It Pays to Discover

It was supposed to be a simple night; just walk down the street eat Bugs Bunny (I had a rabbit burger for dinner that night) and head back home. I, however, was quickly distracted by a crowd down the street in front of the Hindu temple.

As I walked toward the growing crowd, I saw a very ornately decorated cart just outside the door of the temple. I asked a Malaysian Indian woman what was going on and she told me that they were taking the statue (of one of their gods) out through town to the “four temples” in the botanical gardens. I asked her why they did that and she said it was for their protection, that they did it once a year.

The longer I stood there in the street the more I saw. I saw the Indians dressed in their traditional dress, I saw them putting their hands together as the man on the microphone said things (in their own tongue) and occasionally they would say something in return as they placed their hand on their head. Then came the fruit offerings carried on trays, then the incense was lit and placed into the fruit to continue burning throughout the ceremony.

The crowd grew quickly and the more people that arrived the more I felt a heaviness over the area and it began to press on me. I began to feel nauseous and so I stepped out of the crowd and up onto the sidewalk. Once out of the crowd I began to pray over that area, singing followed, as I sang aloud worship songs to the Lord.
 

For 40 minutes I watched as they brought the statue out, placed it on the truck, fastened it down, and adorned it with flowers, incense, etc. Once they were ready to move, the lead truck had people on the back that began to sing. There was a man on the truck playing things that looked like miniature cymbals and his eyes caught my attention. I looked and saw nothing. He looked straight at me as I tried to capture a picture of him, but there was not a human looking. It reminded me of Saul when he was met on the road by God and the scales came over his eyes. There was something covering this man from seeing the truth. A spirit that kept him blind to what truth and life could be found in the one true God.

That night I got to see a literal interpretation of how so many of us live. We are so blinded by our culture or ancestors that we can’t see for ourselves anymore. Too often we just follow the crowd and do what they are doing without seeking why we do it or if there is something better. This is true even in the church; we follow what our pastors’ say, what our “good Christian” friends say, but we don’t seek the Lord ourselves. I don’t want to just go sit in a seat on Sundays and have someone else tell me what the bible or Lord have to say to me…I want to find my relationship with the Lord and fall in love with Him myself. To do that I need to spend more one on one time with Him and have my own conversations with Him to learn about what He has for me.

Lord, please remove the scales from my eyes that keep me from seeing you myself for who you really are. I don’t want to follow you based on other people’s reasons, but I want to find my own. I want to DISCOVER you.

OPEN THE EYES OF MY HEART LORD, I WANT TO SEE YOU!