My Soul Secure

It is very disturbing (and very motivating) to see all of the public displays of idol worship that go on every day and on every street. There are areas built that they have put in an idol and people come to worship it, or when I am in a cab and we go past one of these idols, the cab driver will pause and bow his head and put his hands together to pray to this idol as we pass by. As he is praying to this god, I am always praying to our Almighty God to help reveal to him who He is, to connect Him with the true source of power and peace.

One day, I was coming back from the market and I passed by a huge kali idol, probably 10ft by 20ft that they were trying to load on to the back of a truck that had a flatbed trailer hooked to it. It was a very narrow street, but that didn’t matter to all the people gathered around all over the street trying to load the idol on to this truck. Some women were standing off to the side in postures of prayer, worshipping this idol as it was being loaded, others (mainly men) were very aggressively discussing how to get this idol up on to this trailer. There was a lot of commotion happening with people everywhere.

As we passed it by, I felt a very strong prompting to ask the guy driving what was going on there. I wasn’t sure if I should say, “Where are they taking that idol” or “Where are they taking kali” or what … I wasn’t sure how the Hindu culture refers to these idols or if the word ‘idol’ would be offensive. So I said, “Where are they taking her?” J The driver looks in the rearview mirror and says, “Who?” So I said, “Kali” and he said, “oh you mean the idol?” Realizing now that referring to it as an idol is obviously not offensive, I said, “yes, what are they doing?” He explains to me that they will take the idol and ‘dump’ it into the Hugli river. I knew that they did this after Durja Puja (see previous posts to explain this), but I didn’t realize that they did this after every puja festival.

After he explained what they were doing, I felt very strongly that I was supposed to ask him what he believes about all of that. So I did.

I was very careful to explain my question as just honest curiosity and that I really enjoy learning about Hinduism and that moving here has given me so many opportunities t learn so much that I am so thankful for.

He explained to me that his family is Hindu. But that he does believe in Jesus too. (Most Hindu’s believe in Jesus … they just believe in Him as one of the many gods that they worship, so I wasn’t totally surprised by this response.)

We talked a little bit and I was just asking him questions about Hinduism and their practices, etc… etc…

Then I got to what happens when you die. I said, “what do you believe about eternal life?” He didn’t understand that , so I simply said, “what do you believe will happen to you when you die?”

He looked at me through the rearview mirror and said the 2 most astonishing statements I’ve heard yet.

He said, “Well, Ma’am, I am 60 40 Jesus.”

I said, “What do you mean 60 40 Jesus?”

He said, “I am 60% for Jesus and 40% Hindu.”

So I said, “So does that mean when you die you will meet Jesus or what will happen to you when you die?”

Here comes the 2^nd statement that astonished me …

He said, “I don’t know. I am waiting to find out if I am good with Jesus.”

Waiting to find out? What????????????

I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, “YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAIT!!!! YOU CAN KNOW RIGHT NOW!!!”

But I didn’t.

If I would, it wouldn’t do any good … this has to be an ongoing conversation that I can establish through an ongoing level of trust in our discussions.

But my heart broke, and I turned to look out the side window to hide the tears coming down my face.

He has no assurance of his salvation. I know this, I know that that is the mode of operation for all other faiths besides ours. But to hear it come out of the mouth of someone that I know, was just heart wrenching.

He is waiting to know if he is good with Jesus. He thinks he will find out when he dies. Which, certainly, could happen.

I gathered myself and caught his eye in the rearview mirror and just simply said, “you know, I believe that you will know if you are good with Jesus before you die.”

He looked at me like I was crazy. I repeated it again, and said that I believe that he will know.

He kinda half laughed and said, ok, that would be good.

I so much wanted to start quoting all the verses that speak to this and ‘convince’ him of the assurance that he can have. I didn’t want to get out of that car and leave him to drive and then not know if something terrible could happen to him before he figures all of this out.

But I did.

I had too … at that point I had a complete release in my ‘gut’ to end the conversation. Part of me was screaming out to tell him more, but the discerning side of me knew that this conversation had sewn good seed and I can hope that I can be the one to see it bear fruit. Even if I don’t, I firmly believe that I was there in that car for that specific purpose of that conversation.

I have replayed this conversation over in my head dozens, if not hundreds, of times. How can this be?

I believe that he does believe in Jesus more than he would say. It is a huge dilemma for those that have been raised Hindu to be baptized as a follower of Jesus. This would bring shame to their entire family.

The day after that, I was in another cab. I noticed that this driver had a cross hanging from his rearview mirror. He didn’t have any of the Hindu decorations or idols represented in his car at all. This really surprised me.

At a stoplight, I pointed to the cross and just simply said, “what is that?” (like I didn’t know!)

He replied, “God.”

“Oh,” I said. “Are you a follower of that God?” (he didn’t say Jesus, so neither did I)

He shook his head yes, and then said, “I am a Hindu Christian.”

I smiled and said in his language, "very good."

A Hindu Christian? This is what they will do to still be associated with the culture of Hinduism, but not so much of the religion. We, in America, don’t understand this as easily because our culture isn’t so tied up into our religion. But here it is, it typically goes hand in hand. To distinguish between one’s culture as different from one's religion is very difficult and hard for them to even grasp that they don’t have to be the same. Kwim?

Well, then I went to a fellowship a few days after that all happened. We sang a song and one line in it said … “My soul secure” …

I fell apart.

My mind was flooded of these conversations and the faces of so many that I have seen worshipping without their soul being secure at all. We have that security, we have that assurance. We cannot take that for granted. I am just so disturbed, but in a good way, that it is so easy to totally forget and not take seriously the awesome wonder of the sacrifice that was made for us so that our souls can be secure.

May the truth continue to be spread throughout this entire region that our souls have been made secure by the only One that can redeem us and give us eternal life.

Praise God for all that we are in Him and all that He has given us!