Christian Vandal Convicted

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21, NIV.

When I was young, I was very zealous for the LORD. My friends and I would pass out tracts and share about Jesus with everybody we met. We liked the idea of the crusades – brave lads out fighting battles for the LORD. It all seemed very exciting.

In my neighborhood, as in many Chinese neighborhoods, altars hung by most every door. Joss sticks were burnt and food offerings were left on these altars every day to appease the ancestors and other spirits and gods. When I saw these altars, my heart burned with anger. “My God is the only true God,” I thought. So my friends and I talked it over and decided to take down the altars and smash them late at night after everyone was asleep.

We followed these misguided plans with all diligence. We gathered all the altars and smashed them. The next morning as we walked to school our hearts surged with pride. There was not a single altar left on any of the doors. We had gained a glorious victory for righteousness, or so we thought. When we got home new altars replaced the old on every door!

Like any good soldier, we did not take this setback lying down. We repeated our midnight altar-smashing. Next morning we saw no altars and thought, “Our God is the greatest!” When we got home, again new altars were on every door! After three times they will surely realize that their gods are powerless and turn to the true God. So again we took and smashed the altars.

When I got home from school the altars were back, and my father was waiting for me. “Did you smash the altars of our neighbors?” he asked.

I didn’t bother to deny it. Instead I asked, “How did they know?”

“Their gods told them,” he replied. That frightened me. I thought they served voiceless, powerless idols, and yet they told the people it was us. At first this shook my confidence, but then I realized that God had something important for me to learn.

God does not smash into people’s lives and tear down their altars. When you smash someone else’s altar he or she will simply build another one. When God brings down altars, people are set free from fear and transformed by His radiant love. As the Apostle Paul taught, you cannot overcome evil with evil, you overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). For a zealous teen like I was, that was a priceless lesson.

Pray that:

The love of Jesus will penetrate the hearts of Chinese living throughout the Pacific Rim and set them free from all the things that they fear.

Believers in the Pacific Rim will show zeal for God in a way that reflects the character of God.

Chinese believers will catch a greater vision for sharing the Gospel with the unreached peoples living around them.

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