Letters from the Equator

7 years of my Christian life has passed. Before that, I used to think it weird that some fool got converted to Christianity. I honestly saw it as a waste, that one could be so foolish to fall into some plain doctrine of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Perhaps it was that many converts I witnessed in the past were already losers. Perhaps it was that the Christians that I knew in high school were too proud and cliqish. Perhaps they weren’t as friendly and good as they were supposed to be… and how annoying it was to be asked to church by a mere acquaintance. You don’t even know me!

Whatever it was, everyone mostly remained on their side of the fence. Maybe the occasional story of how one girl was suicidal until she found the Son of God. But that doesn’t prove anything. Nothing really proves anything.

Then it was just too weird that I myself ended up in the same predicament. Faced with fears and uncertainty and loneliness, a group of Christians gave me a safe place to belong. It was a good thing that I wasn’t offended by the Christian gospel, but I just wasn’t sure that I wanted to end up being like that. Maybe I did believe that conversion effectively takes away our autonomy. That was not what I wanted.

My pivotal moment happened because I wanted a God who was real and close. If it wasn’t for the community who served me, it would have been difficult to come to that emotional point. I wasn’t cajoled. I wasn’t mocked. I wasn’t pushed. All the times I had searched through the Scriptures and went to bible studies was because I initiated it, and I would wanted it no other way. After all, I didn’t want to seem weak as to be led like a dumb fool into a trap. Well, at least that was what I thought I was doing at the time. On my side of the fence, the Spirit was working heavily. On the other side, it was coincidental or persuaded.

Now, 7 years and passing, I am here… where the grass is greener. And to everyone else, it is the same for them or at least the grass is comfortably livable. No, mine is green. Does God make the foolish to shame the wise? Perhaps. Who would have thought one could have eternal life through faith and faith alone in the Son of God? I did.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

1 Cor 1:18-25