Well. It's the beginning of yet another week and I've reached the end of my rope. I've heard a lot about culture shock. I know the effects of it, I know how to identify it, and I know how to get over it. Unfortunately, nobody tells you how hard it can be. Some days, I really don't want to get out of bed and have to deal with people constantly staring at me, trying to rip me off, and asking me to help them get a visa. It's absolutely exhausting living in a culture that I don't understand and in a society with totally different values than me. It takes all that I have in me some days to just not give up and go home. At least, this has been my plight for the last week.
Some days I look around and I feel no hope for this world. The people of India are willing to pay to feed the pigeons or cows, but they don't dare to feed the starving people on the side of the road. They don't bother to look past their own noses because another person's circumstances are "just their lot in life," as I have been told many times.
But who am I to talk? I have not the resources to help these people, nor the ability to speak to them and comfort them. We do the same in America. The "land of the free," where 45 million people live below the poverty line. Doesn't that seem a little ridiculous? Doesn't it seem like there can be a better way to allocate resources to people?
What's even more ridiculous than American poverty, is poverty in India. The Indian government declares a person impoverished when they live on less than 33 rupees a day. Do you know how much that is? It's 52 cents. You can't buy half of a meal around here with 33 rupees. Many homeless people are charged 30 rupees a night to rent a blanket. It seems as though neither the American nor the Indian system is lending itself to the success of its citizens.
I think it's about time something changed. I don't know what, I don't know how, and I don't know when. But what I do know, is that I'm fed up.
But in all reality, I look around and I think of how hopeless it seems. I know where my hope comes from. My hope comes from a God who loves me and cherishes me, who desires to have a relationship with me, and desires the rest of the world to do the same. It's easy to look around and think "well, if there is a perfect God, then why isn't he doing anything about poverty? He has the means and the power, why is He doing nothing?" But then I realize that He could ask me the same thing. He could ask all of us the same thing. Many of the reasons people don't believe in God is because they think that if there were a perfect God, He could never allow these things to happen.
What people don't realize is that we are the problem, not Him! Ever since Genesis 3 where Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree that was forbidden of them we have been cast out of relationship with God and given over to our flesh and sinful desires.
That sounds horrid, doesn't it?
But there's more.
All of history after Genesis 3 is a story of redemption. It's a beautiful one, too. I know that because most of us are from Oklahoma or the surrounding Bible belt areas, we tend to discount this whole story. We've heard it before. Maybe you haven't. Maybe you want to, and maybe you don't. It's your choice to read on.
So after Adam and Eve are cast out of the garden, the whole world goes to crud. There are famines, wars, slavery, murder, death, terrorism, rape, and many other things. But the worst thing on the list is separation from God.
But He fixed that.
God chose to send His only son (who was fully God and fully man) to the earth in the form of a human to live a perfect life. Not only did He live a perfect life, but he also died a brutal death at the hands of those He came to save. After He died, He rose again three days later.
And of course there are still problems with the world. Jesus' death didn't end sin, it gave us an option to flee from it, though.
What's the significance? So what if Jesus died?
Have you ever noticed that all over the world, blood is needed to for wrongdoing? People still perform animal sacrifices, burn incense, and clang bells to attempt to get the attention of God.
But He has already paid the price. He died and poured His blood out so that we might live and have a personal relationship with Him.
Well, why would a perfect, all-loving, all-knowing God send people who don't obey him to Hell for eternal punishment?
This is something I encounter a lot. People don't understand the need for punishment, or how could this exist with an all-loving God.
Did your parents just let you slide when you did wrong? Or did they punish you?
Or maybe think about it this way...
How could going to hell really be a punishment for someone who desires to live their whole life without God? In all reality, going to hell is exactly what this person wanted. Eternal separation from God. That's all that it is. Sure, it's a lake of fire. But in all reality, it's just continuing what said person desired to do on earth.
So, the hope that I have is in Jesus and what He did for me. That's what I live my life for. If you ever come to India and have even the smallest desire to help the poor, but you don't know Jesus, you better have some other kind of moral or religious doctrine to help you through. Because I can promise you'll feel hopeless.
The problem with this world isn't a God who is perfect but does nothing, it's the sinful people who perpetuate the hurt. (I am in no way, shape, or form trying to say I am perfect. I am still a sinner like the rest of us.)
Some days I look around and I feel no hope for this world. The people of India are willing to pay to feed the pigeons or cows, but they don't dare to feed the starving people on the side of the road. They don't bother to look past their own noses because another person's circumstances are "just their lot in life," as I have been told many times.
But who am I to talk? I have not the resources to help these people, nor the ability to speak to them and comfort them. We do the same in America. The "land of the free," where 45 million people live below the poverty line. Doesn't that seem a little ridiculous? Doesn't it seem like there can be a better way to allocate resources to people?
What's even more ridiculous than American poverty, is poverty in India. The Indian government declares a person impoverished when they live on less than 33 rupees a day. Do you know how much that is? It's 52 cents. You can't buy half of a meal around here with 33 rupees. Many homeless people are charged 30 rupees a night to rent a blanket. It seems as though neither the American nor the Indian system is lending itself to the success of its citizens.
I think it's about time something changed. I don't know what, I don't know how, and I don't know when. But what I do know, is that I'm fed up.
But in all reality, I look around and I think of how hopeless it seems. I know where my hope comes from. My hope comes from a God who loves me and cherishes me, who desires to have a relationship with me, and desires the rest of the world to do the same. It's easy to look around and think "well, if there is a perfect God, then why isn't he doing anything about poverty? He has the means and the power, why is He doing nothing?" But then I realize that He could ask me the same thing. He could ask all of us the same thing. Many of the reasons people don't believe in God is because they think that if there were a perfect God, He could never allow these things to happen.
What people don't realize is that we are the problem, not Him! Ever since Genesis 3 where Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree that was forbidden of them we have been cast out of relationship with God and given over to our flesh and sinful desires.
That sounds horrid, doesn't it?
But there's more.
All of history after Genesis 3 is a story of redemption. It's a beautiful one, too. I know that because most of us are from Oklahoma or the surrounding Bible belt areas, we tend to discount this whole story. We've heard it before. Maybe you haven't. Maybe you want to, and maybe you don't. It's your choice to read on.
So after Adam and Eve are cast out of the garden, the whole world goes to crud. There are famines, wars, slavery, murder, death, terrorism, rape, and many other things. But the worst thing on the list is separation from God.
But He fixed that.
God chose to send His only son (who was fully God and fully man) to the earth in the form of a human to live a perfect life. Not only did He live a perfect life, but he also died a brutal death at the hands of those He came to save. After He died, He rose again three days later.
And of course there are still problems with the world. Jesus' death didn't end sin, it gave us an option to flee from it, though.
What's the significance? So what if Jesus died?
Have you ever noticed that all over the world, blood is needed to for wrongdoing? People still perform animal sacrifices, burn incense, and clang bells to attempt to get the attention of God.
But He has already paid the price. He died and poured His blood out so that we might live and have a personal relationship with Him.
Well, why would a perfect, all-loving, all-knowing God send people who don't obey him to Hell for eternal punishment?
This is something I encounter a lot. People don't understand the need for punishment, or how could this exist with an all-loving God.
Did your parents just let you slide when you did wrong? Or did they punish you?
Or maybe think about it this way...
How could going to hell really be a punishment for someone who desires to live their whole life without God? In all reality, going to hell is exactly what this person wanted. Eternal separation from God. That's all that it is. Sure, it's a lake of fire. But in all reality, it's just continuing what said person desired to do on earth.
So, the hope that I have is in Jesus and what He did for me. That's what I live my life for. If you ever come to India and have even the smallest desire to help the poor, but you don't know Jesus, you better have some other kind of moral or religious doctrine to help you through. Because I can promise you'll feel hopeless.
The problem with this world isn't a God who is perfect but does nothing, it's the sinful people who perpetuate the hurt. (I am in no way, shape, or form trying to say I am perfect. I am still a sinner like the rest of us.)
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| Romans 6:23. Source: Forrst |
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