Lessons Learned From My Muslim Friends
By John Rich Dorean
I recently had this rather remarkable conversation with a young man from Norman, Oklahoma — a good friend of my daughter and her husband — who, along with his wife and two children, has been a missionary in Lebanon for the last ten years. His wife spends about 80% of her time working in Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon trying to help women earn a living through sewing projects using micro loans to give them a start, while he teaches at American University in Beirut. But they are in Lebanon for a very simple reason: to lead Muslims to an eternity altering relationship with Jesus Christ.
Not wanting to waste such an opportunity with idle chatter about what they were doing for Christmas, I asked something like: so what life lessons have you learned from your time in Lebanon? With barely a pause to gather his thoughts, he launched into a three point sermon — that’s how I received it — that would preach well in any church on the planet. His opening phrase sucked me right in. “Here are some things I have learned from my Muslim friends.” Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but that phrase in itself shattered my “lived all my life in America” thinking. That a devout, Gospel-driven missionary could talk about his Muslim friends was a “this is something new” thought in a nation where we are trained to think of all Muslims as terrorists. And that that same devout, Gospel driven missionary could talk about life lessons learned from Muslims was an even more “pay attention to what follows” headline grabber for me. So here were his three thoughts.
First, the Bedouin culture (the nomadic Arab people whose life stories fill the pages of Scripture and remain a vital part of Middle Eastern life still today) has so incredibly much to teach American Christians about the central role of hospitality to our faith experience. We are traumatized by strangers at our borders whose intentions leave us filled with fear and trepidation, as well as by the unknown person who knocks on our door or speaks to us on the street. And so we fail to practice hospitality in a fashion that was assumed to be a way of life for our forefathers like Abraham and that is a clearly expressed command of the writers of the New Testament.
We, who are lucky if we get out a polite, “What do you want?” from the stranger at the door – more often refusing to even open the door to someone we don’t know – have much to learn from the Bedouin whose first response is to invite the stranger into their space (tent, home, apartment). After that, expected hospitality requires that food be provided and overnight lodging be offered. In fact, not till three and a half days have passed is it deemed proper to ask the stranger’s business – “What can I do for you?” This seems so radical as to be absurd to us. But if you are familiar with the Old Testament stories of Abraham greeting the three visitors who later turn out to be angels, or the story of Lot’s welcoming the strangers who also turn out to be angels, or the story of the Levite who has a concubine who he ends up offering up to some marauders looking to fulfill their sexual lust, you realize it is a way of life at the heart of the culture of the Bible. And my missionary friend’s point was simply this: we who claim to be a Biblical people need to get serious about this vitally important aspect of what it means to be a God follower today.
His second point was just as convicting and that had to do with the centrality of the life of prayer to the Muslim believer — which he described by the ubiquitous call to prayer five times a day in the Muslim world. As someone who has been awakened in Jerusalem by these calls to prayer being blasted through loud speakers that can be heard everywhere in the city, I admit that they can be invasive and more than a bit “in your face.” And sure we can complain that it is rote or forced or less than spontaneous. But as a people who are ourselves Christian and who speak casually of living in a “Christian nation,” how many of us consciously stop five times a day to pray? In the midst of the hectic pace of life, how many of us every single day stop what we are doing and go to God in prayer multiple times every single day. Yet that prayer centered life is essential and an assumed pattern of daily existence in the Muslim world – as it is certainly meant to be for all who bear the name of Jesus.
Finally, my new friend said, he was deeply impressed by Muslims’ commitment to obedience to the Koran. While disdainful of the Muslim scriptures, he is nonetheless impressed by what he regards as the typical Muslim’s response to its authority: doing what it says. That would not, perhaps, be as impressive if it were not viewed in comparison with the typical Christian’s response to the Bible, what we believe to be the Word of God. Rather than first asking, how can I obey or what does obedience look like in my particular situation, we tend to waffle on obedience by questioning the meaning or relevance or cultural datedness of the text. In short, we are forever looking for ways to avoid the very real demands of Scripture – like the importance of being hospitable to echo an earlier point – rather than looking for ways to be faithful to the core commands of God’s Word. (If you doubt the truth of that statement let me ask this: what was your response to my comments on hospitality. Was I being unrealistic, idealistic, absurdly liberal? Or was your first response to ask: how can I practice greater hospitality?)
For me, seven months into retirement -where I am not preaching or leading Bible study or serving on a host of boards of charitable foundations as was my way of life for thirty-six years – I find myself struggling with all the rest of you to figure out what does it mean, what does it look like to be a Jesus follower in this place I am planted. My new friend challenged the socks off of me in these key areas of faithful living. I hope they in some way speak to your heart as well.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
