Sometimes, in My Bangkok, it is hard to delineate between being different and being crazy. Fact is some of the older, western guys in my sphere of influence here stand out for simply being crazy, having continually made bad life choices, thus ending up in unnecessary and ugly predicaments. This is not to judge them. It is simply to state reality and, as a great and wise friend says, we have to deal with reality.
As Christians, we are called to stand up and stand out for the sake of the other, for the sake of good in the midst of our reality. In doing so, ones may name us as being crazy, but really we are being different. Maybe the most we could say is that we are being wisely crazy, not dangerously crazy.
When encountering my western neighbours here caught up in poverty, ill health or worse, caused by their poor and consistent options, which tend to act against life, I rightly feel how sad, as do good others in My Bangkok. However, I reflect, as a Christian, am I not called to engage them at a deeper level? To offer a healthy challenge?
I could go on ad infinitum, sermonizing from here, but I won't. That is just self-seeking and entering into an unwanted domain of my appearing as being superior and arrogant. Instead it is best I refer to my companion, Pope Francis, who said recently -
"God suffers when we, who call ourselves his faithful ones, put our own ways of seeing things before his, when we follow the judgments of the world rather than those of heaven ... . God is grieved by our indifference and lack of understanding."
(25-01-2023, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity)
As disciples of Jesus, we are called to much more than simply watch others around us decline, then commenting like all the rest, "How sad!"
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