I grew up in a Christian bubble, although I did have many non-Christian friends, religion just wasn’t a popular topic. My world is usually lots of Christian stuff in the Christian circle, and then non-Christian stuff with secular, atheist or Muslim friends.
I’ve survived well through the years, and I actually did quite well to ‘blend‘ and ‘thrive‘ in the secular world. But my problem is that I never felt comfortable confronting someone else’s faith, and nobody asks about mine.
I don’t know if it’s just my generation that people aren’t interested, or did I fail as the light and salt? But I guess most of the time it’s just me who doesn’t want to get involved with a heated conversation about religion. It’s too complicated, sensitive and personal…. to me.
Yes, I’ve successfully avoided the dangerous mine zone.
What’s my logic? I felt that it’s ‘not nice’ to be offensive to someone else’s belief. And who knows if they are right with their religion or sect? I felt that I may have my opinion but others can have their own. Maybe in this ‘globalized’ world, this is what ‘learning from another culture’ mean? If so, I aced in this subject, but I’m failing with my growth of personal faith.
It usually takes me a long time to observe, analyze, question, and conclude something. Is anyone like me?
Okay, so one day I met this American guy, who has lived in Kabul for more than 2 years. He was a Christian, and he was open with this fact even though he was living in Afghanistan on his own, but not as a missionary. What a cool person! I was curious about his pursuit of faith especially when living in a country like Afghanistan, I really wondered if he struggled.
He was quite honest about his faith and that he actually learned more about what Christianity meant to him and that he started to have deeper relationship with Jesus when he started living here. And I was like, ‘but you never wanted to become a muslim?’
He said something like, ‘There’s nothing in their religion that makes me want to follow Islam’
I thought since he had lived in Afghanistan, and hung out with Muslim people, maybe they would try to persuade him. And maybe he would see similarity between Christianity and Islam, and maybe that would turn his heart cold from Christianity and embrace a new religion. I don’t know.
It didn’t surprise me with the answer itself, but probably his attitude impressed me. He said with such firmness that I knew it was a weird question to ask. Maybe when I asked him that question, I had doubt to how should a Christian person deal with the relationship with a Muslim friend? Should I be curious about his faith? Should I show interest? Should I be ‘open-minded’? What’s the strategy?
Or I just felt maybe it’s better to understand others, and listen to others before we judge if other people worship the ‘true God’ or not. I believe mine is real, but I don’t know if that means someone else’s isn’t real.
But I didn’t know it was that simple.
“There’s nothing in their religion that makes me want to follow Islam”. So why can’t I be a proud Christian?
I love my Jesus, my Bible, and singing worship songs. I love to pray, and I love to hear testimonies of God’s work. I haven’t been vocal about what I believe because I feel uneasy to ‘disturb’ others. But this is a process right? One day I will reach the same conclusion that there’s nothing I want from other religion, when I 100% believe the words of the Bible and I’m 100% confident with my faith.
If this is written in the Bible,
then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:10-12)”
Then I want to be that confident with my faith, without worrying about if others have ‘better’ answer. This is the way, salvation is found in no one else but Jesus Christ. I want to keep it simple, and keep my eyes on Jesus.
Traveling Mega
