Justice, sweet justice
I just arrived home from the gym. I drive a Honda Wave. It's a glorified moped.
Today as I was driving home I pulled up next to one of these...
A Lamborghini Diablo (I think). I pulled up right beside him and passed him. As I went by I looked over my shoulder as if to say "eat my dust".
How you might ask did this happen? He was stuck in traffic on Rama IV road and I was on a motorbike which can (carefully) weave in and out of stopped traffic.
We live in a world where generally the wealthier you are, the faster you go, the higher you climb, the less dust you have to inhale. What surprised me was how satisfying it was to pass the guy. It made me remember back to my time in Malawi.
For the first six months of my year there, I had a car. Then one day the Dutch mission came and reclaimed it. They literally knocked on the door one day unannounced. Invited themselves in. Exchanged pleasantries for about 10 minutes. (They said they wanted to see how we were doing and encourage us.) Then asked for their car back. It was okay - we'd done nothing to deserve a car anyway.
What I remember so vividly was how NOT having a car opened me up to a whole new world. Now I was a walker and we walkers felt some degree of group anger toward the selfish car owners. They sped by all the time. Kicking up dust. Owning the road. Jerks. I once was one myself.
It's remarkably similar in Thailand. The motorbikes have a kind of camaraderie. There is an unspoken bond over and against the car drivers. Motorbikers of the world unite! Again, what's amazing to me is that I didn't really know about this world until I drove a bike myself.
Jesus over and over again said that one way to "test" the authenticity of our faith is to see how we treat the most vulnerable people around us. (See Matt 25 for example) So I'll take my encounter with the Lamborghini this morning and the feelings it stirred up as a reminder of how different the world looks depending on whether you are on the top (luxury cars), in the middle (Motorbikes) or on the bottom (traveling on foot or by bus).
I'm not ready to say that all Christians need to join the bottom (sell our cars and motorbikes). Although there are stories about Jesus that suggest that wouldn't be such a bad idea. What we are obligated to do though is to pay attention, be sympathetic and offer friendship and help to those who struggle to meet life's basic needs.
Today as I was driving home I pulled up next to one of these...
A Lamborghini Diablo (I think). I pulled up right beside him and passed him. As I went by I looked over my shoulder as if to say "eat my dust".
How you might ask did this happen? He was stuck in traffic on Rama IV road and I was on a motorbike which can (carefully) weave in and out of stopped traffic.
We live in a world where generally the wealthier you are, the faster you go, the higher you climb, the less dust you have to inhale. What surprised me was how satisfying it was to pass the guy. It made me remember back to my time in Malawi.
For the first six months of my year there, I had a car. Then one day the Dutch mission came and reclaimed it. They literally knocked on the door one day unannounced. Invited themselves in. Exchanged pleasantries for about 10 minutes. (They said they wanted to see how we were doing and encourage us.) Then asked for their car back. It was okay - we'd done nothing to deserve a car anyway.
What I remember so vividly was how NOT having a car opened me up to a whole new world. Now I was a walker and we walkers felt some degree of group anger toward the selfish car owners. They sped by all the time. Kicking up dust. Owning the road. Jerks. I once was one myself.
It's remarkably similar in Thailand. The motorbikes have a kind of camaraderie. There is an unspoken bond over and against the car drivers. Motorbikers of the world unite! Again, what's amazing to me is that I didn't really know about this world until I drove a bike myself.
Jesus over and over again said that one way to "test" the authenticity of our faith is to see how we treat the most vulnerable people around us. (See Matt 25 for example) So I'll take my encounter with the Lamborghini this morning and the feelings it stirred up as a reminder of how different the world looks depending on whether you are on the top (luxury cars), in the middle (Motorbikes) or on the bottom (traveling on foot or by bus).
I'm not ready to say that all Christians need to join the bottom (sell our cars and motorbikes). Although there are stories about Jesus that suggest that wouldn't be such a bad idea. What we are obligated to do though is to pay attention, be sympathetic and offer friendship and help to those who struggle to meet life's basic needs.
