Missionary Journal - Part III

By Mo Yan

"Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." (John 17:17)

Chinese people like playing tricks. Tricks are deception or ruses which are often subtle and can catch you off guard.

When I first returned to China, I carried with me a certain amount of western naivety and very soon became a victim of tricks. Take taxicabs, for example. I booked a large-sized car, but they sent along a small one instead. Or I made a reservation for a taxicab, but no taxi showed up and since I had no idea how much longer I would have to wait I had to settle for a different means of transport. Or I was already in a taxicab and was 20 kilometers from my destination when the driver answered a phone call. Then he said, "I'm sorry. There's an emergency." Then he simply dumped me from the car and headed off. Or we were in a taxi on our way to a village, but after 15 minutes the driver asked us to get out of the car and to take a motor tricycle instead for 300 metres. Then he asked us to get back into the taxi again. We had trouble trying to figure out what was going on. Later we were told that the driver did not have a valid commercial pass that would permit him to carry passengers through the checkpoint at the county boundary and so he had to drive through the checkpoint without passengers.

Deceit and tricks are everywhere. And if you're not on your guard you deserve every one of them. All you can complain about is your own vulnerability. This social mentality made me quite resentful. So I decided to take up the challenge and set out on my own course of tricks, anti-tricks and counter-tricks.

In order to avoid being cheated in the market, I took the time to learn two important sentences in local dialects: "How much is this?" When the seller gave a price, I would reply: "Too much!" Then the seller would give another price. Then I would nod and agree. One more word and I would have given myself away. In fact I didn't really understand what the seller was saying. But I was certain that the second price would be lower than the first. I was quite proud of my defensive tricks.

But this approach gradually took over various aspects of my daily life as well as my spiritual life. Then one day I discovered that there was less and less spirituality in me, and more and more worldliness. I had almost slipped back to where I was before I accepted the Lord. Hadn't I become a new person in America? How come that old self of mine was re-awakening after coming back to China? Hadn't I come here to demonstrate the love of the Lord Jesus and to bring the Word of the Lord and His truth to the people here? What was I doing? On the surface, I had become a winner in many games of tricks. But in fact I had fallen into the devil's trap by becoming like everyone else, living by tricks rather than by the Word of the Lord. I felt a complete failure. The Lord didn't pray for us to leave this world. He prayed for us to leave the sins of this world and to overcome the world. We often stumble because we are relying on ourselves to deal with various situations and forget to pray for the help of our Lord and Defender.

I began to realize I was not deeply rooted in the Word of the Lord. But I praise Him for bringing me back to China so that I could know more about myself and more about the Lord.

Over the thousands of years Chinese people have had enough of tricks and deceit. China and the Chinese people need the Word of the Lord. Tricks can only help you to take advantage of others. But the Word of the Lord can give you new life.

The author came from Shanghai. She is doing social work in Southwest China. The previous two parts of this article were published in the fifth and the sixth edition of Behold.