DISCLAIMER: This post may deem offensive to some but please know, my intention is not to offend you or your belief system. It is, however, my response to a very sobering experience I recently had. Please be sure to read this with discretion. Thank you.

As I walked into the courtyard, I watched as people poured out their love, their sorrow, their tears and their devotion. Nobody cared about the other. They only cared about their own worship. I looked around to see mothers teaching their daughters and fathers teaching their sons to pray with folded hands. As I walked around soaking in this uninhibited act of devotion, my thoughts were snapped back to reality as I heard people burst into song … people raising their voices in adoration and pure devotion. Little did they know that all of this love and devotion and prayer was falling on deaf ears.

Those of you who’ve been following me on Facebook or on Instagram have been seeing posts from my trip to Kathmandu in Nepal. I went there for a three-day conference and decided to add a couple extra days as personal time to visit the city and do some touristy things. On day one I took a mountain flight over the Himalayas that just left me breathless and in awe of the Creator Who spoke so much of majesty and grandeur into existence – More on that in my next blog post. By the time I landed it was about 8am. I needed to meet up for a work related event at 10.30am so I had about 2.5hrs to kill. The Pashupathinath Temple in Kathmandu is considered a World Heritage so I thought it only made sense to go visit it. Honestly though, I wasn’t very inclined to it initially because I have been surrounded by temples my entire life so this wasn’t going to be a new or even a different experience for me but like I said, I had 2.5hrs to kill. So, I thought to myself, “Why not?” and made my way there. As I walked up to the temple gates, a priest-guide of sorts walked up to me and talked to me about the history of the temple etc. Two things he said caught my attention – 1. Only those who were born Hindus could enter the temple and no one else. If you were a convert, or someone who was just seeking the truth, there was no entry for you. For those who did enter the temple, there were a bajjillion different restrictions – Do’s and Don’t’s that you absolutely had to follow! 2. He offered me multiple prayer packages. The more I paid him, the more he’d advocate on my behalf to lifeless idols. I smiled at him, thanked him for the offer and decided to go see the temple for myself. Because I was Indian, I could get away with entering the temple even though I was not a Hindu.

As I walked in and watched people from different corners of the world come into this temple to touch the feet of this idol, to pour on their heads, what to me seemed like contaminated water, but to them was holy, to bow their heads toward manmade caricatures, as if the majesty of a holy God could be downsized to the shape of a stone. My heart broke as I wondered if these people would ever realize that their heart wrenching prayers were being raised to no one… that their lifeless idols were just that – lifeless. How can the created ever be the Creator? In India there is a saying – “If you believe with all of your heart, then your faith can turn even a stone in to a God.” If I had the power to create ‘God,’ would I then not BE the Creator? Would I then not BE God? I don’t know about you but I don’t have the audacity to make a claim like that.

Gathering up the shattered pieces of my heart I walked out of the temple wondering who would reach out to these people. What could I do to share with them the love of the Creator God Who is alive and not restricted to the figment of my imagination and the creativity of my hands? I understood more than ever what it means to be a lost people. Please don’t misunderstand me – the devotion of these people isn’t wrong at all, it is WHO they are devoted to that makes all the difference. Because from where I stand, their devotion and faith is placed in a WHAT… a thing… not in a WHO … a person.

As I got into my taxi to head to my work event, I couldn’t help but be grateful for knowing a God Who is alive, and ashamed for keeping His unconditional love to myself. For the remainder of the taxi ride I settled into a pensive silence contemplating my own faith and where I was headed in my walk with the Lord. I thought about how I take Christ’s free gift of salvation for granted. How many times have I looked at what He did for me on the cross of Calvary as something I was entitled to? What authority did I have to run boldly into the presence of an Almighty, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent God and call Him “Father!”??? How many times have I had the audacity to question this Awesome God as if He was answerable to me? In that moment, my insignificance became very real to me and with that came the overwhelming gratitude of being the daughter of a living, loving God Who has been pursuing me and my heart even before the beginning of time. If I wasn’t already in love with Jesus before, I am now! And I am grateful I have free, unrestricted access into His presence.

And so do you. You don’t need to be a “Christian” to enter.

In closing I have to say – I lift my eyes up, my help comes from the Lord!

PS: As you think about this blog post, may I encourage you to pray for the people of Nepal and seek the Lord to see if He will send you there to minister to them? I’m praying the same prayer.