People are DYING…and what can I do about it???
A wat is a Buddhist temple. It also usually has a place where monks live.
I love watching the Buddhist monks. I saw one in 7-11 the other day. He was drinking a slurpee. I thought it was fabulous.
I associate monks with
these super holy type people that have denied themselves and are living
in complete dedication to their faith.
What I have learned since I have been in Thailand is slightly different.
A good Buddhist man is
expected to serve as a monk at some point in his life. Serving as a
monk actually earns bonus points for him and for his family, which helps
them live less lives and get to nirvana faster.
Interesting.
They aren’t dedicating their lives to their faith. They are hoping to get in good with their god.
After we left Mae Sai, we went to another small village that was close to the border of Burma.
We lived across the street
from a Buddhist wat. One morning, our men went to go mow the lawn at
the local football (soccer) field. We couldn’t help, so the girls and I
went to the wat to pray.
I walked inside the temple and sat down on the wooden floor. I just started praying for God’s truth to be revealed.
Then (surprise surprise) I
got bored. I then thought it would be a good idea to walk around. So I
walked around the perimeter of the temple. In the front, there were
living quarters for a monk. I assume someone stays in the temple every
night. There were bookshelves with books. I don’t know what they were
about since the writing was all in Thai, but I’m assuming they were
Buddhist in nature. As I walked to the huge idol of Buddha in the
front, I noticed the amount of sacrifices on the ground in front of the
Buddha.
I went back to my seat and sat down.
And then I got mad.
I started thinking about all the people that walk into this temple looking for truth. They are truly seeking. They are truly willing to sacrifice. They are willing to give their dedication
to something bigger. And they walk into a temple and stare at a golden
Buddha thinking that they have found the truth. The longer I stayed,
the angrier I got.
I kept thinking about how
the Bible warns against teachings that sound good but are deceptive and
lead people away from the truth. I had a sudden LOVE and CRAVING for truth. I wanted people to know…KNOW…truth.
I
picked up my backpack and stormed out of that stupid temple. I think I
even muttered something about how I was done with sitting in that dumb
place.
On the way back to our
house, I saw two old women who were just sitting on the temple grounds.
They were so amazing and beautiful. They didn’t understand any
English, but I sat with them for a minute and prayed over them.
This whole experience just did not sit well with me. I mean, there are SO MANY
people who are believing lies. In America, we are so concerned with
respecting the beliefs of others that we are often afraid to speak the truth. But something smacked me in the face in the temple that day…. people are DYING
because they don’t know the truth. They are dying, and I don’t know
the language…I don’t know how to communicate it to them.
Then, I found this passage of scripture… 2 Corinthians 4. It gave me hope.
It talks about how the truth is veiled to those who don’t believe.
But that WE have the light of Christ shining in our hearts. At the end
of that chapter, Pal talks about how we don’t fix our eyes on what we
see because what we see will be gone, but what we don’t’ see will last
forever.
Reading that gave me so much HOPE.
I mean, it makes me so mad that the stupid devil messes with people’s
minds the way he does. I get so easily overwhelmed at the fact that
there is nothing I can DO to fix it. But…DUH….of course there is nothing I can do. Because it isn’t ME that does anything, but Christ IN me.
And so when I walk into darkness, I am BRINGING light with me because I
am bringing Christ because Christ lives IN me. Aaaahhhhh…..it is so
easy to forget that.
Thank you for all of you that have been supporting me and my team through prayer!! Please continue to do so!!
