28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Today I had the unique experience of visiting two Buddhist temples. The best word I can use to describe my experience is interesting. It was different than anything I could have ever expected, as are most things I encounter these days, but that is another story entirely. We were asked to keep two questions in mind as we were touring:
2. What things are biblical?
I had no problem picking out those things that were evil; they practically jumped out at me every time I turned a corner. Outside of the obvious that people are worshiping the statue of Buddha, there are tons and tons of other idols all over the temples. Idols that looked like animals or Buddha in other poses or ones of children, and lots of ones that looked like dragons.
One thing that did encourage me in my tour was that I was able to recall scripture that disproved the things I was seeing. This happened as I walked passed on of the dragon statues. It looked different than the others that were near it. I noticed that this one had a human trying to lift it. The human was literally underneath it trying to carry it on his back. Immediately the verse from Matthew popped in my head :” My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Nothing about this portrayal of following Buddha looked easy or light. In fact it looked the opposite, hard and heavy. The human was working so hard to please the dragon, never knowing if he succeeded, all the while carrying this heavy burden. My heart broke for these people who thought they had to do so much receive the approval of their god. Their yoke is NOT easy and their burden is NOT light. They carry the weight of their families and their actions. They live whatever life they want only worrying about getting rid of bad karma so when they are reincarnated they do not come back as something bad.
We learned today from our contact that the women who work in the red light district like their jobs. They like that they have found a way to “do good” for themselves and their families to make up for whatever they did in their past life. We learned that the other Buddhist think this is a fair job for them to get good karma.
How twisted is that?
I am still processing this trip. Honestly, it messed with me more than I anticipated. But if I appreciate more today than I may have ever in my life is that God accepts us just as we are. There are no amount of bad things we can do to separate us from His love. I do not have to make sacrafices to him. I do not have to go to a special place and speak to a special human to receive a blessing. I get to just show up as I am, with a broken heart and a willing spirit. All he says in return is “welcome daughter, my yoke is easy and my burden is light, and now so are yours.”
