Foreword: Getting the time to blog has been a little hard lately, somehow, so my apologies for the silence. Also, in order to respect the wishes of my hosts, I can’t mention just about anything specific about where I am or what I’m doing, which is a bit of a bummer, but completely understandable. So, you get to read an introspective, possibly controversial blog post.
“They say the hardest part about going home is talking to people who treat the gospel so casually. I make a point of sharing the gospel every day. There are people back home who don’t even share it once a year. Not even with their next door neighbors; sometimes they don’t even know their neighbors. And the hardest part is that when these people are your friends, even your family.”
These words were spoken by Haley*, a missionary who is staged to stay in my current country indefinitely after a brief visit back to the states. This statement is what I would call convicting.
Here in South Asia, in a vastly predominantly Muslim country, I’m blown away by the friendliness, openness, and warmth of the culture surrounding me; Muslim or otherwise. People make eye contact with you when passing on the street, greet you with a smile. They are teeming with life. Of course this is the perspective of a tall white man who is all but famous wherever he walks, but nonetheless I would say that the people I’ve interacted with in this “developing” country have more happiness than many of the people I interact with back home. A lot of them even have joy in their life. To the casual observer, it may feel like the Gospel is not needed here.
But that aint true.
The Gospel is needed everywhere, especially here where the majority of the population has never even heard of Jesus. Yes, it’s true that Jesus is featured in the Qu’ran, but Quranic account of Jesus and his life is an incomplete at best and inaccurate at worst, and written 600 years after his death. Even so, a large portion if not the majority of the Muslims in this country would be considered nominal, having little to no established knowledge of the Qu’ran, making it next to impossible for a Muslim to know the true story of Jesus’ life, death, love, and resurrection outside of a follower of Christ telling them.
So that’s what I’m doing here. I’m doing my best to tell people about Jesus, who he is, and what he’s done in my life. And honestly, I’m pretty out of practice. Before I left for this trip, I probably shared my faith in the gospel less than five times. Why? Because everyone in America has heard it. Because I tell myself that back home my friends are happy, they’re content. The people on the street don’t want any of my spiritual crap because it aint scientific enough. Those may be facts but they aren’t the truth, and I just might start separating the two out. And I’m done stewarding happiness before freedom, before joy. I’m done stewarding comfort first. The Muslims in this country need the salvation that comes with freedom and joy in Christ.
I wake up every morning not worrying or even thinking about how I’m going to earn my salvation or prove my worth. I no longer worry about my purpose in life, although I may not know the specifics of it. This salvation and freedom I have needs to be shared. It doesn’t need to be shoved down people’s throats, but it needs to shared. And even though my time in this country is coming to a close, it’s’ been enough for me to start to press into this truth that I struggle so hard to embrace back home. I’m learning a lot, and am bound to make even more mistakes than I have already.
And in case yall have been wondering, the country around me is beautiful, the city is bustling, the food is cheap and good, I’m healthy, still in shape, and loving life.
*Name has been changed for privacy
