The other day I was out playing at a local park with Seth and Caleb. We were walking by the river, climbing bridges, and playing lots of chase (which is difficult when you're beside a river). At one spot in the park there's a Buddhist temple facing the water. The walls were all painted yellow, dragons were hanging on the roof, bells were softly chiming, and it smelled like good Chinese incense. It seems pretty cool to all the senses, especially to a little kid.
Standing right inside the front doors was a giant Buddha idol. As we walked along and kept playing, Seth and I talked about what the people did in there and why we weren't going to waste our time going inside. I explained that they were praying, but not to God. They didn't know about Jesus and so they were praying to that big statue. I liberally quoted some from Isaiah about the ridiculousness of praying to idols of wood or stone - they use part of the wood to build furniture and they pray to the other part of the wood. Even 4 year old Seth understands that. While stressing what was right and who was (and wasn't) the true God, I made sure to share some bits of post-modern open-mindedness, too. Seth and I both figured that they just want somebody to help them, just like we want Jesus to help us. And most of those people are praying to idols because they don't know Jesus yet. Seth even knew that it's our job to tell those people about Jesus so that they can stop worshiping their wooden idols and worship the real God.
I was pretty pleased with the whole conversation and thought a lot about how that kind of conversation rarely takes place in the US (shortage of cool looking temples and all). I was even more excited yesterday when he spotted an idol in a different building and gave Lisa the whole lesson again.
One other tidbit - I've found a great daily prayer method that I'm compelled to share with everyone. It's from the British Jesuits at www.pray-as-you-go.org.
They have different mp3s for everyday and each one is about 10 minutes long. There's a time of music, Scripture reading, and some questions for reflection. And lots of silence/quiet music. It's just about perfect for me and I've been looking for a meaningful, convenient way to pray every morning. These mp3s are like good scaffolding that give you a good start and direction, but allow you to build on what they've got. I think it's a good idea to still have other times of prayer, but this is easy and good. They're also perfect for the drive to work or the walk to the local steamed bread stand for breakfast. Go check it and be sure to thank the Jesuits while you're there!
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ReplyDeleteWe have a small temple on our campus. I have never seen anyone go in and in summer you can barely see it for all the trees grown up around. One day we happened to be walking by and went inside. There was one idol leaning against a wall who’s arm had fallen off. We went back another day with our camera hoping to get evidence of all idols’ hopelessness helplessness, but some person had nailed his arm back on and stood him back up. We also told Caleb why we worship the true living God. GaoYan told the account to several ladies in our neighborhood as well.
yeah, i often stole away to that little temple that Josh is talking about...because it was the most quiet deserted place on campus...but i always saw evidence that someone had been there semi-recently...a not yet rotten orange, some burned incense, or a repair, like what you guys saw. i often meditated on the fact that here was this temple, in the middle of a school campus, and i had heard that it irritated the administration for it to be there, but that everyone was afraid of bad luck if it was torn down, just like the big stone buddha on the hillside. And so if the idol is actually erected in your heart, you are afraid to tear it down in reality...
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