Experiencing Diversity, and thoughts on Giving Generously
This year seems to have gone by faster than any other year I can remember. I can also say with confidence that this year was the best year I have experienced yet. I did the most intentional good, felt that I spent my free time wisely, much more than not, and almost feel like I could call this the end of my first missionary term (if I was a hired missionary :) ). I am also lucky to be able to call myself a missionary freely. I had the privilege of attending a mission conference in Thailand, I was invited by a recruiter and friend from this sizable organization, and besides having a blast at their conference hanging out with so many passionate young teachers, I also clearly saw how fortunate I am to be working in a country that has religious freedom.
Maybe Thailand is the way it is in a large part because of this; they allow any of the 5 major religions to be practiced openly, places of worship constructed, no real noise restrictions on worship in the community, I guess no official restrictions of any kind. Although the Thai government puts out numbers like 95%, 96% for the percentage of the population which follows the Buddhist religious traditions, I would say that this is far from true. I know we are in the age of the “un-qualified expert,” I am simply blogging on the internet, I could list statistics with no sources whatsoever and it is totally up to the reader to keep bloggers honest (or just not follow them to begin with), but I am making this claim from personal experience. Thailand is most definitely not 95% Buddhist.
I have not yet visited a province where I didn’t see at least one Muslim mosque, and it is rare to also not see a Christian church. Of course, Thailand does have the most Buddhist temples of any country in the world (fact), but the way in which the Thai practice Buddhism is quite different than the Buddhism I have studied in books. So this 95% Buddhist statistic even requires definition as to what kind of Buddhism they’re even talking about.
In my experience here so far, Thais practice a 3-way blend of Animism, Buddhism, and Chinese Ancestral Worship. Near to my town are the 3 provinces of Buriram, Surin, and Si Saket, with their traditional ways tending just as much towards Khmer traditional beliefs as they do Thai-Buddhism or Southern-Indian-Buddhism (where Thai Buddhism came from, through the Mon people of Eastern Myanmar). In the North of Thailand, where most Christian missionaries work, there are areas where Christianity is actually the main religion (small areas, true, but still…). Additionally, Bangkok is full of Indian immigrants, both recent and long-term, and these people bring their Hindu faith to the land of Thai as well. Finally, much of the South is of Muslim background, and of course the famous 3 Southern-most provinces almost completely Muslim, making it quite impossible for the current population of 66 million to be 95%+ Buddhist.
Publicly, it is both a source of pride, and an attempt to create unity, both good things when done with right intention, but I am thinking of this discrepancy in another way. If people have such a huge mix of cultural traditions, then there are not as many people in my life acting strictly on one faith or another. This means they are, usually, quite open to hearing about the practices of others. As one of my best local friends often jokes, “Chai krap Kru Jo, Kon Thai cheau laaaaaaai yang “Yes Joel, Thai people believe maaaaaany things!”
I remember in my first year in Thailand, I was quite confused as to how to go about talking to Thais on the deeper subjects of life. I remember writing my first group email about this, in fact. Some people responded to me about how I was not respecting the Thai people by making such uninformed comments such as this.
Now, I must say, the Thai-Laos people are so easy-going that I can’t say Ive been anywhere where it was easier to just hang out, explore, make friends, and be welcomed with smiles at every corner. This is both a great thing, and a not so great thing about life here, because aside from the cheery greetings, when you really sit down to have a talk, even with a friend, it seems at times just too much effort to work towards logical conclusions. For the time being, I will not get into the far-reaching repercussions which this has on their society as a whole… but I will just say that I was initially often upset when pretty much all my efforts to make (what I consider to be) deep friendships, just led in circles. No one would give straight answers to what I consider to be the most important questions about life, and talk would always turn back to current events, weather, food, the usual topics of human life… rarely anything more. I would then conclude that it was difficult or impossible to have anything but surface friendships (again, maybe its just what I consider to be surface friendships, because I know for sure that some Thai acquaintances of mine consider us to be “good friends,” despite the fact that we’ve only met once!)
Over time, I learned that much in the lives of Thai people involves things which are unspoken (extending to all of South-East and East Asian in general, as Thai culture (as well as the countries surrounding Thailand, and it seems to come from a mix of Chinese and Indian traditions. Not surprisingly, geographically speaking, but very interesting when seeing some of the huge differences between Chinese and Indians themselves!). If we are talking about the love-languages here, something my sister likes to discuss, then I think Thai people are socially pressured into NOT having the language of emotional reinforcement as a choice! People learn much more about their friends through observing them, and less about directly asking what they think about such-and such issue or event. One must experience life together with a friend, observing how one’s friends react as situations arise, not taking much time to sit around and discuss life abstractly.
Now that my Thai language skills have improved, I can see that Thai-Laos people do talk about some deep things, its just that they do NOT do it publicly, and they only do it to people with whom they have a long-term relationship. It is still rare for me to have deep philosophical-type discussions, but then again to be honest, but I guess its not all THAT common in my own culture either. From this, maybe I can learn from the Thai people - things relevant to us in life really should be both experienced AND discussed, maybe experience AND THEN discussed. Too much talk can be just as much of a problem, sometimes a total waste of time, as is no talk at all. Again, remember here the “un-qualified expert”, someone blogging on a topic in which they have a grand total of 1 hour of experience, but thanks to wikipedia they can use correct terminology well enough to trick the 5-minute reader into believing that the blogger has some idea of what they’re writing about… :) in general, pay attention!.
Language progress would be the main reason for my increased interactions with my community of Chum Phuang, in the province of Nakon Ratchasima, but also, to say it simply, I think I am starting to grow up. Or maybe just grow :) This year, much personal progress was made in learning to live as one soul amidst many others of equal worth. Speaking of our existence here on earth, of course this statement is factually obvious. We are all created equally, all of equal value in the sight of the One who made us, of course… but this simple sentence is really quite hard for humans to live out!
Though most of our ‘instincts’ are learned, from our parents and from society, they were all designed at one point, with the purpose of personal and therefore social safety. We are instinctively selfish, always thinking (sometimes consciously), about how to keep ourselves safe, well-fed, well-rested (we can each think of several areas in which we naturally put our needs over the needs of others), usually the list of the single, non-parent has 10 or so items before reaching anything regarding the needs of anyone besides ourselves. This year I focused on trying to read in the Gospels trying to see the ways in which Jesus lived life in the more normal life situations. Eating, Sleeping, Working, Traveling, we can see that Jesus cared enough to place the needs of those around him on a totally equal field with his own needs. Again, very simple to say, and we have all read these stories several times, but just take yet another moment to think of how much impact such a simple statement would make in your life if YOU tried to take a day and live like this! Put the needs of others as EQUAL to your own needs.
I can count on just one hand probably, the number of times that I have given up a most basic need for someone else without holding some kind of grudge against either that other individual, or just the principal itself which caused me pain/discomfort (maybe held a grudge against myself as the causer of my own discomfort :) ). We are called to be generous in this life, we should each be working to a place where we can give freely, REALLY freely! Freely in this sense, is just huge! If I want anything back when I give, if I give with a smile but say some type of curse under my breathe, any type of judgment passed whatsoever… then I know I still have work to do. Not only Christianity, but really every religion of which I have at least some knowledge, all of them would have us giving freely, giving to others in a way that asks nothing, brings us nothing, not even recognition. The Bible mentions giving “as if the right hand does not know what the left is doing.” I am sure we can all think of a situation in which OTHERS would comment that we have done something well… but in your heart, I would venture to guess (my heart knows it, I’m guessing its true of yours) that you did gain SOME sort of benefit, even a small one, and we have to be brutally honest and admit to ourselves that the benefit did play some small part in our willingness to perform said thing.
Being totally honest, even though I regularly give food to hungry people on the street, or buy an extra portion of food or carry an extra bottle of water knowing that I will hand it to someone along the way (I talk with the individual first to figure out their story, something about themselves, and then of course try to assess whether they are really hungry or just trying to stay unemployed for as long as possible…or simply learn about life from a very different point of view), if I do this only because someone else will see me and smile, then should I really think I will have yet another reward waiting for me after I die? If I give what I consider to be a large tithe in church, but then think about the things I will give up, and think about how I might still be able to get those same things for less money (so I can still have them!), and think about how I can tithe less next month because I gave such and such amount this month… then can I really say that I am being generous? Pretty much every fault I can see in myself boils down in some way to Pride. My favorite philosopher calls this most basic human reason the “Drive for Power,” and he names this as the #1 motivator for every action that a person does in their life. This guy was not a Christian, but I do believe that he very accurately analyzes human nature (his name is Nietszche).
Finally, I think that this is one area of life in which we cannot afford to not be hard on ourselves. Read that again. We cannot afford to not be hard on ourselves here - This is a main part in the walk to follow the footsteps of Jesus, and this is an area that deserves constant attention. Be hard on yourself, be critical in catching yourself wanting attention, and remember that this in itself is a reward. It will build character, build your character into one that is ever more ready to accept responsibility for your life when it comes time (I am talking about the inevitable time coming when you may be pressured to live a life for someone besides yourself! Whether its a call to missions, time to become a parent, experience with being self-less will never do more harm than good).
Side-note; of course salvation comes through Grace, and Grace alone! But I must say that I agree with the Bible in saying that ‘Faith without Works is Dead.” We may be saved, by just the skins of our teeth, but how are we meant to lead others to knowing Jesus if we are not giving it our best efforts as well? Tempering ourselves in our best attempts to say a huge “Thank you!” in this life to God for what he’s done for us, by trying to go about making ourselves into Little Jesus’s,’ knowing that we will fail, but still trying as best we can…
To finish, I guess I can link these two things by saying that I find it important to get to know an individual for who they are, not really caring what country they come from, or even what religious background they say that they are from. They might also be abbreviating things just for the sake of convenience, they may actually have a very deep and complicated history should you choose to listen. I have had the benefit of hearing a few people’s stories here in the last years, none of them from people who were “normal” in the eyes of social statistics from their respective country’s census counts. And also, in the idea of being generous, remember that generosity with your time usually means more than generosity with money. Whether it is being a parent or being a friend, real human interaction is something that money will never be able to replace.
Ok, I am done typing, those are the things on my heart today, let me know of any reactions please! And as always - You are alive, so be thankful, and have a great day!
