There is also an ethnic conflict that exists beneath the iceberg.The fight for ST status for the dalit Pano Christians. If you are eager to be a more informed Christian then visit the links at the end of the post for more insight.
I really didn't know how to start writing this post. I spent a week getting angry and forwarding prayer mails, another few days narrating stories of horror and violence to everyone, another few days asking God questions, another few days goggling up stories and videos on Orissa and another few days praying. All throughout I badly wanted to sit down and put everything that came to my heart on the blog.
I am still clueless about what to write. God has all the answers but the truth is that I can't find the right questions to ask Him.Neither am I matured enough to talk about what we must do in these times of persecution.
So I decide that I am not going to write about the persecution, or about the bodies burning nor about the many who have only the forests left to call as their homes, nor about the girls being raped,nor the hundreds who are being forced to reconvert with the knife ready to sling open their throats, neither about the many who have no hope, no future for the next conceivable days of their life.
I am an ordinary happy Christian girl whose maximum crisis could be a flunked exam, or a bad day at college.I've not witnessed a real accident, or even a fire breakout. I don't know what it feels like, to lose my family,my friends, my house or my church.So I was wondering if it was practically possible for me to empathize with the persecuted in Orissa, or am I just a victim to a sudden burst of emotion?
As I started looking deeper , God showed me a scripture, “If any of you wants to be my follower,” he told them, “you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me." (Mark 8:34 [NLT])
What's this cross that Jesus is asking me to bear? I thought of various things, but all of them led to only thing -"death". Afcourse victory through death, triumph of Jesus, salvation of soul..but ultimately the common denominator is "death". Death of what??Jesus was telling me, "You can't follow me just as you are,only if you carry the corpse of your identity (the cross) can you follow me."
I understood, that God has placed many blessings in my life only as resources to reach out, instead I was using them to carve an identity for myself. Anything that happened outside my identity did not affect me much.That's why I found it hard to empathize with the pain and suffering of my brothers and sisters in Orissa. That's why it didn't come to me naturally.
I've been a Christian for 7 years now, but I need to find if the 'I' in me is really dead.
I've been trying to follow Jesus, for my good, focussing God on myself, instead of focussing everything I have on God. The essential factor of Christianity is giving up yourself, but my version of Christianity is for me to become fatter. With this kind of attitude I can never really 'know God', 'love God' or 'live for God'.
"If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life."[Mark 8:35-NLT]
When my 'I' dies, then it's no longer what "I want", what "I feel", or what "I think", it becomes, what "God wants", what "God feels", and what "God thinks". When this happens, everything that hurts the body of Christ will hurt me, the burden of the heart of Christ will become my burden, and His longing will become my longing.
I read a quote made by a pastor "Christianity will spread not by killing for Christ,but by dying with Christ so that others might live."*
Killing my identity is going to be painful, but I need to inflict personal pain for the sake of corporate good, following the model of the cross is an inseparable part of my Christian experience.
Peter could handle Jesus being the Messiah. But he rejected the Messiah’s destiny of going to the cross. Why? Because Peter was worried that he might have to follow Jesus to the cross. That was why Jesus spoke also of the cross his disciples would have to bear (8:34). In not accepting all of Jesus’ gospel, his followers were in danger of keeping him at a distance and not listening to or understanding him**.
I wear a cross as a pendant, I feel proud when I wear it. Every time I look at it, I used to say to myself "I am the child of GOD" But now when I look at my pendant, I ask myself "Am I carrying my cross or walking without it and calling myself a child of God?"
Pray for our brothers and sisters in Orissa.
*Graduation Moments
**ILumina Concise Commentary
1 comment:
gud!
continue writing n keep up ur gud work!
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