“Is there anyone sitting here?” Anything could happen now, I told myself. My usual course of new-event-coping mechanism occurred next; a blank mind. I had done everything I could before stepping out, I had prayed, I had fasted, I had recited the typical lines, the typical arguments, if anything was going to happen I had done my part, the buck stops here, next to you God.
I had attended ‘Passion 2020’ conference earlier this year. Imagine 60,000 people in one view all singing “Waymaker” with no instrumentals, (That’s a tough imagination if you are doing it right) it was nothing like I had ever seen or heard before. It was one of those perspective-changing events. One of the speakers said something, Christians shouldn’t have F.O.M.O, Look around to what God is doing. Then in response to my prayer, I caught a glimpse of it.
Ian:
“Are you religious?” I asked him. Yep, the easiest question to start with. I know Christianity is not a religion, yadda-yadda, but this was my first time in a long time talking to non-Nigerians about the gospel of Christ.
Ian told me a bit more about his background, he grew up very intimate with Christianity, his parents wanted him to grow up in a safe and quality environment, so they sent him to a Christian school. “So how was your experience there?” “I liked it, everyone was kind and nice and embracing. I really liked it.” he replied enthusiastically.
So what are your views then, and what is stopping you from adopting Christianity. Ultimately for Ian, he is Hindu, grown up Hindu, both parents are Hindu and he could not imagine divorcing his parent’s religion. In my mind: This is a very easy case, lick virtual lips. And I said something like this:
You are the captain of your ship, the same way you plan your career by going to school, or your relationships by being there for the people you care about, or your wealth my investing, or your soul by reading books, we are not just bodies, lots of things on earth have bodies without spirit, we are spirit beings and you need to take charge of your spirit life.
We prayed together and talked about other things and that was it.
Literally, in these stories, I get the sense God had already done most of the work, in general, the more exposed people are, the more religious(Christian) people are or aware of religion. In this case, Ian has prayed all the prayers, heard all the works, but has never put his thought to it, never thought it was a life-altering decision.
Huan:
Huan is Chinese, He told me he is a visiting physicist on campus, he doesn’t believe in God because there is no proof for God. In my mind: Easy, peesy. I launched into this whole diatribe on why mathematical tools are primitive in the proof of the existence of God.
Huan then goes on to tell me his mum is Christian, she invites him to her meetings all the time, he is somewhat familiar with Christianity. But he has some concerns, can God hear him pray in Chinese, his mum told him its fine but he is not sure, or he has to pray in English? what happens when people die? How does he read the bible? He does not have time to pray, He actually had a lot of questions in hindsight. Pray in Chinese, look the bible up online, start with five minutes, we discuss. Next obstacle, he is not supposed to be heavily involved in any such organizations as per Chinese government advisory, and then he had to go. I left him with some encouragement to spend some time with God.
This was a story that touched me, Huan’s mother is somewhere, God please touch my son. Yet, even the bible was written by men on earth. God uses men on earth to effect change, there has to be someone to do the work to preach to Huan, to sow a seed.
Aki:
“Are you Japanese? from your name” I asked, “Wow, that’s nice that you can tell” he replied. All my anime, shout out to… none actually, that I am currently watching, this writing will not write itself, no matter how much I hoped it would.
Aki was the typical millennial, came ready with points of arguments, he was a bit different, he had thought about the state of his soul and had come to a stance he was confident in. My mind: This is going to be an interesting conversation if we do get anywhere.
Aki eventually had to go. He was Jewish, and very skeptical of me initially. But I am great at conversation, I tell myself. His friend came and was also surprised to see us talking. I love the funny race relations in America, when it does not affect me, of course. He also referred to the bible as manuscripts.
Aki’s stance was that there was no way to verify what the manuscripts contained, so he had two choices, he could believe it and live according to the rules, or just not. And he chooses to live life according to his rules. I mirrored him and went looking for an argument, and “tried to” talk on the veracity of the bible, stating the obvious multitude of authors, genres, languages across years. I used “tried to” because he stated something I did not anticipate and I stumbled on my words. In retrospect, I could have talked about what was at stake, the soul. Yep, an argument is almost never the way out but was so tempting. He really had to go with his friend and the conversation ended.
Yet, I gave him this cute card that said, “Have you tried praying about it?” and as he stared at it, I can only pray, that echoes through his mind and heart and touches him.
Yes, you have people who have life figured out and see no need for God in their lives, no recognition of what is truth or not, sometimes all they need is a second look with a heart of expectation, that turns to faith.
Grace:
“Are you religious?” Turns out Grace is a Christian and she was worried about the recent pandemic crisis, we prayed together and shared encouragement with each other.
“For I am about to do something new.
See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” ……… Isaiah 43:19
The people I expected to be strangers, were not strangers at all, neither to the topic, or the mode of conversation, I saw threads of interwoven lives and the story of God’s active, very long term plan in lives of people I would pass by without the turn of a head. The realization of the presence of these stories made me wonder how much more of God’s work around me I was not seeing and not aligning myself with. In search of more wisdom, more knowledge, more prestige, I miss out on the very magnificent work of God around me and being involved in it — the very first F.O.M.O.*
*The first F.O.M.O. -The story in the Garden of Eden of Adam and Eve choosing the fruit of Knowledge of good and evil and missed out on the beautiful garden of Eden in front of them that God had given them.
