What Do We Believe?

This week I finally had the courage to step out in faith to talk to random people in the streets to ask them about their perspectives of life. I was quite hesitant at first (and still am) but I discovered that as I stepped out in faith, I discover so much more of the richness of the lives of the people around me that goes beyond theories, conjectures and hypotheses. Instead of being averse towards strangers as I initially painted them to be, I found out that people (in Australia at least) are really open to sharing their thoughts and opinions on life.

I spoke to three different people in the past two days – one a homeless guy, one a retired man and one a year 12 student. What I discovered fascinated me. I asked them a similar question: What do you think is the most important thing for you in life? They all gave the same response: Doing the things you liked doing, exploring your interest, delving into your passion, however you want to word it.

People value their interests, and people value their passions, even more so than they actually value prestige or fame.

Truly, this tells me that people value their individuality and uniqueness. People value the dreams that they have, their gifts and their talents, their hopes and their aspirations. People value the interests and passions that make them uniquely them. And they value these things even more than being part of the tides of fame and glory. In other words, people want to be themselves, exploring the things that give them joy and life, rather than be part of the mechanistic systems of pursuing power and prestige.

One might perhaps argue that my sample bias was skewed towards such people and that if I looked into the larger population, more people might actually love the glitz and the glory rather than pursuing their interests (which might not be as prestigious). In a sense, they may be right. I admit that perhaps I might not have seen enough of the world. It might very well be that if I observe more, I might actually discover many more people who are just cynical about life and people who just want to be part of the cycles of power, prestige and productivity.

Yet, I am not overly concerned about this. Why? Because all that matters is that I have caught a glimpse of people (even if it is a minority population) who believe in talents and uniqueness, who believe in dreams and passions, who believe in a hope and a future.

The world does not like these people and in the eyes of the world, these people are worthless and hopeless.

What does the world say to a homeless person? You are just a burden to society!

What does the world say to a retired man? You are no longer productive to the society and potentially an economic burden to the nation!

What does the world say to a Year 12 student who wants to go into film and music? Your qualifications are not good enough. You will never get anywhere in life!

And this is how the world thinks of them. But how then do we, as the people of God, see them?

Do we join in the condemnatory chorus of the world in categorising them into the “worthless” group? Or do we dare to believe in the dreams, the passions, the visions, the hopes, the faith, the aspirations that these people have, these things that have been placed into the hearts of these uniquely made individuals by our Heavenly Father? Do we dare to believe that these people can impact humanity in ways that are beyond our imagination? Do we dare to believe in the things that God is doing through their lives, to move and to mobilise these people to shake the clockwork system and to usher in the breath of life, “chaos”, creativity and newness into this world?

The world believes there is no hope for them. What do we believe?