Better to Live a Lie

“Have I therefore become your enemy by telling you the truth?” Galatians 4:16, NAS.

I and two other Americans took 25 students up into the mountains for an English language weekend. We watched “The Village” and then discussed issues from the movie. The movie is about a group of people who have been told all their lives that monsters live in the woods surrounding the village. Toward the end of the movie, it is revealed that the monsters are a story devised by the village elders to keep everyone away from the crime and sorrow found in the surrounding towns.

One of the best discussions we had was about living a life that was unknowingly based on a lie. At one point, a student said that if he had lived his whole life with faith that was based on a lie, then he wouldn’t want to know the truth because it would be too overwhelming. In that moment I felt like the world had been suspended in time. I remember looking to my left at one American and then to my right at the other. I remember willing myself not to cry. I honestly didn’t know what to say to this young Muslim man. In that moment I had just a glimpse of how overwhelming the gospel can be to men and women who grow up in a Muslim culture. They would rather live a lie than even consider the truth.

Pray that:

Wisdom will be given to Pacific Rim personnel working with Muslim people groups to share the gospel with gentleness and respect, realizing that the truth is often overwhelming.

The overwhelming love of Jesus will overcome the fear and suspicion that Muslim people have to receiving the gospel.

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.