Here’s a story of perspective. But in order to tell this story, I’ll have to rewind about 5 months and give you some history.
Before our arrival to Ethiopia in Month 3, God gave me a vision of a man that I would meet there. That man’s name was Bahru. Only once before had I received such a clear vision of something that God wanted me to find. You can read about that first experience here. I met the very man that God had shown me, and I eventually worked up the courage to ask if we could get together for coffee. I shared with him the vision I had of his very distinct eyes and asked if he could think of any reason why we were supposed to meet. He didn’t have an answer for me, but he told me that he was a strong believer in God’s revelation through visions and dreams, so we just began to talk.
He told me that he grew up in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. By that time, I was already pretty familiar with this church. Most of the people we were ministering to in Ethiopia were devout in the Orthodox faith. From what I had gathered, Ethiopian Orthodox resembled Catholicism in tradition and culture, but is significantly dependent on Mary and essentially dethrones Jesus by enthroning his mother, saying that she is the Way because she is the mother. Bahru later came to know Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life and left the Orthodox Church. I asked him for advice about how to start a conversation about Jesus with an Ethiopian Orthodox believer, and he told me this:
“Well, Hanna, you have to start with what they’ve got right.”
It makes sense that since it was his eyes that were the focus of my vision, perspective is what he had to share with me.
This month as we visited the government-run “Lao Evangelical Church,” I was reminded of what Bahru told me 5 months prior. It’s so easy to get tangled up in twisted doctrine and overlook what they do have right. It’s easy to hear a sermon and pick it apart and overlook the fact that I’m sitting, unthreatened, in a Christian church in the middle of a communist country worshiping Jesus. A Christian church. In a Communist country. Worshiping Jesus. What The Lord taught me through Bahru was:
I love them. They don’t have it all right,
but I’m working in what they do have.
Yes, God is most glorified in an accurate revelation of who He is, but He is still at work even through false doctrine.
I’m about to expose a weakness, so listen close. I have trouble seeing grey. To me, all things are black or white. Good or evil. Right or wrong. So as much as I try not to get involved in doctrine that doesn’t directly relate to the Gospel, my mind says “you need to know the answer.” I’m a thinker and I’m a learner, and I think The Father likes that about me. But I think the enemy does too. The Father likes it because it means I want to know Him fully. But the enemy uses it to cause division. The cry of my heart is to know Him well and to get Him right, and unfortunately I’ve probably done that offensively in the past. I think we can err on both ends of that spectrum. Where some might pick apart every detail, others might dismiss it all as insignificant.
So as a reminder to myself and to my readers, let us do all that is in our power to worship God in Spirit and in Truth as we are called to do in John 4:24. Let us be discerning in which doctrines deserve greater weight. Let us ask ourselves the question, “does this teaching affect the Person of God or the Message of the Gospel?” And if the answer is yes, then let us pursue the Truth with grace.
