The thick, humid heat enveloped me as I stepped out of our air-conditioned car, prompting the sweat to instantly resume. As I turned to greet my old friend, Azim, my first friend in Cambodia, I said to my wife, “Go on ahead, I will hitch a ride once I am finished here.” Carly then drove off to visit her friend Chiruh.
Azim was my language teacher and tutored me in Khmer when we first moved to the village in early 2019. A bicycle repairman by profession, he is better off now than when I first met the skinnier, poorer Azim six years ago. Whenever we visit our old village, I try to stop and see him. This time, I was doing him the favor of bringing him something from town that does not easily fit on a motorbike.
After an enjoyable visit with Azim, I found a random man on a moto to take me a mere minute’s drive down the road to Carly’s location. I had barely perched myself atop the back of his moto when he launched into small talk.
“Are you Muslim?” he asked.
“I am a follower of Isa al Massih (Jesus the Messiah),” I replied. “Have you ever met one of His followers?”
“No,” he replied. “So who is Allah to you? Is it Isa?”
We were not beating around the bush today!
It is challenging to decide how to give both a truthful and appealing response to a Muslim stranger on a two-minute ride. I gave him my best response in the time we had, but continued to mull over how I could best answer this question next time.
This exchange was just one instance of being asked that question—a question front and center for our Muslim friends. What would your response be? Are you ready to give a spontaneous answer to a question such as this to a Muslim with an Islamic worldview?
Challenging questions like these are what drive us to dig into the Word, giving us subject matter for prayer and personal devotion. How deprived we would be if we were not regularly exposed to these challenging questions.
This brought to mind a passage from “Steps to Christ” (p. 101) in which Ellen G. White insists that, “He who does nothing but pray will soon cease to pray, or his prayers will become a formal routine. When men take themselves out of social life, away from the sphere of Christian duty and cross bearing . . . they lose the subject matter of prayer and have no incentive to devotion.” There has been nothing more enriching for my spiritual life than being involved in active missionary service, whether in the States or Cambodia. Surrounding myself with exclusively like-minded people never put me out of my comfort zone. Now, I get to be challenged regularly.
I encourage you to allow yourself to be challenged, face the hard questions, and then seek the Lord for answers. May this grow your faith walk as it has mine.
