The music pounded so loud I could hardly think, much less hear myself talk. I was standing in the middle of a national Thai festival with thousands of people crowded tightly around me. There were ornately decorated walkways covered with lit-up paper lanterns and thin paper streamers. The air was heavy and thick with incense.
The press of the crowd made getting where I was going difficult and slow. Add to that the jarring music, and it left none of my senses at ease. I was walking back and forth through the crowd, trying to find a friend. Thankfully, with both of us being over six feet tall, we could see over the sea of heads and moving bodies. After a long time of looking and texting back and forth, we found each other.
I had met him at a gym I go to every day. He had taken an interest in learning how to train and wanted to improve his English at the same time, so we struck up a friendship. He was a thoughtful, caring and smart guy, and I immediately started looking for ways to connect with him on a deeper spiritual level. A week or so later, I was delighted when he invited me to the festival.
So there we were, two friends from opposite sides of the world, with mostly different world views and completely different religions. I was trying to figure out how I would bring up religion, but then it dawned on me that I was standing in the middle of a religious festival. So, I started asking questions. What did the festival mean? What was it for? How did he relate to his religion? And so on.
After asking questions for about thirty minutes and him responding by showing me the shrines, incense, and other things used in worship, we started talking about meaning and purpose. He told me that most young Thai people are unsatisfied with Buddhism.
“A lot of things don’t even make sense. This festival is in honor of the water god, and how do we honor him? By polluting the water with thousands of little boats with candles and incense,” my Buddhist friend mused.
He told of a growing distaste for the monks who live off donations and get free services and preferential treatment everywhere, saying he knew of many who had only become monks because they were lazy.
He told of thousands of young people who don’t really believe in Buddhism but, because of family pressure and the immersion of Buddhism in the culture, feel that they cannot leave or break free from the system. They live unhappy, unsatisfied and unfulfilled purposeless lives, going through the motions of religion to make their families and ancestors happy.
And most meaningful to me, he told of his struggles, the things he had dealt with in life. He shared his frustration that Buddhism did not have the answers to the questions he needed answered. He also expressed his frustration that Buddhism tells you to look inside for the answers. Be better, do better, live better, love more, care more, be kind. And do that on your own without help from a god because Buddhism tells you how you should live, but does not offer any power or help.
That night we had a deep conversation that lasted for a couple of hours, where we compared our religions’ answers to certain questions. I told him about a God who loves me, gave me the power to change, and could help him, too. By the end, I could tell that a massive interest had been sparked.
Please pray for my friend. Shortly after this encounter, he moved away, and I have not been able to make contact or reach out to him again. Thailand needs your prayers. Even though it is not a closed country, it is a country where it is very difficult to make headway. Millions of Thai people live and die without hearing about Jesus. And with a Christian population of only one percent, who will tell them?
