Blinded by Tradition
This is day 10 of 32. Throughout April, we will be posting daily. We invite you to learn about Chinese Muslims and pray with us for God’s glory to be made known among them. If you would like to read other posts in this series, you can find them here.
As the sun sets behind the mountains, the crowded mini-bus jumbles along through a gorge that allows no margin for error by the driver, who is more cavalier about this dangerous terrain than his passengers. Jason begins to feel sick, but if he can just hang on through this gorge, he is almost home.
Home. He tries to forget his anxiety about returning to Xunhua after seven years in the city. He pushes back the humiliation of being rejected by his fiancee’s family just before his arranged marriage because of his minor disability. He cringes at the thought that, undoubtedly, his parents will try once again to marry him off.
My people seem blinded, Jason thinks to himself. But to what, I don’t know.
Now that he has lived in a developing city, the legend he heard his entire life about why his people settled in their village seems ridiculous. Really, who could believe that people from Uzbekistan strapped a Qur’an to the head of a camel and settled where the camel stopped for water and turned to stone?
Perhaps more accurate are the stories of Ghengis Khan taking the Salar people captive and dragging them to the remote foothills of the Himalayans. But who really knows?
As the bus jolts here and there, brushing the edge of the gorge too many times, Jason can’t help but ponder life and death, and the possibility that in these things too, his people have not seen the whole truth. Just recently he met a new friend, Josh, who had lived in Xunhua and understood the people’s unique culture and beliefs, yet also believed they were blinded. He told Jason that Jesus, whom the Salar Muslims behold as a prophet, is actually the Son of God who lived, died and was raised from the dead so that all people everywhere might be forgiven and have eternal life in Him.
Jason couldn’t forget how Josh described God as a loving Father who cared for him, who delighted in him — even with his disability — and who offered him a relationship and forgiveness once and for all. This was so different than all of the rules that Jason’s family and friends kept as they tried to earn God’s favor with their “holy” deeds. Could God really become a man and, in His perfection, take the place of all humanity on a cross to be the once-for-all sacrifice for sin?
Something rang true in Jason’s heart as he looked at the beautiful scenery and pondered the holes in the traditional religion and values of his people. Yes, he really wanted to be accepted and known by this personal Father who offered him love and forgiveness.
Prayer Requests:
- Pray that the Holy Spirit will use the Gospel to turn Jason’s heart to follow Him, and pray that Jason will become a bold proclaimer of the Gospel.
- Pray that God will open the eyes of Chinese Muslims to the lies of Islam and the truth about Jesus that He is the way, the truth and the life.