How would you like your
potatoes?
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On a recent trip to South Africa I discovered a
book called "Faith like
Potatoes" that was written by Angus Buchan. It is the biography of an
Eastern Cape farmer who became an evangelist.
It is not the kind
of book I would normally read, because my perception of evangelists is
that they are very charismatic individuals who are brilliant at
convincing less charismatic people to follow their teachings. And as
you know by now I like to make up my own mind about things, and I like
to show others the same courtesy.
The title of the book comes
from a belief that faith should be like potatoes - easily available,
nutritious and versatile, so that you can apply it to many different
situations.
This lovely man describes in language that comes
from the heart how somebody he calls Jesus had called him to spread the
word, and how he had done this first in his local community and
eventually throughout South Africa and in a number of southern African
countries.
He describes how he heard voices that called him to
do specific things, often things that could be perceived as irrational,
but that turned out to be beneficial to individuals and to entire
communities.
On the farm that this man owns, there is an
orphanage and living quarters for people that have fallen on hard
times. If all this sound soppy and emotional, reading the book will
also tell you that this man has good judgement based on years of
experience working with people. He will not be fooled easily and will
send people away if they simply want to use him and his mission for
their own purposes. And that also does not mean that he wants everyone
to agree with him and his mission. He sounds like a well-balanced, down
to earth farmer.
Why did I read the book? Because there are
people who judge me as being unchristian, but they support this
evangelist, and I was curious about his views and practices.
I
am clairvoyant (I see things), clairaudient (I hear things) and
clairsentient (I feel things) and make no secret of it. I have a firm
belief in a Higher Being that I choose to call God. I am not convinced
that Jesus can absolve me from anything that I choose to do, or that
Jesus will come from somewhere after two thousand years of absence and
"salvage" me from this "bad" world. I believe in a loving, caring God
that lives inside of all of us. I do not belong to any church, because
organised religion makes no sense to me. And I believe in
re-incarnation.
So does being unchristian, or rather not
Christian, make me a bad person? You judge for yourself, if you are so
inclined. I have no desire to defend myself.
The book did raise
some questions for me. Probably the most important one was about the
source of the voices or messages that this man received. He gives an
example where he was leading a service in an auditorium with an
audience of a few hundred people. The voice told him that there was a
father and son in the audience that needed to be reconciled. He told
this to the congregation and lo and behold, the father and son got up
from different side of the room and embraced each other.
Cynics
will tell you that the chances of him being spot-on in such a big and
emotionally swept up crowd were very good. But what if he really heard
this voice? He gives another example where the same voice told him to
plant potatoes. The weather conditions and local opinion of other
farmers indicated the opposite, but he followed the voice and had a
bumper crop. And there are a number of other examples in the book for
which there is no logical explanation, but there were witnesses.
My
suspicion is that the voice he hears regularly and the voice I live
with come from the same source. He calls it the voice of Jesus, and I
call it the voice of God. Does it matter where it comes from?
It
is important for this evangelist to recruit followers of Jesus, because
he knows from experience that this changes people's lives. Does that
make his approach right or wrong?
It is important for me to
respect the path of each individual and not recruit anyone to follow my
beliefs, but rather to learn from everyone around me. Does that make my
approach right or wrong?
Or are we both facets of the same diamond that is God's creation?
As
far as I am concerned, God loves us all, whether we are potato farmers,
evangelists, spiritualists or prostitutes. God created everything in
this earth, including the devil and sin. If you tell me I am wrong in
believing that, does that mean you believe in a being that is as strong
and as creative a God? If that is the case, I am sure God still loves
you. I have no idea whether you are right or wrong, but does it matter?
God loves us all unconditionally. And when everything is taken away
from us, love is all that remains. I can live with that.
Article
Source: Elsabe Smit, My
Purple Blog
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