Tai-Chi, Chinatown, Hard-Heart, Hidden Truth, God’s Sovereignty, Southside Irish, Parables

10/1/19         Bill     (Click HERE to view video)

Every morning, Bill, a 76 year old retired construction worker and lifelong resident of a Chicago blue-collar and formerly Irish-Catholic southeast side neighborhood, travels a half hour to a park near Chicago’s Chinatown, where, along with perhaps 50 Chinese seniors, he participates in about 90 minutes of Tai Chi, a sort of slow-motion exercise routine.

  

I had initiated an outreach conversation with Bill at the same park, and found out he had been raised as a strict Irish-Catholic but has long since neglected matters of faith, with just a sort of vague hope that his spirit will continue to live on after he dies.  But he was pretty set in his rejection of specific religious belief for himself, saying several times “Well, whatever works for you” with the clear implication that “It doesn’t work for me”.

  

It seems hard to imagine Bill changing his mind after so many years of a hard-heart toward the things of God.  I understand the Gospel is meant for all people, no matter what stage of life they may be in, but I also think of Jesus’ explanation to his disciples in Matthew 13 of why he teaches in parables – to actually hide God’s truths from the hard-hearted:

  

The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

For many, the idea of God actually hiding His truths from people seems hard to fathom.  Shouldn’t a God of love make it ever-easier for people to believe?  Why would He purposely hide his truths?

Jesus continues his explanation, and it gets even harder to accept:

“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.  For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

So what we have here are people whose hearts have become calloused and hardened to God’s truths, and Jesus saying he won’t simply make it easier for them in order to let them accept it.  Why?

I’m no theologian, but my guess is that it has to do with God’s sovereignty.  People who have hardened their hearts to truth on God’s terms have no right to demand truth on their own terms.  God knows that people who will only accept truth on their own terms will fail to see that it is a gift from God.  They will think “I figured this out with MY eyes, with MY ears, with MY heart.”   Me, me, me, like I’m doing God a favor.

  

So after hearing about Bill’s background and realizing that he has been hardening his heart toward God his entire life, should I likewise try to hide God’s truths?  Absolutely not!  It is God who is sovereign, not I.  We as God’s ambassadors are to make God’s message as clear as possible.  We don’t know the heart of a man, and we don’t know God’s purposes.  Maybe he has been preparing Bill for 76 years to hear the Gospel on this particular day, who knows?  I don’t.

  

What I see in Bill is a tough, Chicago south-sider who has crossed many barriers to participate in Tai-Chi, which at one time was probably a very foreign and probably somewhat intimidating hurdle to overcome.  It’s not that hard to imagine him responding to the Gospel, but in the end it will always be a gift and a miraculous heart-change that only God can bring about.

Thank you, Dan, for allowing me to record our conversation!  It can be viewed HERE at https://youtu.be/5veaSPR_NeE