Each morning here in Nepal, we spend an hour as a squad just sitting with the Lord before heading out to ministry.
As I sat in the Word Tuesday morning, I followed Paul’s missionary journey as he encountered people worshiping false gods in places like Ephesus, Corinth, and Athens.
Before I knew what was in store for our day, God highlighted the following verses:
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.” – Acts 17:24-25
Next thing we know, we were stumbling out of a crowded bus onto the streets of Kathmandu near a Hindu temple.
Walking through the rows of stands selling Hindu trinkets towards the temple, we offered up prayers through the heaviness.
As we ventured closer to the temple, we realized that it required an admission fee to go any further and I decided to cough up the necessary rupees to go on.
After observing the temple gate for a few moments (only Hindus are allowed inside), we wandered around to the back of the building where we showed our tickets once again.
Rounding the corner, we were approached by a tour guide claiming that this was “the only place you can see the meaning of life and death.”
The guide proceeded to escort us up some steps overlooking the Bagmati river where we looked down upon three burning bodies. He explained to us all the rituals associated with the cremation of these bodies and the belief that this ritual would remove the deceased’s bad karma and give them a better chance in their next cycle of reincarnation.
Our guide’s first statement stuck with me, so I asked him what he believed the meaning of life and death was.
He told me that the purpose of life was to build good karma so that you can be reborn into a better life and eventually reach Nirvana.
How badly I wanted to share with him a different story. A story of hope and redemption that is not bound by good works, but a Savior who has taken all of our missteps upon himself and given us a full life in Him.
We then walked to the other side of the river while another body was walked in from an ambulance, set along the riverside, and ceremoniously set on fire. As I sat there watching this body being ceremoniously burned to a false god, I thought back to that passage in Acts. While Paul was writing within the context of ancient Mesopotamian religion, his words still applied to the early practicers of Hinduism and those who practice it today. Paul may not have been aware of this religion developing in the Indus River Valley, but God was well aware of these people. And he longed to know them as well.
My heart broke for this family following a set of empty rituals along a riverside, for the children bathing in the river, and for all those entering the temple hoping to find meaning and life in an empty structure.
As we left the temple, we prayed that they might know their creator and the life that He brings.
