Pakistani exceptionalism

Sunday, December 18, 2011
Pakistani exceptionalism
Raja had preached before! I assumed he was Indian! Dark hued, handsome, slight of stature and soft-spoken. The very picture of meekness.... em what are the synonyms for meekness: Quiet, Submissive, Quiet, Submissive... being meek myself - as I like to think (;-)], I know the real deal when I see it.
At the end of that church service, the first time I heard him preach, I walked up to him and told him I was blessed by him and asked if he was from Sri Lanka - that is my OBLIQUE way of asking Indians where they come from. I need to sit on a couch and be assisted to figure out why I always go from Sri Lanka to India....
;-))
I'm from Pakistan!!
Huh!?
Paki-what?
Pakistan!!
Come let me hug you.
You're probably my first Pakistani
Certainly my first Pakistani Christian.
You don't mind do you if I post in Facebook I met my first Pakistani Christian
He laughed.
I knew he was separated from his family he talked about sending money home during his sermon.
Yesterday, he preached again - and his gentle voice and head movements, made me do something I only did at Lakewood Houston (my church where the spectacular was routine) - I brought out my camera.... em... iPad - and filmed him for just less than one minute. I filmed him because a phrase popped out of my head as I watched him: that phrase was; the exceptional Pakistani - and after he said: "Pak means holy and Pakistan means Holy country" the phrase Pakistani Exceptionalism seemed suddenly like a good them to build a rambling discourse such as this one around….bound to offend many in the United Sates who had claimed that very phrase for their beloved country…. I thought about GOP presidential debates and interviews past – and the clumsy attempts made to paint Mr. Obama as one who did not believe in American exceptionalism simply because he supposed that everyone created by God was exceptional!
And this was a line of thinking rejected by many who have less travel experience than a whole lot 12 year olds in the 3rd world....
Anyway I said to myself: PAKISTANI EXCEPTIONALISM – and all of a sudden it seemed less a far fetched idea just looking at Raj preach! I said to myself: there is the proof - this young man - A Christian from an oasis in a desert of Islamic fundamentalism. He talked briefly about blasphemy laws - how they were used loosely against Christians...
After church I met him again and we talked…...I would like to say that sitting there in that predominantly ‘Nigerian’ church in France, I received a revelation.
It is hard to say that – because I know you'll think that I am mad! -especially if you are like that egregious Australian Gabi X - Sovereign of Cammeray County. I saw a phrase somewhere that said: “If you think that love will solve every problem in the world, you haven’t met my Mother-in-law” Gabi was THAT mother-in-law (She was Queen of Cammeray County in her spare time too!!). Nothing short of patting the head of an angel on his bald patch would convince her there was a God (and even then the aging angel would have has to worship her daily!! (Daily I say!) for her to believe there is a Christian God)...em... where was I?
Yes! Sitting there in church I received a revelation (Yes Gabi! I am indeed mad – now get out!) and that revelation was that: the exceptional nations on earth were those that supported human freedoms! They ruled the earth and while other nations envied them, to become like them was a secret hidden from the nations of the earth in plain sight!!! It was the secret which would set men and nations free – if they wanted to be free: I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves. Harriet Tubman
Yes men were selfish and if they benefitted from the rotten carcass of the status quo, they would maintain that status quo. Kill (but not die) to maintain it. Kill but not die…. The converse incidentally was true - A status quo, which benefitted everyone, was one, which people would kill or die to maintain!!!

Anyway back to Pakistani exceptionalism.

Sitting in church, it is forgivable that I thought along the line that:
No single nation was exceptional It IS Christianity, which was exceptional……… um…. I got that wrong didn’t I?.... Um what I meant to say is: It was Christianity, which made men and nations exceptional.

Thank you Raja for teaching me that!

…And Pakistan will become an exceptional nation because of you and dozens of committed Christians like you. Pakistan will become PAK-I Stan: The Holy Country – Land of the CLEAN through the redemption and healing found in peace love and the gospel of Christ.
Amen.