We are loving life in Thailand. We live tucked away in the jungle of Mae Hong Son. The people here are amazing. It is probably the most beautiful place I have ever lived.
On one of my longer morning runs, I ran by a huge building just off the paved road once you exit the village. It was beautiful. It looked like a museum or a temple from the outside. I saw that it had an open entry way and thought, I want to come back here and explore.
The first three days of the week, our team teaches in the school at the base of the village. Thursdays and Fridays are reserved for evangelism. This Thursday, I remembered that building and wanted to go back to it. Katie, Bekah and I formed a group and we all agreed to go.
We walked up the two flights of stairs that led to the opening of the building, admired the architecture, removed our shoes and stepped inside. Up at the front of the building was a large, golden, Buddhist shrine with multiple statues.
We realized the building we had just stepped into was a Buddhist monastery. As soon as I laid eyes on that shrine, my chest began to hurt. My heart felt an intense pressure. My eyes were wide and all I could say in response to the change in spiritual atmosphere was, “whoa.”
That room was heavy. All three of us exchanged glances, we all felt the same heaviness.
I walked straight up to the shrine and stood next to the platform where men kneel to pray. I put my feet right up to the sign that said “No Lady Allowed.”
The shrine was extremely eerie. I cringe just thinking about it. The most unsettling part was that it was so beautiful. The statues were golden and framed with more golden figurines. They rested on a platform that was immaculately decorated with different jewels. Everything looked pristine. It was unsettling because although it was beautiful, it was completely empty. These statues that people worship as gods are nothing more than the material that they are made out of. The people that bow down to these statues are putting all of their hope in nothing. It felt like some sort of weird trick. That idea gives me the worst (for lack of a better term) “heebie jeebies.”
I looked the statues in the eyes and felt a a huge flux of emotions in my heart. It was a mix of anger, darkness, sadness, heaviness and emptiness. My only instinct was to pray. As soon as I started to pray, I realized how grateful I am that I can pray to something that actually hears. All the negative emotions were overtaken by gratitude for who Jesus is.
One of the things that weighs on my heart the most is misguided hope. Hope provides perspective and creates perseverance. We persevere through the weekdays with the perspective that a restful weekend is coming. We persevere through a hard workout with the perspective that muscle is being built. As Christian’s we preserve through trial on earth because we have a heavenly perspective.
If our hope is misguided we lose the perspective that we can preserve and things always get sketchy. Does a student with no hope in his or her intelligence feel inspired to study harder? Does a father with no hope in his ability feel empowered to search for a new job after being laid off? Does a soul with no hope that the world has already been overcome by love feel compelled to love? It is so important to hope in Jesus alone.
I hate watching people put their hope in something that cannot save them.
There were four monks sitting playing a game on the right side of the room. We tried to talk to them but they did not know any English at all. They smiled so big at us. My heart wanted to scream at them, “those gods do not hear you”.
We prayed and walked all around the building and then left. Behind the monastery, we saw a large flight of stairs that led to more Buddhist temples. Everything was, again, very beautiful. The staircase had golden gargoyles at the bottom and red tile all the way up the sides. One temple at the top of the stairs was white with a golden roof, another was completely golden.
The heaviness returned as we walked around the statues.
I prayed: “Jesus I am so thankful that you hear me. I am so thankful that we do not need to build beautiful buildings to please you. You look at me with dirt under my fingernails, unbrushed hair and the same outfit I have been in all week and say, I love you and I want to know you. You meet us when we are at our lowest. Oh what a Savior! I am so thankful that there was more beauty in that manger when you were born than any immaculate temple. I am so thankful that an eight year old Burmese girl singing your praises is more beautiful than these golden buildings. I am so thankful that I see more beauty in someone being broken for your name than the jeweled platform supporting these idols. I am so amazed at your humility. You are the God of everything, yet you chose me to be your temple. What?! Me?! You chose to dwell within me. I am the temple that you wanted your spirit to reside in. Holy cow. I am so thankful that I know I can hope in you because I have actually seen your truth set people free. I am so thankful I do not feel this feeling when I come to you, because I know you hear me. I thank you that you even desire a relationship with me. Thank you for freeing us of the pressure to be good enough to receive your love. Great are you Lord. Create turmoil in the hearts of the people that come to this fake altar so that they are forced to seek a different truth. Because Lord when people seek truth they find you.”
The three of us walked around the temples at the top of the hill casting the demons out and off of the buildings. We prayed that these idols would fall in the name of Jesus. We left feeling fired up because we knew that we had just brought the presence of God in that place and everything on heaven and earth has to bow before Him.
We came back to the village and were amazed at the contrast in our spirit. This small bamboo hut with a broken floor, no electricity, and unstable steps where we gather covered in bug spray, sweat and dirt from the day has the complete opposite vibe of that temple. The house where we sing with 20 other Burmese people of all ages every night is freeing, loving and joyful. The intense contrast in my gut between both of those places is evidence for Jesus that no one can deny. So thankful!
I am so amazed at how wonderful our Savior is. He is unlike anything else.
We do not need golden idols, fine clothing, beautiful buildings or clean feet to receive his affection. We have a Savior that looks at the dirty child in the slum and says, I love you child and I want to know you. We have a Savior that sees the lonely traveler with one pair of clothes and no place to call home and says, I love you child and I want to know you. We have a Savior that chases down the man hiding his shame and says, I love you child and I want to know you. We have a Savior that fights for the girl is convinced that she will never be beautiful and says, I love you child and I want to know you.
We have a Savior that looks at us even when we are in the act of sin and says, I love you child and I want to know you.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:4-7
Look at these next few pictures and tell me which one is the most beautiful.
