Stories From the Field

Being a witness “in season and out” during Chinese New Year

February 12, 2007 on 6:40 pm | In Taxi | No Comments

Yesterday I took a taxi to my class at TTC that I am teaching this quarter. Normally I look for ways to engage the taxi driver to develop pre-evangelistic bridges to create an openness to hear the gospel but on that day, I was preoccupied with some last minute grading and to be quite honest, I was not really looking to try to even talk to the taxi driver. However, from the moment I got into the taxi this taxi driver would not leave me alone. He started asking me all kinds of questions like how long have I lived in Singapore and where I came from and etc. To be honest I was getting a little irritated that he would not leave me alone and let me do my grading. Finally after several interruptions, it dawned on me that God may have had other plans for me that day that I had not wanted to consider (such as witnessing to this taxi driver). 
 
So I put my papers away and started to engage the taxi driver in pleasant conversations. He seemed quite interested in how I viewed Singapore as opposed to the U.S. where I came from originally. I mentioned to him that one of the many things that I appreciate about Singapore is that when my two year old daughter gets older, I don’t have to worry about her walking down almost any street for fear of being mugged or worse. I told him that I cannot say that about many places in the U.S. Then I said to him, “Do you know why there is such a difference?” He answered by saying that the laws here are stricter and so it probably doesn’t encourage others to veer off the path too far. I agreed with him but told him that I thought there was an even more basic reason. I said that here in the East, though many youth today are rejecting their parents’ form of Buddhism and Taoistic traditions, they seem to still have some moral fabric that they cling to in living their lives. In contrast, in the U.S., many people have thrown out a belief in God and Christianity. This leads to the problem of the moral fabric of society being ripped almost beyond repair! Consequently, the youth in the U.S. today tend to have the perspective of “doing their own thing” and being more self-centered and self-focused regardless of how it might hurt others. After all if there is no moral code, each can do what is right in his own eyes.
 
By saying all of this, I was trying to move the conversation in a spiritual direction. However, he didn’t seem to “go for my bait.” Hence, I brought up some other issues and waited for another opportunity to “jump into” a spiritual conversation. Somehow after that we ended up talking about my role as a teacher. The taxi driver said that he would be reluctant to be a teacher because he knows he would need to be a good role model. At that moment, by that specific comment, I realized that this was a natural way to steer the conversation in a more spiritual direction. I said to him, “Well, as a teacher who is also a Christian, I too realize that it is important that I live in a way that is consistent with my Christian beliefs.” Then after a pause I asked him, “So I am curious, do you have any kind of religious beliefs?” He replied, “I am a Buddhist.” I followed up by asking him in the same inquisitive tone that he grilled me a few minutes earlier, “So I am curious, what do you mean by Buddhist? Are you a devout Buddhist?” He replied that he was a devote Buddhist. I was surprised that he said that not only because I have not meet many Buddhists here in Singapore who have even claimed to be devout, but also because he was such a young guy and hardly fit the stereotype of those older aunties and uncles who tend to have more convictions about their Buddhist/Taoists traditions.
 
After he said he was devout, I said, “That is really interesting. I am really curious about something about Singaporean Buddhist” (notice that I talked about other people’s Buddhism to make it less confrontational). I said that I’ve noticed that there are a lot of Singaporeans here that would call themselves Buddhists, yet they also seem to be the first ones to want to get in line for their lottery ticket! I said, “I am curious how do you reconcile these two things in your own mind?” Like many other occasions that I’ve asked Singaporeans this questions, he too didn’t really know what to say to me. However he still attempted an explanation by clarifying that Buddha was really concerned about the issue of greed and that was the focus of his concern. Buddha realized that greed is one of those things that causes so much suffering in someone’s life. He kept going on and on in his explanation without really explaining the discrepancies. I wouldn’t have minded him pontificating over and over again except I had almost reached my destination and I had not gotten to my transition question to see if he would pursue an openness to dialog about Jesus and Christianity!
 
Finally after a few minutes I sensed a moment of pause was about to surface and so I quickly said, “So do you know what Christians believe and what Jesus taught about the issue that Buddha was concerned about concerning desire?” That seemed to pique his interest and he stopped to listen. I explained to him that Jesus taught that the issue was not to give up on desire but that to have the right desire (Matt. 5:6). I explained that Christians believe that when we invited Jesus to come into our lives to forgive us of our sins, we are asking him to change us from the inside out so that our desire is to do the good things He desires (Phil. 2:13). This was the last plank I was able to lay in my attempt to build a bridge in my witness to him since I had now reached my destination. I gave him my business card and told him if he ever was interested in talking more, I would be happy to answer any question he had about Christianity and he and I parted and went our separate ways. Yet, as he left I sensed that the Holy Spirit could use my words in such a way to stir something from within him that could lead to a greater openness to engage in dialogs with other Christians in the near future. Perhaps this limited role was what God had in mind for me to play that day.
 
Now in retrospect I realized that it may be relatively easy to witness at times to others “in season” but not always convenient to do so “out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2). But if we care about the things of God, we will continue to do both.
 
Food for thought as we make plans for our Chinese New Year celebration.