a word from the Bible. She is right. And the apostle Peter does something remarkable with it. Listen to how he opens his first letter. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Elect exiles. Peter takes Israel's old word for scattering and gives it to the church. These believers were scattered, yes, but they were also chosen. Their scattering was not an accident. Peter's readers would have remembered how God first spoke to exiles. Jeremiah sent a letter to Babylon. Here is what God said. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. Did you hear it? Where I have sent you. Babylon was a disaster. It was also ascending. God told his people to build houses, plant gardens, and pray for the very city that carried them away. Near the end of the interview, Remnik asked about the Bible. Min Jin Lee reads it six days a week. On Sundays, she is at church. She has read it cover to cover seven times. She called it such a stunning story about one person, God. Then she laughed and admitted she is not a very good Christian. I smiled at that, because that is the honest confession of every believer I know, including me. And here is the good news for all of us. Peter's exiles were not chosen because they were good at it, they were chosen because God chose them. So let me leave you with one question. If you saw the place where you live right now, not as an accident, but as a place where God has sent you, what might change about this week? Take your time with that. There is no wrong answer. Perhaps you came to this country as a child, expecting castles. Perhaps you serve today far from the place you call home. Your scattering may also be ascending. Don't forget, in Christ we are freed to live. Now let us live to free others. This is Jubilee Coach. Until next time, Godspeed.