Seeing the Kingdom

Traveling helps me realize there are a lotta strange ideas out there.

Seriously, when I really sit and think through the different people I’ve met and all their strange ideas and beliefs about life it kinda weirds me out – and I haven’t even been alive that long.

Scary hyper-Calvinist old ladies, radical Turkish militants, exchange students, various Christian denominations, all the overzealous “new ideas” of college students, and not to mention the plethora of political perspectives (unintentional alliteration there). The list goes on and on. I’m sure you could write out an interesting list of your own.

And that’s one thing I love about living in a cultural mess like Bangkok; I get to hear all kinds of strange ideas and outlooks on life. Most are courteously acknowledged and then set aside, but some are really worth thinking about, and, having tested these against the Scriptures and life experiences, I sometimes have to rethink what I previously thought to be true.

This is a good process. It should never end. I wanna keep learning, and the best way for me to be sharpened is by testing what I believe against life experiences and other beliefs.

This is what made travelling so important for me. My first two decades were, for the most part, diversity-free. I don’t think I always believed wrongly, per se. I believed the Gospel and I trusted the Scriptures, but it was a soft sort of belief that hadn’t been hardened or tested against the world’s realities. My perspective had good shape to it and my parents were God-fearing potters who spent countless hours kneading the Gospel into me, but it wasn’t until I left home and experienced those things to be true that I really became firm in my faith. And, like I said above, I’m still being hardened and reshaped. God’s not finished, and he’s using diversity and differences to keep me in process. I know clay’s a worn out metaphor, but you get the point. 

Diverse experiences and perspectives are extremely valuable.

A tangent: The sad thing about all this is that many parents refuse to allow their kids to become “fired” and “hardened” in their faith. Well-intentioned Mom and Dad protect their children to a fault, and their kids often either go nuts or end up loving Jesus in an incredibly naive, superficial way. I know, I know…I’m the perfect parent because I have no kids, but that doesn’t change the fact that over-protection can keep kids from growing up and living dangerously for the Kingdom of God. I’m eternally grateful to my parents for protecting me but also allowing me to take risks.

Specifically, though, living here has challenged my understanding of what it means to share God with people around me. I came here thinking of myself as a sort of “spiritual postman”. I travelled here thinking God wanted me to bring Him somewhere that He hasn’t been yet – as though I’m His special ambassador! Arrogant, right? And not to mention a lot of pointless pressure.

The Christian has the spirit of God within them, for sure, but that doesn’t mean they’re some divine commando called to mission impossible in the wilderness (which, though few will admit it, is how many Christians back home view “foreign missions”). As soon as I start thinking God’s work is solely dependent on me we’ve got problems.

But the Kingdom is breaking through all over the place! It’s seeping out everywhere if we’ll just pay attention. Thus I’m not the bearer of all Truth, I’m the guy who goes somewhere hoping to point it out and show it off because it’s a lot bigger than just me. 

This perspective is a process that’s not even close to finished, but God is faithful to bring things to a completion.

I wanna see the Kingdom, and I wanna help others see it too.