Faith & Freedom

It has now been a couple of weeks since I returned from China.  I'm now mostly asleep and awake at the appropriate times.  As is usual, it takes me time when I return from China (or other places abroad) to reflect on and process what I experienced.

Still a work in process, with Thanksgiving just around the corner, I wanted to reflect on my thankfulness for faith and freedom - not something that everyone on our planet is blessed with.

This trip we visited a new part of China - a province and city to which I had never been.  It is a city of about 4.4 million people.

Following church one Sunday morning, we met with the Senior Pastor, as well as the head of the Red Cross and the head of the Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB) for the area.  (For those not familiar with China, the RAB helps to set, monitor, and enforce religious policy in China.  They help to decide who is/isn't in violation of policy and what the ramifications for their actions should be.)

It was an amazing meeting!

The pastor shared about all of the incredible things that the church is doing - building houses, donations to earthquakes, health clinics, helping those in the community find jobs, rebuilding schools in the rural areas so that kids can get back to school, etc.  They have received awards for their work.  "We're just doing it for God," is what he told us.  They have plans for building a rural church, want to setup a net training center to train co-workers, setup a community center for the elderly.  The government, we were told, has given them land and a lot of support.

Knowing that rural areas are frequently very poor and the people who live there lack resources, we asked the gentleman from the RAB if we could assist by providing Bibles to the poor Christians who will be attending the new church. "Sure, no problem," he responded. We were surprised and delighted as this has not always been the case (is continues not to be in some areas).

The gentleman from the RAB told us that his role is to maintain the rights of all religious people and, if conflicts arise between religions, to serve as mediators.

In their city of 4.4 million, we were told that there are 500 registered places of worship - this could be a church, a temple, or your mothers living room.  Of those, 200 are Christian, 200 are Buddhist, 100 Daoist, 9 Catholic, and 1 Muslim.  There are 150,000 people in the city who believe in any religion.  By RAB records, 60,000 of those are Christians.

 

In China, the children's belief is in accordance with their parents, as the focus for children is education.  According to law, under 18 a child cannot attend church without his/her parents.

Many of the first to come to the United States did so for religious freedom; for the ability to worship where they want, how they want, and who they want.  I am thankful that at this time in our history, we still have that freedom of faith.

Blind Faith?

In what do you put your faith? For as long as I can remember I have had a great sense of direction. When my great aunt was alive, she would tell stories about how, when I was just 3, I let her know when we were lost and driving in circles in New York City.

Well...confession time...today I was headed from my house in Columbus to see my sister and her family outside of Philadelphia. Dad told me to drive his car since it gets better mileage than mine and has the GPS. He swears by his GPS. So instead of doing my usual "Map quest" printouts, by blind faith, I decided to let Mildred (that's what we named to "lady" in the GPS) to lead me safely there.

To quote Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman", "Big mistake! HUGE!"

I turned on the car and turned off my brain. Mildred said "turn", I turned. Mildred said "exit", I exited. The next thing I knew, I was approaching Marietta - which is NOT along the route that I am supposed to be following. I called Dad. I won't tell you exactly what he said to me, but needless to say, I confirmed the route I was supposed to be taking.

I turned around (Mildred's detour cost me an extra hour and a half on my journey). She kept telling me to get off and go the other direction. But this time I had the details, was in contact with someone who had driven the route many times before, who I could call upon when confused, and knew the way I was supposed to be going.

The next 6 1/2 hours, Mildred kept trying to tell me to get off the road and go another direction. A couple of times I checked in with Dad to confirm that yes, I was still really going the way I was supposed to. And finally, FINALLY, I arrived.

How many times in life do we blindly go along, basing our thoughts, opinions, and critical decisions on what someone else says, on an article we read, a news report we see, an innuendo someone makes? I don't know about you, but I'm finding it more and more difficult to discern what our culture believes to be truth, and I'm not sure that I want to buy into its definition.

What do you put your faith in? Where do you consult to make sure you're staying on the right "route"? Might I recommend the Bible? It doesn't change, if you consult it - and let it - it'll direct your steps. It'll even let you know when you need to make a u-turn. If you have an opportunity to participate in it, I would encourage you to check out The Truth Project. It'll help to open your eyes and clarify your route.

(By the way, my nephew thinks that the reason the GPS kept leading me astray was because she didn't like her name...he has renamed her "Annie"...we'll see if the name change makes a difference.)