God is Modest

This week I met with one of our young men for a coffee, to my surprise, he refused to let me pay. That is a real culture shock, in the past 2 years I have become accustom to the local tradition that the foreignor should pay EVERY TIME, and the local recipiants of course should indulge in the menu item they never would buy for themselves. Of course part of this is actual poverty, which is why I was so impressed with this young college student's action.

This guy (like so many others) has been through the wringer in life, the only child of a loveless arranged marriage, he has struggled for identity and purpose his whole life. His family are strict Brahmans (India's top caste - the only ones who can really connect with the gods) so the strictest of behavorial codes were expected. Conflict grew as the expected outward behaviors of tranquility, piusness, and spirituality were never actually displayed in the home, only acted out for the world to see.

Strangly (but VERY commonly) the strict hindu family sent their son to a Christian school (that's where the best education is). There he was introduced to the other hinduism - performance based cultural Christianity, focused on behaviors rather than the heart of the person. Throughout school, our man grew more and more cynical as Bible story's and scripture was administrated without love and simply resounded like a clanging gong.

As he was telling me the story, he began to share his amazement of how God was able to maneuver him from athiesm to agnosticism then through to beleif. He told of how a friend at school was not like the other "Christians" he had met, she encouraged him to consider God, and he did, because she was speaking to his heart, not his actions. Then he recalled that one day in college, some of the students from his class were discussing Word of Life, and how they were planning to go again that week, he asked if he could come and they welcomed him.

I remember the day when that group first walked in. I met them and shook their hands, and asked them about their lives, what they did, who they were, etc. That first service was the beginning of a transformation into faith for him. Continually he came, with or without the others. He soaked in the experience; he became comfortable with worship and began to feel the presence of God; the messages were intriguing to him and often they triggered memories of what they were trying to teach him at the Christian school. "I get it," he thought, "I really get it".

We meet regularly, we discuss scripture, God, feelings, and everything else. This week we worked through the concept of forgiveness and the freedom it brings. Then he shared with me the thoughts I have just written about the transformation of his faith, and he used a word that I wanted to share with you all. He said "God is so MODEST...the way he entered my life without fight, without ceremony, without confrontation. Slowly he just seemed to alter my perspective, how I came to Word of Life, how I met you, how I now beleive...He did it all without shouting His name, I didn't even notice He was doing it until after it was done...so modest!"

Modest. What a word to describe God and His ways. It is comforting as we think of it in its proper light; modest is not ashamed or embarrased as we have come to commonly think. Modest is patient, gentle, confident without announcement, requiring no preamble dissertation, or summary. Modest is boastless but not without merit or substance.

I like thinking of the subtle ways of how God has moved in my life, I encourage you to reflect a moment on your own walk with this modest God, then post a response to what you may have learned from the simple thoughts of a grateful new believer from Word of Life Chennai.