By any local measure they should be reveling at being on the top of the heap. Their earning power and home clearly separate themselves from the majority of the people around them. This is a successful couple. Their future is bright, full of more rewards, and carries the potential of even greater material possessions.
As we talked about life there was an important theme that kept coming to the surface. Their focus was on the things of value, their fear of things lost, and their attention was on the choice and decisions of the immediate. They were willing to share with me a display of various images that held importance in their religious journey. They were paying particular attention to the arrangement of the images for the upcoming nine days of puja (roughly translated worship). The stories of the images told much about their belief system that contains good and evil in the divinity.
As our conversation drifted on to day to day activities, I was struck by their concern with losing touch with the common everyday things like using the bus to get to work. I would never consider it, and in spite of the fact that they had both car and driver, they wanted to take a few journeys to keep in touch.
I often come into the conversation struggling to know why to say about my God and the role He plays in my life. I found myself learning from their dedication, knowledge of theology, and sense of staying in touch with the immediate. As I learned I also found myself talking of hope that come though God’s sacrifice on our behalf, of mercy given freely, of restoration because of who He is.
I came away changed. God is the center of their lives, even if they do not know the same God as I do. My prayer continues that I can share as much of Him to them as they did to me.
“A pretentious, showy life is an empty life; a plain and simple life is a full life.” (Proverbs 13.7)
