A friend challenged me to look at another’s walk from the inside out. Thinking that the task was easy, I took it on without much thought. After a week or so of trying, I am not so sure I am up to the challenge.
A Hindu temple in Singapore’s Chinatown stands out. It is not Chinese or Buddhist. I frequently walk by the temple. As I began to think as a devotee, my mind returned to a wet raining night when the believers willingly choose to run, dance, and even walk through a 30-foot bed of red coals. For those that do not think the coals are hot, trust me when I write that you could feel the heat from the spectator’s gallery twenty feet away. The coals were over four feet deep. The fire had been nurtured for more than 12 hours. It was going to be hot and then they tried to make it even hotter! This is not for the casual “I am not sure” believer.
It was never real. I could imagine but there was no reason to think about it. Then a friend of many years stopped by. “I have talked to the Priest about participating this year. I am hoping it will work out.”
Devotion, sacrifice, and commitment are his reasons. His intent is to give something back. For him, it is an expression of love. I struggle to embrace his viewpoint and let the experience permeate my soul.
I wondered about the challenge, thinking that I had to be unique. It seems that the problem of perspective has been around for generations. When one group saw what a wisdom father was planning to do, they reacted strongly. “When we heard that, we and everyone there that day begged Paul not to be stubborn and persist in going to Jerusalem. But Paul wouldn’t budge: ‘Why all this hysteria? Why do you insist on making a scene and making it even harder for me? You’re looking at this backward.’” (Acts 21.12)
I wonder if I will walk together with my friend.
