The Guide

In Budapest, she took up her little banner and led us from the bus to the patriotic Hero's Square, and began. At once, we realized that our guide was NOT politically neutral, intended to hit LOTS of "hot buttons" and was passionately patriotic.

As we toured squares and churches, we asked each other, "I wonder what faith our guide holds?"

Bit by bit, as we weighed the conversation, she talked about the decline of the church, and the heritage days of shamanism. Soon, the opinion began to firm.

From a Catholic family, raised during the strictest days of Communism, never much to practice Catholicism, intensely patriotic with a love for Hungary's older heritage..........she had a deep respect for shamanism. And what religious element continued within her materialism was that ancient thread.

The individual and community spiritualism in Hungary that endured the barbarians, the Huns, the Romans, the Turks, the Holy Roman Empire, the Nazis, the Communists, and now endured modern materialism took the shape of the "old reliable" and surfaced in her conversations.

She might only pray when she needed to, but when that happened, it seemed clear that it would be in the framework of the old gods.

In our time, the football coach might say: "We gonna dance with who brung us." In every time, people go with what they trust. In our culture, materialism seems to be winning the day, with a polite nod to the Christian vocabulary, but material to the bone! In a culture,like Hungary, that has been tossed from one set of absolutes to another, one of the systems will win.

So, the question: for her, who has every good reason to trust nothing OTHER than shamanism, does God turn away from her or still do His very best to love HER? She'll never use the LANGUAGE of either church or mosque, BUT..........................................

And Jesus said: "I have other sheep not of this fold..........."

A very provocative short statement in John's Gospel............................

Judge? Nope. Just do my best to walk by the light given to me.......................

And wonder the BIGGEST question for disciples.................... am I being trustworthy in the sight of those around me??????

Bryan