~~~
I came to a café this afternoon to sit
and process… life.
I sat down, busted out my computer, and
began to type. I was just getting into my “thinking groove” when
Shane came over. He sat down across from me, crossed his legs, folded his
hands, and in his thick Middle Eastern accent asked me what I was doing here in
Botswana… because obviously, I wasn’t from here. I smiled and told him
about The World Race, followed by my motivations for coming, to which he had a
lot of questions… and to my answers, he had a lot to say.
The man knew the Koran well. He knew
the Bible well. He knew the writings of the Church of the Latter Day Saints. He
knew history of religion. And he knew his position well. I had no intention of
entering a theology and religion debate. I did, however, have intentions of
knowing his story; of getting to know him….
Shane’s father was a Muslim man who
beat his Jewish mother in Iran. Every day. When she didn’t have the sandwiches ready. When she
wasn’t dressed well enough. When he just felt like it. His younger brother was
killed at the age of 19 by a religious group. Shane has no real teeth. All of
them have been knocked out by the same people. He has cuts on his face from
being repeatedly beaten against a wall.
He told me he began to loathe the
hypocritical way of life he’d been saturated in. Truth was harsh and empty to
him. So, for 23 years he traveled to 39 countries in search of answers to his questions…..
“Why do Muslims kill you if you do not join them? Why are you considered a
heathen for not accepting Allah?…
Why did the Christians have crusades, killing anyone who didn’t
profess Christ as their Lord?…
Why has religious persecution always been largely between OTHER
religions?…
And why last week, were there two different groups of Christians standing out in
front of the mall, one handing out tracks about Jesus, and the other speaking
in tongues and casting demons out of the area… and why, when I went over to ask
them both what kind of Christians they were, did one group called the other a
slanderous, degrading name? In my confusion, I asked them, ‘Aren’t you of the
same family?'”
He said to me, “Even your own
people are divided. Every religion is divided. But not in the Bahai faith. We
are moving towards global unity. We have found the way that the world is
looking for.”
Shane is a professor of religion at a
university here in Botswana, and claims the Bahai faith to be truth. He was well versed, very
articulate in 6 languages, and a storehouse of knowledge. I asked if we could
have a candid conversation, and just ask each other questions. We did. We
talked for 2 hours.
I didn’t combat his beliefs by beating
him over the head with Scripture. I sat on
the couch and spoke to him, feeling the weight of my position, knowing that the Holy Spirit is
the only One who changes, all the time aware that love and grace are what
make the difference… Because I can speak in tongues, have
every intellectual argument and speak with beautiful eloquence, but not have love.
And that makes it all vain. Without a love that breaks my heart for
the condition of Shane’s, I’m nothing.
After our 2 hour conversation, Shane
said to me, “Most people who do not believe the same thing that I do will
dismiss me in a few moments time. They will not listen, and will regard me as
rubbish. But you have listened, and spoken to me with respect. Yet you are very
passionate about the truth you believe. There is something very different about
you.”
He shook my hand, gave me his card, and
turned just as the tears began to well up in my eyes. My heart is breaking for the
intellectuals… the teachers… those who influence the thinkers of Botswana… the people in positions of leadership…
I’m still learning that until my eyes
look at people and my very core aches for them to know their Abba, I don’t get it. There is no amount of
intellectualizing that will draw a person into the Kingdom of God. It
is not a debate that will change their mind. It is no tract, no book, no well
written article…
Shane is different from Lesegho and
Limeh. He has a laptop, band-aids, and money. But his soul is in just as much
need as those two twin girls. His life journey has involved so much pain and
searching… but it has led him here to Botswana believing that Jesus was just another prophet man, and not the
Son of God who conquered death and embodies the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
There is no Plan B to the church. We
are it. We are the vessel through which God has chosen to draw the world to
Him. And I’m not talking about a building, an event, a service, or
well-meaning programs; I’m talking about a people who embrace their call and are utterly discontented with the world in the shape that it is… who see souls in their bleeding state and refuse to take an “oh well” approach. Its a people who act out of love, and not out of duty.
One month ago, I asked God to break my heart for the people of Africa. And so here
I am, on a couch in a cafe with my heart broken, depending on the Holy Spirit
to do His work. I feel like I saw into Shane’s soul just a bit, and saw the
hurting child who didn’t understand why his dad beat his mom and in the same
day bowed in submission to Allah. And the aching teenager who grieved at his
murdered 19 year old brother’s funeral. And the man who left in desperation to
find truth, so desperate that he took 23 years to labor in intellectual
study… but his spirit is still captive.
Orphans with HIV and
professors of religion have one thing in common: they all have souls that need
the peace, love, truth, and grace of Jesus, who is the Christ.
Silver and gold I don’t have, but what
I do have I want to give boldly and freely. The harvest keeps seeming more and
more plentiful, and the workers more and more few. Lord, help us.
~~~
“And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using
clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy
Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.”
