Well, I made it Rameshwaram safely and the trip here was one of the best experiences in my life. I spent twelve hours attempting to communicate with a beautiful family (grandfather, grandmother, mother, daughter, nephew). I slept right between them all on the upper berth (the top slat of the three that constitute the sleeping class). As I slept, two inches from my left shoulder, other than the dividing screen, was a young guy named Hassan who I befriended and took pictures with. Everything about the trip was so genuine, so simple, so liberating, so Indian.
I arrived on the island yesterday at 5:00 am. I was supposed to call Israel Paulose when I arrived, but the phone booth didn't open until 6:00 am. Then, there was a power outage, and my reading light was the only sign of life (besides children crying) in the entire railway station. About twenty minutes later, the power came back on, I got an autorickshaw driver to call Israel, and he took me to the Pauloses house. There I met his newlywed wife, his sister, and her newlywed husband (I feel very out of place amongst these four giggling bundles of joy). Israel took me on a tour of the island, showing the fisherman's shed where the Pauloses slept for a few months when they first arrived on the island. Then he showed me a day care center that they had considerable difficulty building. When they were trying to buy the land, the fundamental Hindus threatened to kill them. When they finally bought the land and, bought the building materials, and had a foreign short-term team ready to start construction, the townspeople threatened them again, only this time they said if the Pauloses tried to build, they would drench themselves in kerosene and burn themselves alive! What kind of place is this? The day care center was built with no harm done a few days after that, and had some happy two-year-olds in it yesterday. Israel told me lots of stories of being beaten and threatened: one time the Hindus told him if he didn't deny Christ, they would peel off all his skin with blades, and he said "Fine, go ahead, I can't deny my Lord." So they went to get the guy who would oversee the skin peeling, but by a miracle that guy was nowhere to be found that day, and the emotions settled down in the next few days.
I also got to play with some little girls who had been rescued from their parents, who were planning to have them killed. One two-year-old girl named Denise was calling me the Tamil equivalent of "Papa" and I almost lost it right there because I realized she probably would never have a father (I did lose it later on when I thought about the girls who were not rescued as these were). Praise the Lord for this ministry and others like it!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Reflection
This evening, I am faced with the question "what did I get out of my time at the leprosy center at Karigiri?" The lessons I have learned through quiet introspection, prayer, and reading were priceless, but what about the social, relational, missional aspects of my trip. What about the research I came here to be involved in? Well, my experience at Karigiri was not what I expected, as I mentioned before. I expected to assist in an ongoing research project in which I would: 1) contribute to the scientific body of knowledge, 2) gain experience in how to conduct tropical medicine research in a third world setting, 3) list a unique research project on my medical school application. For the most part, none of these came to fruition. I would hesitate to say that I contributed much, though I may not be aware of ways I did contribute. I would hesitate to say that I know how to navigate my way through research in tropical medicine, though I am closer than I was before. And I would hesitate to put on my med school application that I was involved in a research project in leprosy, though I was involved with several projects at a leprosy research center (and I can still say that! Ha!).
A valuable lesson that I did not expect to learn is that you can't just limit a person's illness to one area of treatment. People are so complex! I had the opportunity to see a man in a rural village who had a severe eye infection, and then a few weeks later, I watched the surgeon fix his eye at the hospital. I learned how to rehabilitate a leprosy patient's "claw hand" to prep him for reconstructive surgery, then watch the surgery a few days later, then watch the occupational therapists teach him how to use his newly formed hand for his job as a farmer a few weeks after that. This kind of exposure would not be possible at most medical centers, and especially not at most reseach. I tasted the joy of seeing a newlywed couple of leprosy patients, who may have never been able to marry had they not been introduced to one another by some of the nurses. The taste of this joy is exotic and rare and it's something I never could have anticipated.
I have a new respect for those medical missionaries who have gone before me and who I wish to emulate with my life. Seeing the incredible influence and impact that Dr. Paul Brand and Dr. Ida Scudder had in this entire region of India really inspired me. On the other hand, the oven that is otherwise known as south India, from which there seems to be no escape (not even medical facilities), has deepened my respect for those who have buffeted their bodies into submission and learned to accept the environment (and this goes for the power outages, ubiquitous lizards, ubiquitous public urination, and the dirty surgical drapes as well). It's really all just a matter of perception, and it's something that just takes time. Five weeks here has gotten me farther than I thought in this process also. I really thank God for making the lessons He wished to teach me plainly obvious to me in my time at this leprosy center. I have high hopes for the next three days in Rameshwaram too. At the very least (and I say this with reservation because I want to avoid expectation and thus disappointment), I hope to see the ways God is moving in south India and to discuss with someone the role of Western believers in this movement. I leave tomorrow at 9:45 am for Chennai, arrive at noon, then leave Chennai at 5:30 pm for Rameshwaram, arriving at 5:15 am the next morning. I've chosen to take the lowest class of train travel for economic and ethical purposes. This basically means sleeping under the stars on a rickety train with the poorest of the poor (Ok, I suppose those who couldn't afford a ticket at all would be poorer); but it's worked out so far, and I hope and pray for the best in the next few days. Peace!
A valuable lesson that I did not expect to learn is that you can't just limit a person's illness to one area of treatment. People are so complex! I had the opportunity to see a man in a rural village who had a severe eye infection, and then a few weeks later, I watched the surgeon fix his eye at the hospital. I learned how to rehabilitate a leprosy patient's "claw hand" to prep him for reconstructive surgery, then watch the surgery a few days later, then watch the occupational therapists teach him how to use his newly formed hand for his job as a farmer a few weeks after that. This kind of exposure would not be possible at most medical centers, and especially not at most reseach. I tasted the joy of seeing a newlywed couple of leprosy patients, who may have never been able to marry had they not been introduced to one another by some of the nurses. The taste of this joy is exotic and rare and it's something I never could have anticipated.
I have a new respect for those medical missionaries who have gone before me and who I wish to emulate with my life. Seeing the incredible influence and impact that Dr. Paul Brand and Dr. Ida Scudder had in this entire region of India really inspired me. On the other hand, the oven that is otherwise known as south India, from which there seems to be no escape (not even medical facilities), has deepened my respect for those who have buffeted their bodies into submission and learned to accept the environment (and this goes for the power outages, ubiquitous lizards, ubiquitous public urination, and the dirty surgical drapes as well). It's really all just a matter of perception, and it's something that just takes time. Five weeks here has gotten me farther than I thought in this process also. I really thank God for making the lessons He wished to teach me plainly obvious to me in my time at this leprosy center. I have high hopes for the next three days in Rameshwaram too. At the very least (and I say this with reservation because I want to avoid expectation and thus disappointment), I hope to see the ways God is moving in south India and to discuss with someone the role of Western believers in this movement. I leave tomorrow at 9:45 am for Chennai, arrive at noon, then leave Chennai at 5:30 pm for Rameshwaram, arriving at 5:15 am the next morning. I've chosen to take the lowest class of train travel for economic and ethical purposes. This basically means sleeping under the stars on a rickety train with the poorest of the poor (Ok, I suppose those who couldn't afford a ticket at all would be poorer); but it's worked out so far, and I hope and pray for the best in the next few days. Peace!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
The Tasty Fruit of my Reading
I just wanted to demonstrate again the common themes that God has illuminated in my reading. I read Ten Fingers for God (by Dorothy Clarke Wilson), the biography of Paul Brand, a surgeon who grew up as a missionary kid in India, was educated in the U.K., then returned to Vellore, Tamilnadu, India (where I am right now), to focus on treating and researching leprosy. Paul Brand probably contributed more to the advancement of our understanding of leprosy than any other person in history: he pioneered reconstructive operations on the hands and face, he spent years tracking the deterioration of patients’ distal body parts, and found the best footwear for leprosy patients (MicroCellular Rubber, manufactured only at this leprosy center, is a soft and pliable material used for the insoles of shoes and was the result of years of research by Paul Brand and many others. I now have a pair of custom-fitted sandals with MCR insoles!).
I also read Tolstoy’s A Confession. It is basically an autobiography of his search for the meaning of life. After writing War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy went through a period of his life where he questioned why he was alive and often contemplated suicide. He also left the comfortable, upper-class way of life and studied the philosophy and religion of the peasants. After experimenting with various paths and modes of existence, he basically concludes that true Christianity, not the form that has been distorted by centuries of false teaching and hypocritical living by the Church, but the one actually presented in the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, is the only path that offers a worldview that is both true and satisfying. The book/essay ends with him trying to sort through the mess that the Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Churches have made of Christ’s teaching. His conclusions are spelled out a little better in the work The Law of Love and the Law of Violence. These conclusions were obviously dear to him, because he ends this essay with, “This is what I wanted to say to my fellow men before I die.” What I would write down for my fellow man if I were on my deathbed?
If you look at all the books I’ve been reading, especially The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Siddhartha, and A Confession, they all tell the story of someone searching hard after something. Even Paul Brand spent most of his life searching for the causes of hand and foot deformities in leprosy patients and how to remedy them. They all made me question what it was that I was searching for, or if I was searching at all. Once I had pinpointed the basic idea that I wanted to honor Christ by doing what He did, but I had no idea how to do this in my context, I began thinking of ways to implement this lifestyle (this search has been going on for about five years now, though I’ve had more time to dedicate to intense investigation while in my simple room here and atop “Elephant Hill”).
I found some answers when I picked up Irresistible Revolution (Shane Claiborne). I think it was that it not only documented his struggle through the fakeness and hypocrisy that pervades much of Christendom and also the emptiness of indulgent living, but it also provided a solution, or at least real-life illustrations of various solutions. It was the quest to live as an “ordinary radical,” one who radically ignores social and religious norms to live out the simple meaning of the teachings of the Bible, but who is also an ordinary person, not a super-Christian, an ascetic monk, or a member of a cult. He made sure to point out that this lifestyle of love and sacrifice and action is nothing new, just new for our generation and possibly new for your particular context. In the same way, it is not a lifestyle that is confined to a particular group of people (such as his community called Simple Way in Philadelphia), but can be manifested in a multitude of ways. It causes you to think outside of the box (Republican vs. Democrat, traditional church vs. emergent church) and asks that you simply do what the Bible and says and what makes sense, and because of this, I would say that at least giving Irresistible Revolution a chance is mandatory.
Here are the marks of what is known as Neo-Monasticism, which could be considered the general umbrella under which Claiborne’s Simple Way and other likeminded communities would fall:
1. Relocation to the abandoned places of empire
2. Sharing economic resources with fellow community members and the needy among us
3. Hospitality to the stranger
4. Lament for racial divisions within the church and our communities, combined with the active pursuit of a just reconciliation
5. Humble submission to Christ’s body, the church
6. Intentional formation in the way of Christ and the rule of the community, along the lines of the old novitiate
7. Nurturing common life among members of an intentional community
8. Support for celibate singles alongside monogamous married couples and their children
9. Geographical proximity to community members who share a common rule of life
10. Care for the poor of God’s earth given to us, along with support of our local economies
11. Peacemaking in the midst of violence, and conflict resolution within communities along the lines of Matthew 18:15-20
12. Commitment to a disciplined contemplative life
I wouldn’t say it’s flawless, but it seems to be a much better way of life than what I see around me most of the time.
I also read Tolstoy’s A Confession. It is basically an autobiography of his search for the meaning of life. After writing War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy went through a period of his life where he questioned why he was alive and often contemplated suicide. He also left the comfortable, upper-class way of life and studied the philosophy and religion of the peasants. After experimenting with various paths and modes of existence, he basically concludes that true Christianity, not the form that has been distorted by centuries of false teaching and hypocritical living by the Church, but the one actually presented in the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, is the only path that offers a worldview that is both true and satisfying. The book/essay ends with him trying to sort through the mess that the Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Churches have made of Christ’s teaching. His conclusions are spelled out a little better in the work The Law of Love and the Law of Violence. These conclusions were obviously dear to him, because he ends this essay with, “This is what I wanted to say to my fellow men before I die.” What I would write down for my fellow man if I were on my deathbed?
If you look at all the books I’ve been reading, especially The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Siddhartha, and A Confession, they all tell the story of someone searching hard after something. Even Paul Brand spent most of his life searching for the causes of hand and foot deformities in leprosy patients and how to remedy them. They all made me question what it was that I was searching for, or if I was searching at all. Once I had pinpointed the basic idea that I wanted to honor Christ by doing what He did, but I had no idea how to do this in my context, I began thinking of ways to implement this lifestyle (this search has been going on for about five years now, though I’ve had more time to dedicate to intense investigation while in my simple room here and atop “Elephant Hill”).
I found some answers when I picked up Irresistible Revolution (Shane Claiborne). I think it was that it not only documented his struggle through the fakeness and hypocrisy that pervades much of Christendom and also the emptiness of indulgent living, but it also provided a solution, or at least real-life illustrations of various solutions. It was the quest to live as an “ordinary radical,” one who radically ignores social and religious norms to live out the simple meaning of the teachings of the Bible, but who is also an ordinary person, not a super-Christian, an ascetic monk, or a member of a cult. He made sure to point out that this lifestyle of love and sacrifice and action is nothing new, just new for our generation and possibly new for your particular context. In the same way, it is not a lifestyle that is confined to a particular group of people (such as his community called Simple Way in Philadelphia), but can be manifested in a multitude of ways. It causes you to think outside of the box (Republican vs. Democrat, traditional church vs. emergent church) and asks that you simply do what the Bible and says and what makes sense, and because of this, I would say that at least giving Irresistible Revolution a chance is mandatory.
Here are the marks of what is known as Neo-Monasticism, which could be considered the general umbrella under which Claiborne’s Simple Way and other likeminded communities would fall:
1. Relocation to the abandoned places of empire
2. Sharing economic resources with fellow community members and the needy among us
3. Hospitality to the stranger
4. Lament for racial divisions within the church and our communities, combined with the active pursuit of a just reconciliation
5. Humble submission to Christ’s body, the church
6. Intentional formation in the way of Christ and the rule of the community, along the lines of the old novitiate
7. Nurturing common life among members of an intentional community
8. Support for celibate singles alongside monogamous married couples and their children
9. Geographical proximity to community members who share a common rule of life
10. Care for the poor of God’s earth given to us, along with support of our local economies
11. Peacemaking in the midst of violence, and conflict resolution within communities along the lines of Matthew 18:15-20
12. Commitment to a disciplined contemplative life
I wouldn’t say it’s flawless, but it seems to be a much better way of life than what I see around me most of the time.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Siddhartha
Hesse’s fictional parallel to the life of Siddhartha Guatama, who became known as the Buddha, tells the story of a character named Siddhartha who is on a lifelong quest for truth and salvation. He begins by leaving his wealthy background as a Brahmin (the highest priestly caste in Hinduism), noticing that “ablutions were good, but they were water, they did not wash away sin, they did not quench spiritual thirst, they did not dissolve fear in the heart.” He becomes an ascetic, a “world-renouncer,” for a time, but finding that this is not the answer either, he tells his best friend Govinda, “I, Siddhartha, find only brief anodyne in my exercises and meditations and am just as far from wisdom and release as a child in my mother’s womb.” To me, the most fascinating part of the book is when Siddhartha crosses paths with the historical Buddha, Gautama. Following the masses of seekers who become disciples of the Buddha, his friend Govinda sets off in the Buddha’s footsteps, assuming Siddhartha will do the same. But then Siddhartha realizes that if he really wants to follow the Buddha, he will do what the Buddha actually did, which is not to sit at the feet of teachers, but to walk the earth on a personal quest for eternal truth. So, Siddhartha shocks everyone when he leaves the “world-renouncers,” leaves his friend Govinda, and walks away from what would seem to be the path leading to truth.
I couldn’t help but see the parallel in what God has been teaching me in so many ways here in India. That is, if you really want to follow Christ, if you really want to be a Christian, you can’t do it by studying the theology behind his words and by “sitting at his feet” in church, but by doing what he actually did. Jesus left his comfort zone and spent time loving the poor, outcast, and sinful. Add to this preaching against the wickedness of self-righteousness and greed, and you have a summary of his lifestyle. To be sure, we need to study the critical issues in theology, and we definitely need to sing hymns and spend hours in quiet devotion, but do we not also need to “sell all that we have and give to the poor” and befriend a few winebibbers and tax collectors. Should we not live, in the words of Tolstoy, “in the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them.”
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
In Case You're Wondering...
If you're more interested in what I'm doing with my days rather than my nights, I've been spending time with various people on the leprosy center campus. Today I saw a C-section, two late-stage cataract surgeries, and learned how to prevent and care for the foot ulcers that many of the leprosy patients develop because of peripheral nerve damage. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get fitting for my own custom pair of leprosy sandals, complete with the one-of-a-kind Microcellular Rubber insoles (Karigiri is the only place in the world that makes them)!!! I have made arrangements to make another visit to a rural village, see my friend Muniswami's home, and hopefully seeing some important aspects of Tamil culture as well. I'm leaving Karigiri next Wednesday morning, taking a day train to Chennai, then an overnight train to Rameshwaram. I still haven't gotten any good info from the Body of Christ Ministries workers down there, but I trust that I will gain some valuable experience nevertheless.
The Freedom of Simplicity
What Foster's book describes is the core of the spiritual disciplines; it is to me the essence of the Christian life. I rarely come across a book that I would consider “mandatory” for people of all walks of life, but this is one. Possibly the best way for me to document my growth through the book is to show a few of the passages I marked from each chapter. The lessons I learned from praying my way through this book were remarkably fitting for my daily experiences here in India. I thought about editing this and making it shorter, but then I was like, “Hey, if you don’t have time to read my entire post, you can just read the parts that interest you.” Ok, here we go:
1. The Complexity of Simplicity
“It is a strange combination and quite difficult to explain, though quite easy to recognize. It produces focus without dogmatism, obedience without oversimplification, profundity without self-consciousness. It means being cognizant of many issues while having only one issue at the center—holy obedience.”
2. The Biblical Roots: the Old Covenant
“Can God be pleased by the vast and increasing inequities among us? Is he not grieved by our arrogant accumulation, while Christian brothers and sisters elsewhere languish and die? Is it not obligatory upon us to see beyond the nose of our own national interest, so that justice may roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream?”
3. The Biblical Roots: the New Covenant
“He knows that we have an almost compulsive need to secure ourselves by means of earthly things but tells us no to do that, and proceeds to give three reasons why we should not amass earthly treasure but should store up heavenly treasure: (1) this world is a very uncertain place...(2) the fact that whatever we fix as our treasure will take over our whole life...(3) the provision has already been made.
4. Simplicity Among the Saints
“The Desert Fathers’ experience has particular relevance, because modern society is uncomfortably like the world that they attacked so vigorously. Their world asked, ‘How can I get more?’ The Desert Fathers and Mothers asked ‘What can I do without?’ Their world asked, ‘How can I find myself?’ The Desert Fathers and Mothers asked, ‘How can I lose myself?’ Their world asked, ‘How can I win friends and influence people?’ The Desert Fathers and Mothers asked, ‘How can I love God?’ ”
6. Inward Simplicity: Holy Obedience
“Holy obedience is the insatiable God-hunger that will make a person dissatisfied with anything less than the pearl of great price.”
“There are plenty to follow our Lord half-way, but not the other half. They will give up possessions, friends, and honors, but it touches them too closely to disown themselves.”
-Meister Eckhart-
“Fenelon is, I think, far wiser when he says simply, ‘Self-love prefers injury to oblivion and silence.’ To be silent is probably the best way to deal with self-love.”
7. Outward Simplicity: Beginning Steps
“But we must not shrink back from our task. We must risk the danger of legalism, because to refuse establishes a legalism in defense of the status quo. Until we become specific, we have not spoken a word of truth.”
“Precision without legalism...practical accommodation without ethical compromise”
“Poverty is a means of grace; simplicity is the grace itself.”
8. Outward Simplicity: Longer Strides
“God calls some of us to increase our income in order to use it for the good of all. Again, I emphasize the danger of this ministry. We are dealing with dynamite. Wealth is not for spiritual neophytes; they will be destroyed by it. Only the person who has clean hands and a pure heart can ever hope to handle this “filthy lucre” without contamination…we will be living close to hell for the sake of heaven.”
“If we imprison them in ghettos of affluence, how can they learn compassion for the broken of the world? So let us walk hand in hand with out children into pockets of misery and suffering.”
9. Corporate Simplicity: The Church
“In a world of limited resources, our wealth is at the expense of the poor. To put it simply, if we have it, others cannot.”
“The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.” –Pascal–
“A final personal disposition for embodying Christian simplicity is increasing our proclivity toward risk-taking, that God’s reign might be known.”
10. The Simplicity of Simplicity
“Simplicity is essential in the way that an engine or wheels or brakes are essential to an automobile.”“To be sure, the cost of simplicity is great, but the cost of duplicity is greater…simplicity may be difficult, but the alternative is immensely more difficult.”
I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with myself, because I have so much to say about Wilson's Ten Fingers for God, Claiborne's Irresistable Revolution, and Tolstoy's Confession. I guess I'll have to suck it up and only give you the crux of what God taught me through the books.
1. The Complexity of Simplicity
“It is a strange combination and quite difficult to explain, though quite easy to recognize. It produces focus without dogmatism, obedience without oversimplification, profundity without self-consciousness. It means being cognizant of many issues while having only one issue at the center—holy obedience.”
2. The Biblical Roots: the Old Covenant
“Can God be pleased by the vast and increasing inequities among us? Is he not grieved by our arrogant accumulation, while Christian brothers and sisters elsewhere languish and die? Is it not obligatory upon us to see beyond the nose of our own national interest, so that justice may roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream?”
3. The Biblical Roots: the New Covenant
“He knows that we have an almost compulsive need to secure ourselves by means of earthly things but tells us no to do that, and proceeds to give three reasons why we should not amass earthly treasure but should store up heavenly treasure: (1) this world is a very uncertain place...(2) the fact that whatever we fix as our treasure will take over our whole life...(3) the provision has already been made.
4. Simplicity Among the Saints
“The Desert Fathers’ experience has particular relevance, because modern society is uncomfortably like the world that they attacked so vigorously. Their world asked, ‘How can I get more?’ The Desert Fathers and Mothers asked ‘What can I do without?’ Their world asked, ‘How can I find myself?’ The Desert Fathers and Mothers asked, ‘How can I lose myself?’ Their world asked, ‘How can I win friends and influence people?’ The Desert Fathers and Mothers asked, ‘How can I love God?’ ”
5. Inward Simplicity: The Divine Center
“Oh blessed simplicity, that seizes swiftly what cleverness, tired out in the service of vanity, may grasp but slowly” –Kierkegaard-
“One of the most profound effects of inward simplicity is the rise of an amazing spirit of contentment. Gone is the need to strain and pull ahead. In rushes a glorious indifference to position, status, or possession.”
6. Inward Simplicity: Holy Obedience
“Holy obedience is the insatiable God-hunger that will make a person dissatisfied with anything less than the pearl of great price.”
“There are plenty to follow our Lord half-way, but not the other half. They will give up possessions, friends, and honors, but it touches them too closely to disown themselves.”
-Meister Eckhart-
“Fenelon is, I think, far wiser when he says simply, ‘Self-love prefers injury to oblivion and silence.’ To be silent is probably the best way to deal with self-love.”
7. Outward Simplicity: Beginning Steps
“But we must not shrink back from our task. We must risk the danger of legalism, because to refuse establishes a legalism in defense of the status quo. Until we become specific, we have not spoken a word of truth.”
“Precision without legalism...practical accommodation without ethical compromise”
“Poverty is a means of grace; simplicity is the grace itself.”
8. Outward Simplicity: Longer Strides
“God calls some of us to increase our income in order to use it for the good of all. Again, I emphasize the danger of this ministry. We are dealing with dynamite. Wealth is not for spiritual neophytes; they will be destroyed by it. Only the person who has clean hands and a pure heart can ever hope to handle this “filthy lucre” without contamination…we will be living close to hell for the sake of heaven.”
“If we imprison them in ghettos of affluence, how can they learn compassion for the broken of the world? So let us walk hand in hand with out children into pockets of misery and suffering.”
9. Corporate Simplicity: The Church
“In a world of limited resources, our wealth is at the expense of the poor. To put it simply, if we have it, others cannot.”
“The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.” –Pascal–
“A final personal disposition for embodying Christian simplicity is increasing our proclivity toward risk-taking, that God’s reign might be known.”
10. The Simplicity of Simplicity
“Simplicity is essential in the way that an engine or wheels or brakes are essential to an automobile.”“To be sure, the cost of simplicity is great, but the cost of duplicity is greater…simplicity may be difficult, but the alternative is immensely more difficult.”
I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with myself, because I have so much to say about Wilson's Ten Fingers for God, Claiborne's Irresistable Revolution, and Tolstoy's Confession. I guess I'll have to suck it up and only give you the crux of what God taught me through the books.
Monday, July 20, 2009
One More Thing
I talked to a lady yesterday who is looking to buy a laptop for a young person she is sponsoring, and she was asking me if there was anyway I could get a cheap laptop shipped from the U.S. (she has saved up some money, but not very much). Then it hit me: I have a laptop here in India with me. It's a decent one too. Why shouldn't I give it to this guy who needs it much more than me? So, yeah...I might be leaving my laptop here. Gotta think this one through!
ISKON Temple (Outside of Bangalore)
This temple would have bamboozled me, but I decided not to go. It was further outside of town that I had expected, and the autorickshaw driver was pointing that out to me (probably because he was planning on overcharging me), so I just told him to show me some temples in the city and maybe his mosque. Also, William wasn't there in the morning, so I would have had to navigate my way through the temple, which has proven itself to be ridiculously difficult and unfruitful. On top of my let down about seeing the Hare Krishna Temple (the ISKCON one), William tells me that his children are all on a picnic in Mysore! So I say, no problem, it's not like this type of thing hasn't been happening the whole time I've been in India, we'll just work with it (or "roll with the punches" as Caleb advised me). I tell them to take me to the post office so I can send a letter home (William told me on Friday I could send it on Saturday), but as we are passing the post office, the rickshaw driver tells me it's closed Saturday and Sunday for a holiday. Remember how I was going to try to play golf? Well, it was very cold and rainy all day Saturday so that fell through. So you might assume that at this point I'm just moping around town, extra-gloomy, or sobbing in my room, but then I saw a book shop. Then I saw another book shop. Then I saw two more book shops. There were probably around fifteen book shops (of various kinds: new books, second hand books, antique books) around MG road alone! So, in conclusion, although I didn't get to see William's orphanage or the ISKCON temple, or play golf, I did get to spend hours searching through cheap books that you can't find in the U.S., and I did get to at least talk with William about a lot of stuff, and I got to make an agreement with my Muslim autorickshaw driver that we would both promote peace between Islam and Christianity! Oh wait, one of the main reasons I was going to Bangalore was to talk to Frank Fox's friend who ran a coffee shop ministry there, but when I called him, I got no answer (on Friday night or Saturday morning). Just another "happy little accident" (as my hero Bob Ross used to say) that adds to the excitement of my trip (in a roundabout way).
Friday, July 17, 2009
A Blessing From the Lord! God Be Praised!
I just made it to Bangalore after successfully finding my train, riding on it, then getting off of it. While I was unsuccessfully searching for a barber shop, a man named William approached me, told me he was a Christian who ran an orphanage, and wondered if I needed help. I had things somewhat under control, but his quick tour around MG road really helped me out. He's going to arrange an autorickshaw to take me to the ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) temple and then to his orphanage. Also, I visited the Golden Temple outside of Vellore (see above; we weren't allowed to take cameras anywhere near the temple). It was magnifiscent and also a little silly. Peolpe were putting their ears to this black fountain, then slapping it with their hand. When my Tamil Christian friend asked them what it was supposed to do, no one knew! This kind of things happens a lot in India, although at least they know the significance of the ritual most of the time. The only other thing to cover is that I revised my program at the leprosy center: instead of spending the rest of my time primarily in community health, I'll be spending an equal amount of time in surgery, physiotherapy, clinical pathology, and various other things.
I've really adjusted to India now, and through living here and reading the books, watching the movies, and hanging out with the people that God has strategically placed before me, I have come to really identify with the poor of this world. I've reached a point of no return in my journey of life now. It is time to leave the ordinary life of an American Christian and live the way Jesus actually lived.
I've really adjusted to India now, and through living here and reading the books, watching the movies, and hanging out with the people that God has strategically placed before me, I have come to really identify with the poor of this world. I've reached a point of no return in my journey of life now. It is time to leave the ordinary life of an American Christian and live the way Jesus actually lived.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
1.61803398874989484820458683436563811772030917980576
Very simply, Mario Livio’s book The Golden Ratio traces the history of the number phi (see above, although it’s actually infinite). As my first extra-curricular book on mathematics, it was quite interesting, but not enough to make me want to pick up another one. Basically, beginning with the time of Pythagoras, the Golden Ratio has been found in countless corners of our world: the Great Pyramids, sunflowers, mollusks, crystals, galaxies, Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”, Dali’s “Sacrament of the Last Supper;” possibly even the rise and fall of the stock market (watch the movie Pi if you're interested).
Other than a general appreciation for mathematicians, I took away two things from the book:
1) “I see a certain order in the universe and math is one way of making it visible” (May Sarton). I find this to be true, and I notice it more now that I have read this book. I kind of get the sense that behind everything there is a stream of numbers and equations and principles (miracles excluded). I think someone has said that “Mathematics is the language of God,” and if you believe (a) that he “upholds all things by the word of his power” (Hebrew 1:3), and you also believe (b) that the universe normally operates according to mathematical principles, then maybe this is true in a way.
2) Pythagoras was a really interesting guy. He was so interesting that he even had a cult following that adhered to his rigorous ethical code and philosophy of life. He said, “Most men and women, by birth or nature, lack the means to advance in wealth and power, but all have the ability to advance in knowledge.” Now, let me just say that I think this is only partially true; I can think of ways of arguing that most people can advance in wealth or power, and also that many people do not really have the ability to advance in knowledge, but let’s put the false part of the statement aside for a minute and look at the true part. Those of you who know me well know that the desire to advance in knowledge has been somewhat of a blessing and a curse for me. I have a sense of urgency to learn as much as possible about as many things as possible, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it has also led me to bring my large MCAT prep book on the put-put course, which is quite simply a silly thing to do. We can all learn from Pythagoras here though. Keeping a healthy dose of sheer pleasure/relaxation/entertainment in your life, take the steps necessary to advance your knowledge in a new sector of our world. Mechanics, agriculture, mathematics, history, anthropology, theology, culinary arts, computer technology, you name it. Don’t waste your precious time on earth! I would think serving God and others would be of primary concern, but after that advance in knowledge!
Friday, July 10, 2009
MG's Experiments with Truth
I think the best way to document my own progression through this trip is by posting some responses to my reading. After all, I've probably spent more time reading than anything else so far. I read most of Gandhi's autobiography (called An Autobiography or My Experiments with Truth) during my lengthy travel to Karigiri.
Mohandas K. Gandhi, or MG as he is affectionately known here, seems to be everywhere. There are several statues of him just in Vellore, and there is an MG road in almost every city (and it's usually the center of shopping, attractions, hotels, etc.). I can't properly convey to you the amazement with which I read about his moral sensitivity, his simplicity, his earnest seeking after truth and peace, his wisdom, his love for his parents! I selected a few quotes to share below because they really show what made him tick and also because I found some passages of Scripture that correlate with his struggles:
MG: “What I want to achieve—what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years—is self-realization, to see God face to face, to attain Moksha. I live and move and have my being in this goal.” (xii)
MG: “But for me, truth is the sovereign principle, which includes numerous other principles…not only the relative truth of our conception, but the Absolute Truth, the Eternal Principle, that is God…but I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after Him. I am prepared to sacrifice the things dearest to me in pursuit of this quest.” (xiii)
MG: “For it is an unbroken torture to me that I am still so far from Him, Who as I fully know, governs every breath of my life, and Whose offspring I am. I know that it is the evil passions within that keep me so far from Him, and yet I cannot get away from them." (xv)
John 14:6-10: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me"…Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?
John 1:17: For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ
John 8:31-36: If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free…Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain in the house forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
2 Corinthians 5:21: He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
As you can imagine, it pains me to only select these few passages of Scripture when there are so many that speak about these issues. I could write several books just with my own thoughts about what this great little man had to say to the world.
Coming soon: Livio's The Golden Ratio, Foster's Freedom of Simplicity, and Hesse's Siddhartha
Mohandas K. Gandhi, or MG as he is affectionately known here, seems to be everywhere. There are several statues of him just in Vellore, and there is an MG road in almost every city (and it's usually the center of shopping, attractions, hotels, etc.). I can't properly convey to you the amazement with which I read about his moral sensitivity, his simplicity, his earnest seeking after truth and peace, his wisdom, his love for his parents! I selected a few quotes to share below because they really show what made him tick and also because I found some passages of Scripture that correlate with his struggles:
MG: “What I want to achieve—what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years—is self-realization, to see God face to face, to attain Moksha. I live and move and have my being in this goal.” (xii)
MG: “But for me, truth is the sovereign principle, which includes numerous other principles…not only the relative truth of our conception, but the Absolute Truth, the Eternal Principle, that is God…but I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after Him. I am prepared to sacrifice the things dearest to me in pursuit of this quest.” (xiii)
MG: “For it is an unbroken torture to me that I am still so far from Him, Who as I fully know, governs every breath of my life, and Whose offspring I am. I know that it is the evil passions within that keep me so far from Him, and yet I cannot get away from them." (xv)
John 14:6-10: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me"…Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?
John 1:17: For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ
John 8:31-36: If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free…Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain in the house forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
2 Corinthians 5:21: He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
As you can imagine, it pains me to only select these few passages of Scripture when there are so many that speak about these issues. I could write several books just with my own thoughts about what this great little man had to say to the world.
Coming soon: Livio's The Golden Ratio, Foster's Freedom of Simplicity, and Hesse's Siddhartha
Elephant Hill
This was recorded in my journal on Monday, July 6th. Use caution, it gets deep at the end:
Something came alive in me atop “Elephant Hill” today—I think it was love. Karigiri, which means “elephant hill” in Tamil, is named after the nearby landform that looks like an elephant lying down from a distance. I got the idea to summit it yesterday, and I could wait no longer, so as soon as I was done in the molecular biology lab, I set off. From the top, I could see 360° of flatlands, including Vellore and Chitoor and the many villages that fill in the gaps, and also the Eastern Ghats jutting up behind the flatlands. I was very alone up there, but I had the company of Sigur Ros melodies (Untitled #2 in particular for those who are interested) and Lord Byron’s poetry going through my head:
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods.
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but nature more.
I was utterly overcome with emotion. It began as a very real gratefulness for God’s provision, not just for the splendor of His creation, but for providing me such ample time for prayer, meditation, and introspection (and now He had even given me an excellent location to do these things). Though it began as gratefulness, there arose in me an overwhelming feeling of compassion for all the people encompassed in my range of vision: so many who are physically and spiritually broken…so many lost without any sense of direction. The moment was so profound and beautiful. I thought of how the physical world can be broken down, from the Universe to planets to objects to molecules to elements, and then to atoms and subatomic particles. It’s abstract I know, but it just hit me that this experience is the stuff that life is made of. I tasted for a few moments the irreducible substance of this life that God has blessed me with.
Something came alive in me atop “Elephant Hill” today—I think it was love. Karigiri, which means “elephant hill” in Tamil, is named after the nearby landform that looks like an elephant lying down from a distance. I got the idea to summit it yesterday, and I could wait no longer, so as soon as I was done in the molecular biology lab, I set off. From the top, I could see 360° of flatlands, including Vellore and Chitoor and the many villages that fill in the gaps, and also the Eastern Ghats jutting up behind the flatlands. I was very alone up there, but I had the company of Sigur Ros melodies (Untitled #2 in particular for those who are interested) and Lord Byron’s poetry going through my head:
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods.
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but nature more.
I was utterly overcome with emotion. It began as a very real gratefulness for God’s provision, not just for the splendor of His creation, but for providing me such ample time for prayer, meditation, and introspection (and now He had even given me an excellent location to do these things). Though it began as gratefulness, there arose in me an overwhelming feeling of compassion for all the people encompassed in my range of vision: so many who are physically and spiritually broken…so many lost without any sense of direction. The moment was so profound and beautiful. I thought of how the physical world can be broken down, from the Universe to planets to objects to molecules to elements, and then to atoms and subatomic particles. It’s abstract I know, but it just hit me that this experience is the stuff that life is made of. I tasted for a few moments the irreducible substance of this life that God has blessed me with.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Hmmm...
The bad news: I'm slowly but surely realizing that I'm not gonna get what I wanted out of this internship. The good news: it doesn't really matter what I want!!! I just finished yesterday with my posting in the molecular biology lab, and while watching the girl carry out the steps of DNA sequencing was sort of cool, and now I can say I have some experience in that area of lab work, it doesn't really fulfill one of my main goals of this trip: research. Basically, the molecular biologists only work when there is an unidentified sample that could contain mycobacterium leprae (the bacteria that causes leprosy). Even if they had a few samples, they are only doing PCR, etc. for clinical purposes (treating the patient properly) and not research (something like performing experiments to further our understanding of how leprosy is transmitted). The biochemistry lab is the same way. In other words, it is the problem that I suspected I may run into: nobody is working on any research projects. I consider for a bit the possibility that I may be able to conduct my own research, maybe in community health, but I'm just not going to be able to come up with a topic (and no one seems to have any suggestions either) and then get questionnaires filled out or whatever it would take to get an answer to my question.
I think the best I can do is get an idea of how to treat a disease from every angle (lab research, medical, surgical, physiotherapy, social, psychological, vocational, etc.). It isn't what I expected, but it may end up being a much better experience and much more exciting! So, expectations are not being met, but that's what I expected! I think God may be using this experience in my life for purposes that I'm not even aware of yet. For instance, I got to have a multiple-hour discussion with the two British medical students that got here last weekend, and it was awesome! They aren't religious, and they've only encountered really poor examples of Christianity, so maybe showing them something they're not used to is my purpose here. I really don't know, but I'm trusting that God will allow me to get whatever I'm supposed to out of this trip. Stay posted!
I think the best I can do is get an idea of how to treat a disease from every angle (lab research, medical, surgical, physiotherapy, social, psychological, vocational, etc.). It isn't what I expected, but it may end up being a much better experience and much more exciting! So, expectations are not being met, but that's what I expected! I think God may be using this experience in my life for purposes that I'm not even aware of yet. For instance, I got to have a multiple-hour discussion with the two British medical students that got here last weekend, and it was awesome! They aren't religious, and they've only encountered really poor examples of Christianity, so maybe showing them something they're not used to is my purpose here. I really don't know, but I'm trusting that God will allow me to get whatever I'm supposed to out of this trip. Stay posted!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
When the heck will this be over?
Just wanted to keep the title theme, things are actually pretty nice right now. Here's my returning flight info:
Tuesday, August 4
5:25 am--depart from Chennai International Airport
11:35 am--arrive at London Heathrow Airport
(10 hr, 40 min flight)
3:00 pm--depart London Heathrow Airport
7:10 pm--arrive at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport
(9 hr, 10 min flight)
If you see any impracticalities or impossibilities with this itinerary, please feel free to let me know. Thank you.
Tuesday, August 4
5:25 am--depart from Chennai International Airport
11:35 am--arrive at London Heathrow Airport
(10 hr, 40 min flight)
3:00 pm--depart London Heathrow Airport
7:10 pm--arrive at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport
(9 hr, 10 min flight)
If you see any impracticalities or impossibilities with this itinerary, please feel free to let me know. Thank you.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)