Monday, January 29, 2007

Sunday Once I heard someone say "Two things are inevitable in life, death and taxes." Well, I'd like to add a third, members of the Church of Latter Day Saints knocking at your door. Yesterday we were having our Korean lesson with our friend (English name) Spy. We were in the process of figuring out the diferences between saying once a week and twice a month when we heard a knock at the door. Seth opened the door to see the face of a surprised young Korean woman that we did not know. Usually the one opening the door is the one who is surprised, not the person on the other side. Yeah, our Western looking faces usually take most people off guard. Diversity doesn't really happen here. Anyways. Our friend Spy stepped in to figure out what she needed. She wanted to talk with us and have a "heart-to-heart" and to fill out this form that she had. Spy kindly told her that we were busy right now and that we did not want to fill out the survey (well at least I think that's what he said). You have to admire them for their persistence. If Christians lived with the same boldness. Wow. After she left, he filled us in on the conversation that had transpired. Usually, if we (Seth and I) hadn't been studying Korean, we would have liked to have talked with her about her religious beliefs. But this was not the case and our Korean study continued. Afterward, we had a Bible study for non-believers, an opportunity you might say for some of our friends who do not know a lot about Christianity to come and learn and question. One of our co-workers, a Chinese teacher, had called us to say one of her students were interested in attending. She was welcome of course and we looked forward to meeting "Lucy." After a few English worship songs we started studying about Jesus' baptism. It soon became apparent that this study was going to be much more complicated than we'd imagined before. Most of our friends (as they haven't had much exposure to Christianity) in the study desired explanations of concepts such as "sin," "baptism," "Holy Spirit," "Trinity," "Son of God and Son of Man," and so on. Now when you ask any two Christians their definitions of these words, the responses are going to be a little different. Ok, with that said. As we did our best to explain these concepts to non-native English speakers using the simplest terms and images we could for our friends who probably have not opened a Bible more than 5 times in their lives. To put it kindly, Lucy, who has done 6 years of mission work in Brazil, had other ideas of what a Bible study should look like. Bascially she wasn't concerened about them having the opportunity to learn and question and study the Bible, she wanted them to know and understand what she believed and to force them to believe as she did. It was also difficult as she would try to argue with our answers to people's questions, again making things rather complicated. A Bible study with non-believers in not the place for believers to argue. No not at all. Ok, I don't know much about this world, but I know that this attitude does not create much of an opportunity to study. It was really frustrating to say the least. It created a lot of tension in a study that we'd hoped would be open, where non-Christians could feel like they could ask any question they'd wanted without feeling judged (I think Jesus said something about this:). Anyways, Seth is going to see her tomorrow and ask her attend our Bible study for Christians. This whole incident reminded me of how surprisingly frustrating it can be to work with other Christians. I'm pretty sure if someone was attempting to convert me to a new religion the worst thing you could do is attack me personally by saying that all I've ever believed is wrong and that I must believe exactly as the other person does. God allowed us to make a choice. We could either choose to be for Christ or against Christ. I made that choice many years ago no one could make that choice for me. I needed to make it on my own. I needed to decide it on my own for myself. God, in His infinite wisdom and power didn't force me to believe. Baffling isn't it? He desired/s an actual relationship with me. Our God craves intimacy with us His creation! God didn't make me a robot but a thinking creative human being. And yet so many Christians treat non-believers as if they're merely robots, forcing their beliefs onto them, not even taking a moment to listen, to truly listen to the words of the other, to truly listen. In the words of Ghandi, "If it weren't for Christians, I'd be a Christian." Ouch. Would I live today grounded in the very compassion, boldness, and wisdom of Christ.