Day 74
Echoes
Porpoises generate sounds over a wide series of frequencies. The vast majority of these sounds are well above the boundary of human hearing. Scientists call the noises they make clicks. The process is referred to as echolocation. [i]
My wife and I have been fortunate enough to travel to many different countries on this planet. We prefer to explore countries where language barriers exist for us. My preference has been to surprise my wife with the destination. I have been known to call her employer and schedule her vacation without her knowing. On these occasions, I typically let her know when she comes home from her final day at work that “you are officially on vacation and should probably pack.” Although it has been a few years since I have done this, the echoes of her awe and joy continue to ricochet through my soul.
On one of these adventures, we flew from Seattle to Hong Kong, changed planes, then on to Bangkok. After clearing customs and trekking to our hotel in the middle of the night, I renewed my lifelong appreciation for a soft, horizontal bed. I love waking up in foreign lands. Just after daylight, I was on my way out the front door of the hotel lobby. The smells, noises, sights, motion and sounds of Bangkok in the morning slapped me in the face. As this was my first visit to Thailand, I was invigorated by the refreshing sense of the distinct strangeness of the culture. After enjoying a few days in Bangkok we packed up for our trip to Phuket, Thailand where we would spend the next five days.
We had a blast in Phuket. We swam, dined, hiked and rode tandem on a motor scooter all over the island. On our fourth day there, Jacki became ill. I stayed with her in our hotel room all day watching television, writing and reading a book. As the sun began to set, Jacki urged me to “Get out of here! Grab a cab and go explore for a while.” I reluctantly agreed.
The cab driver suggested a place called Patong Beach where I could have an inexpensive dinner and watch the sunset. By the time we arrived it was dark. After dinner, I decided to walk the streets of Patong. The streets were jammed with tourists from around the globe. I began listening for the different languages being spoken. I heard Italian, German, Czech, Spanish, Persian and French.
After walking three or four blocks inland from the beach, the voices, lights and sounds of the crowd began to fade. I looked up to enjoy the stars shimmering joyously in the heavens. As I stood there I heard, “Hey Mister!” It was the first English I had heard in several days. I looked around to see a Thai woman standing in the shadow of a doorway of what appeared to be a rundown, two-story hotel. As I peered through the darkness, I thought I heard her say something that included the word help, as she motioned with her hand to come over to her location. When I was about six feet from her she broke out into a big smile and said, “Oh, American. Thank you. We like American.” She grabbed my hand and led me inside the doorway and turned right into a dimly lit living room. “You like?” she asked.
Something supernatural clicked in my soul during that moment. Don’t kid yourself. There’s evil in the world. It’s alive and well. It inhabits human beings. It’s not tornadoes, tsunamis, hurricanes and other destructive forces of nature that should grab our attention regarding the living, breathing reality of evil. You don’t have to travel to Thailand to figure that out.
Admittedly, I am disgusted with most discussions in American churches about mission trips to other, underdeveloped nations. The vast majority of these trips are vacations for U.S. Christians. The resultant smugness, veiled self-righteousness, and stories about the plight of others, oftentimes provide us with a defective sense of gratitude. The phrase, “We’re so fortunate you know” is the most common remark I hear from those who return. As one author challenges us, “We can’t keep comparing our best with their worst and feeling smug.” [ii] There’s nothing wrong with feeling grateful, as long as that gratitude does not lead to a sense of indifference. As another author notes, “And the indifference of the church and Christians is the hole in the fence that allows evil to crawl through unencumbered.” [iii]
I’m convinced that authentic Christians, the one’s who have blessed my life, are equipped with the ability to echolocate, just like the Porpoise. They seem to be able to communicate God’s heart and wisdom with their person, their everyday life, without speaking a word. Sometimes as I read the Bible, I catch myself thinking that I am reading history or listening to an echo that continues to ricochet through the corridors of time. I begin to yearn to be in those days, to have had the opportunity to walk with Jesus, visible and in- person. I begin to think that living a Christian life must have been so much easier for those who physically walked in His presence. Then, I’m reminded of the reality: “Jesus was right there for them to hear and watch. For the rest of us, we have to learn how to see the invisible and hear the inaudible.” [iv]
As I ran down the street away from that hotel with filled with enslaved child prostitutes, I heard the struggle in my heart screaming, “You should go back and do something! Maybe tomorrow or the next time I’m here. What can I do anyway?” At one point, I almost stopped and went back. That was twenty-five years ago. I haven’t been back. The echo of this memory was resuscitated recently by the words of my friend Jeff Jacobson, when he wrote, “It’s right there in the I almost stopped and the maybe next times; right there when our hearts jump and our spirits lunge, but we hide them and shush them back away — right there He is and right there is where we need to be, spilling over and breaking free from the paralysis that glues our collective asses to the seats of apathy.” [v]
Does this click with you?
NOTES
[i] Read, Andrew Porpoises Voyageur Press, Inc. Vancouver, B.C. Canada © 1999 by Andrew Read, p. 46.
[ii] McLaren, Brian D. The Church on the Other Side – Doing Ministry In The Post-Modern Matrix, Zondervan Grand Rapids, MI. Copyright © 1998,2000 by Brian D. McLaren, p. 81.
[iii] Burchett, Dave. When Bad Christians Happen to Good People, WaterBooks Press Colorado Springs, CO Copyright 2002 by Dave Burchett, p. 122.
[iv] McManus, Erwin Raphael The Barbarian Way- Unleash The Untamed Faith Within, Nelson Books, A Division of Thomas Nelson Publishers Copyright © 2005 by Erwin Rafael McManus, p. 63.
[v] Jacobson, Jeff So I Go Now- Following After The Jesus of Our Day, Trafford Publishing, Victoria BC Canada, Copyright © 2006 by Jeff Jacobson, p.109.
