I am sitting here in my hotel room staring out the window at the the blue eyes of the largest Buddhist Stoupa in the world. What is a stoupa? I don't really know. It a large round dome with a gold tower on the the top and a face much the totems on a totem pole. We went to eat at a Tibetan restaurant today and it was situated in the shopping area around the stoupa. All round the outside wall of the stoupa are prayer wheels and pilgrims/tourists come along and spin the wheels- for what purpose I don't know. It is a tourist site, a world heritage site, a place people come to look for faith. There are a lot of people from all over the world here in this city looking for faith. I met a girl yesterday from China who came here to look for faith and now she is trying to get a visa for India so that she can find faith there. It breaks my heart.
And it breaks my heart perhaps more that many of the people here looking for faith are from the West. Many from European countries where the Christian faith was once strong, where great theologians who shaped movements and missionaries who traveled to distant lands once resided. I that there is still faith there in those lands, but it is so sad to me how many from the West come to find faith in this land of darkness, where the idols stare you in the face and shout out to me, "I have eyes but I cannot see, I have ears but I cannot hear, I have hands but I cannot help you". What is it that drives people to travel to distant lands to find the answer in images made of wood, gold, and clay when their creator and saviour is calling out to them from the mountains, seas, flowers, trees... "Here I am! I love you! I have eyes and I see you, I have ears and I hear you, I sent my son son for you so that you no longer have to strive with sin and the futility of this world..." And yet they don't listen. Their eyes are blinded.
And so as I stare into the blue eyes, surrounded by Buddhist prayer flags, I send a petition to my God who hears. Save these lost and searching souls!!!
And it breaks my heart perhaps more that many of the people here looking for faith are from the West. Many from European countries where the Christian faith was once strong, where great theologians who shaped movements and missionaries who traveled to distant lands once resided. I that there is still faith there in those lands, but it is so sad to me how many from the West come to find faith in this land of darkness, where the idols stare you in the face and shout out to me, "I have eyes but I cannot see, I have ears but I cannot hear, I have hands but I cannot help you". What is it that drives people to travel to distant lands to find the answer in images made of wood, gold, and clay when their creator and saviour is calling out to them from the mountains, seas, flowers, trees... "Here I am! I love you! I have eyes and I see you, I have ears and I hear you, I sent my son son for you so that you no longer have to strive with sin and the futility of this world..." And yet they don't listen. Their eyes are blinded.
And so as I stare into the blue eyes, surrounded by Buddhist prayer flags, I send a petition to my God who hears. Save these lost and searching souls!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment