Too Good to Be True

 It is so common at this time of year that it’s almost a daily occurrence.  Entering a shop, or passing by on the street, someone who looks a bit tired and irritable (who you may or may not know) looks up at you from where they are sitting, hardly moving and asks, “Are you fasting?”  Or if they’re really cranky, “You’re not able to fast, are you?”

Food waiting for the breaking of the fast

We’ve been answering this question for years, but each year we think about our answers in new ways.  You see, this question is at once a challenge and an open door.  A challenge, because it can make us feel small, the outsider, the disobedient ones who don’t join in the communal fast.  But it’s also an open door because it’s a question, and a question begs a response.  And the response is an opportunity.  It’s an opportunity to touch a nerve, challenge a preconceived thought, share a bit of love and compassion, open a door.  It’s also an opportunity to close a door, offend, and reinforce a stereotype.  We take our responses both seriously and loosely.  Seriously in that we want to be thoughtful and ready, but also loosely knowing that we are not the One who can change people’s hearts.

As I walked into one shop this week a man I didn’t know asked me, “How’s the month of fasting going?”  I like it when they ask in this way.  It feels a lot less combative than the normal question.  Because I can just answer, “It’s going great!”  Before he could ask me the follow up question, “Are you fasting?” I let him know. “But I’m not fasting.”  Then I explained to him how my fast is already complete.  My king has already paid the price for the forgiveness of my sin, so I don’t have to.  So you see, my fast is already completed.  He laughed at this.  It wasn’t a mean-spirited laugh.  More like a “if you only realized what you are saying” sort of laugh.

Morning view over our town

And I can understand what he means.  I’m a fan of the old adage, “Too good to be true.”  In this world, if you come across something that sounds too good to be true, it probably means something fishy is going on.  If the price is too low you want to know what’s wrong with the product.  What’s the catch?  And more often than not, there is a catch.  I know that what I said to the guy in the shop must sound a lot like that:

“You’re telling me I don’t have to fast.  I don’t have to pay my dues.  I don’t have to work hard—that forgiveness will just be given to me as a gift?  Too good to be true!”  He’s probably thinking.

Street sellers' deals- too good to be true?

But if we are honest we know that sometimes—sometimes it’s not too good to be true.  Sometimes—sometimes it is so good and it is true.  Sometimes on rare occasions, the price really is that low.  Sometimes we are in the right place at the right time.  Sometimes, in our moments of great need, someone gives us the help or the money or the chance that we’d been waiting for and we don’t see it as too good to be true, but as a great gift we would never refuse.  Sometimes—sometimes, at just the right time we are given something truly good and only a fool would question it.    

But even with these windfalls, there’s still a catch.  If you look a little deeper, you’d see it.  As my economics teacher used to say, “There’s no free lunch.  If you didn’t pay for it—someone did.”  And that is true in this case too.  This gift of forgiveness I have received comes at great cost.  A cost so great that, if I take it into my heart, I will want to give my whole life in thankful sacrifice for it.  It is a cost so full of sacrificial love that I will want to turn around and fast and work hard and serve and sacrifice too.  But not to pay my dues—No!  Rather out of gratitude for a life transformed.  Someone had to die to pay my dues—the greatest cost of all.  But the debt has been paid.  So I can live my life forever indebted in love to the one who forgave my debt.  My fast was completed for me, but my life is transformed—too true and too good.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
There was a nice women’s gathering this past week meeting at a local sister’s house. There was some honest discussions about their struggles. Our daughter wants to celebrate her acceptance of the good news and to be dunked here on the islands this coming weekend! One sister shared about how she sees things changing on the islands and is hopeful for a day when things will be more free.  An island brother shared with us that he has 7 different people in his village that are looking to study with him. Tom had some good exchanges with people after sending out Easter greetings to people. One man, who studied with Tom years ago, says he wants to start studying again!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
It has been painfully hot and humid lately. This has been coupled with increasing electricity cuts. Pray for a relief from the heat and for power for fans through the nights. This coming week will be the biggest holiday of the island year, ending the month of fasting. We will get a chance to see and greet many island friends and neighbors during the day— pray that we would have good interactions and increasing opportunities to go deep with islanders. In under two weeks we will be having our annual gathering for our group’s workers— pray that all the logistics and planning would come together and that we would all be prepared to hear God guide and direct us.