On the Road to Damascus

We recently had to get a new doctor for David because we got new insurance.  Me, being the weirdo that I am, purposely picked a doctor whose name sounded foreign to me.  His first name is Yassin so I figured, well, I've never heard that name so we'll see where he's from.  Probably not many people's way of choosing a doctor I realize haha  We had asked others for recommendations but our insurance didn't cover any of them so this was the next best option.

This past week when we had a check up for little buddy I started asking our doctor about himself.  He said he was from Syria, Damascus to be precise.  He's lived here for 30 years and has raised a family but that's where his roots are.  He and Stef talked the week before when I wasn't there and he talked about how he cried when he visited Toledo, Spain because it reminded him of how Damascus looked before the war.

I asked if he still had family in Syria or if they had all fled.  He said most of them are still there.  I can't imagine what that must feel like, to have family back in a war torn country like Syria.  All I could tell him was that I would pray for them, which might have sounded a bit odd had I not told him prior to that the fact that I'm a missionary.

There is a certain temptation to believe that the answer to terrorism is to just bomb all the terrorists.  Hate doesn't overcome hate though, it just creates more of the same by way of innocent blood and revenge.  

What's the answer to terrorism?  In a word, Jesus.  Now, before you accuse me of being idealistic and naive I've actually witnessed it happen before.  I met someone in Spain who was at the top of the local terrorist watch list after having been radicalized in Mecca.  Then he met Jesus and accepted him as his Lord and Savior and his life was changed.

I even understand the desire to protect our borders and keep people from certain countries out.  I don't think that's the answer though.  Most Muslims come to Christ when they're outside of Muslim countries so we should welcome more of them, not ban them.  I know that's of course hard to do without letting in potential terrorists as well.  However, one could argue Jesus himself was a refugee from Egypt when he was a baby.  As it stands now, if He was a refugee from Egypt today He wouldn't be allowed into our country.

Same with Paul in the New Testament.  Paul was blinded on the road to Damascus, Syria.  Which means he traveled around that area.  So we'd keep Jesus and Paul both out because of stamps in their passport if they were living today.  Interesting thought, isn't it?