Standing Up For Your Beliefs

Warning: This post contains personal rantings related to my faith. They are my views and my views alone, so if you have a problem with it, I recommend that you just don't read it.

It was already past 1.00 am. I was driving back home with my two younger friends after going out for drinks at the mamak.

Dang my rotten luck! As we were driving back, we encountered a police checkpoint at a normally busy intersection with a traffic light.

The second officer signalled me to pull up next to the road. I showed my driving license. However, he didn't seem satisfied and kept looking around at my two friends and inside the car, presumably to find fault. As fate would have it, my friend seated next to me had his seat belt double looped around his hand (I have no idea why, your guess is as good as mine). So the officer queried him. My friend kept whining and sweet talking. At one point, he said there was a problem with the safety belt. Shit, I was so infuriated.

Anyway, the officer asked my friend to get down, leaving me and the other friend in the car. He still had my driving license and for a moment, I thought maybe the license had expired so I started digging in my wallet. (OK, I thought maybe the license had a second copy to show the expiry date. Again, don't ask why... probably an OCD moment.)

Then another officer showed up and asked, 'Kenapa? Tak ada lesen kah?' meaning 'Why? No license'. I told him that wasn't it. Anyway, I grew impatient and I went down to see what was happening between my friend and the earlier officer.

They were seated at this tiny makeshift table at the roadside. My friend was still trying to explain himself and asking for leniency. The officer looked at him and kept saying 'Apa macam?' repeatedly meaning 'So how?' When the officer saw that I had come down, he kept looking at me. I'm sure you all know what was happening.

In my heart, I was very troubled. I never want to be caught in this kind of situation and I said a quick prayer to God to get me out of it without compromising myself. Then the officer asked my friend, 'Ini abang you keh?' meaning 'Is this fellow your brother?' to which my friend replied 'Bukan, ini kawan saya dari gereja.' meaning 'This is my friend from church'.

After a while, the officer eased up and just wrote down my friend's name and address. Then we left. I think the clincher was when he said that I was from church.

Every moment, we are confronted with situations that tempt us to compromise on our faith and principles. When I was still a Buddhist, I was handed down a system of beliefs consisting of Do's and Don'ts, and how you should live your life in harmony with everyone else. When I accepted Christ, I was given the Bible and the responsibility of living up to the faith I had embraced; both in the eyes of the church and the eyes of the world.

It's not an easy journey. People judge you and lump you together with 'other Christians'. They seem to think that we are all cast in the same mould when we wear a cross. You are confronted with situations where you have given only two choices between following Christ or taking the easy way out. I grow weary and I sometimes want to give up. But when such thoughts assail my mind, the other voice in my heart says,

Will you choose to obey me or live for yourself?