But it did get me thinking about family.
Several years ago (and I'll date myself here), I started a job in a factory and one of my new coworkers, upon hearing my name, asked me jokingly (I think), if I was any relation to Bill Russell. I know very little about sports, but I did recognize the name, so I replied, "only in skin color." That, too, was a joke, but I probably do have more in common with Bill's skin color than I do his ability to handle a ball. I'm not very dexterous when it come to handling those round things and while I can probably dribble on a ball, I'd be hard pressed to dribble with one.
Bill Russell (not my relative)
Image from:
Family, then, is more than just a name. We, with our rather nomadic lifestyles, tend to think differently about what makes family. In our missionary family, we are "aunt" and "uncle" to a number of missionary kids. We are commonly called aunt and uncle by Thai people.
But there is another family we belong to, and that is the family of God. This past week, during our church meeting, we read together from Galatians 6:10: "Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone--especially to those in the family of faith."
The family of faith is awesome. I've been to many places around the world and every place I've been there have usually been some family members. I can feel "at home" even when far from home.
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| Dinner with Family |
The significance of this family of faith is especially important in the culture here. After our worship service last Sunday, we we're making plans on giving rides home to people from the next township over. One woman, Wari, who had come with us in the morning, said she would go home later. The reason she was staying, she said, was that she wanted to spend some time with the family. Those were not actually her words, but that was the basic meaning of what she said.
When a person decides to follow Christ here in Thailand, it is a family matter. To go against the religion of the ancestors is generally not well accepted, and a person who does so is often rejected by family. These days there is more tolerance than in the past, but in the region we work, the family pull is quite strong. To lose the support of family is also to lose the support of the village. Since this is the main method of socioeconomic support, people are reluctant to go against the wishes of family. If a person does decide to follow Christ and stick with the decision it is because they have found a suitable replacement family in the family of God.
A few weeks ago we visited a man who was injured in a motorcycle a number of years ago and now has difficulty walking. He lives on the same compound with his wife's family, as is typical in Isaan, but he is currently estranged from his wife and is building a small house for himself behind the family compound. He was interested in the gospel message, and he repeated a prayer to follow Jesus, after which he let us cut the sacred strings from his wrist. Then we prayed that God would heal his legs so that he could walk normally. He received a Bible from us and was looking forward to having us visit more in the future to talk about the Bible.
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| Cutting Sacred String A way of showing you're joining a new family. |
But then family intervened. While they had been willing to let us come talk with this man, it was quite another thing for him to quit the family religion. It's okay to add Jesus in with the other gods on the altar, but not so okay to dispense with the other gods. So the man's in-laws told him that if he persisted in following Jesus exclusively, he would be kicked out of the family compound. They even told him that they did not want us to pray for his healing. Better to be crippled than Christian, they said. The man had no place place else to go. So he decided against joining the new family.
To follow Jesus is to be adopted into a new family, sometimes at the expense of the old one. Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household." (Matthew 10:34-36 ESV)
We Christians in North America do not tend to have this kind of experience, but it is very real for people in Thailand.
It is very important, then, that the family of God be the kind of family to which one would want to belong. If our family is beset with problems and a lack of love, one will not want to risk losing their earthly family to join this new one. Instead, we should have such a love in our new family that we become the talk of the town. Jesus said, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35 ESV) If we fail at this, all our words spent preaching the gospel become unintelligible. (1 Corinthians 13:1)
It's not always easy. There is an old rhyme that goes something like:
To live above, with saints we love--
that's glory.
To live below, with saints we know--
that's a different story.
No wonder Jesus prayed, "And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one." (John 17:11 ESV)
So, if you think about us here in Thailand, pray for our family of faith. Pray that we will be one as The Father and the Son are one. Pray that we will be the kind of family people will want to be a part of. It's not always easy. We've had a couple of occasions where people started spreading untrue rumors to try to sow division among us (this by people who call themselves Christian). So far, fortunately, those who have tried to divide us have only caused us to draw closer together. The enemy wants us fighting and bickering rather than loving and accepting one another. He wants us to be ugly, and not attractive.
My hope is that it may be said of us who follow Jesus what Paul wrote to Philemon: "because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints." (Philemon 1:5 ESV)
