I've spent the last couple days engrossed in this book. It was kind a fluke that I found this book. I had seen the book on a list that I was checking to see if my library had. Of the fifty or more books I searched for, this was only one of maybe three my library had. When I went in to check it out I had to do some searching. It wasn't in the Christian fiction section as I had assumed. It had been placed with the secular fiction books.
I checked it out and then forgot about it for over a week while dealing with all the illnesses going around my home. A couple days ago I realized that my due date was almost upon me and if I wanted to read it I needed to get to it.
I am glad I read this book. I know that God has been leading me more and more to missionary stories. This isn't really a missionary story, and it is a work of fiction, but this story is powerful. It touched me deeply as it touches on a lot of things on which I feel God has been dealing and ministering to me. It dealt very bluntly with true devotion to God and why that is often so difficult here in America. Sometimes I think it is more difficult here in America than in areas where being a Christian could mean your life and will definitely mean persecution. While I am grateful for the freedoms in America to serve our God, I know that those freedoms and our prosperity have made it very easy to be comfortable or apathetic.
Safely Home was published a few years ago, so I know that it has already probably received lots of reviews. However, I wasn't a Christian in 2001 when it was published, and so some of the books that some may have read awhile back are new to me.
The story centers around two men, one American and one Chinese, that had been college roommates at Harvard. Years later, after they had both gone their own way, they are put back together in China. The story is about a Chinese Christian and his family and the struggles they face following Christ in China. The American, a successful businessman and a non-believer, has been to China quite a bit and thinks he knows about life in China. The culture and spiritual shock he receives over the weeks he is there is incredible.
I think most American Christians do not realize how blessed we are, and how we are letting our blessings be stripped away. As I read about the lives of Li Quan and his family in China, I was struck by how devoted he was. Getting up in the middle of the night, sneaking to a house church, getting arrested, tortured, not being able to find a good job despite an incredible education... all to follow Yesu (Jesus). So many American Christians find so many excuses to stay out of church on Sunday mornings. I hear a lot about how hypocritical church people are and how you can be a Christian without going to church. The Christians in this story would love to meet in a church without fear of their government and learn and worship. They figure their job is to pray for those that hurt them. Their enemy isn't the gossip or the hypocrite, it's the ones that could take their lives. Yet, they worship with joy and they pray for their enemies. A fake in their church could be a spy that could cost them everything.
I loved being on the journey with Ben Fielding, the American businessman. I felt like I was discovering faith with him. He is a definitely flawed character. Throughout the book, as he was seeing the faith of his friend, I kept asking myself why he resisted Christ when he was seeing and experiencing the love of Christ through his friend and his friend's family. I kept thinking that in each instance his eyes would be opened and he would turn to Jesus. Then I realized that, like many of us, even when it was plain that God was real, turning to God as Lord is more of a struggle against our minds and our flesh than we can admit. It's difficult to relinquish control over those parts of our lives that we think we need or have control over ourselves.
I highly recommend this book. In fact, I'm considering having my 16 year old read it. I'm even considering reading it as a read aloud to Laura in a couple years. It is a tough book, and I don't believe she is ready for it yet.
One last thing that struck me about this book was how close we are in America to some of the realities in China. How many laws have been proposed that limit or quench our rights as Christians? If speaking out about what is in the bible becomes illegal in any way, then we are on a quick slide into the Bible being censored, the actions of Christians being monitored, and eventually Christianity being illegal. Sadly, Christianity in America has become sort of a joke to most non-believers.
However, let me assure you that in many countries of the world, Christianity is both hated and desired more and more. People around the world are hungry for the Word of God. In some countries, the numbers of Christians is exploding. I read that the number of Christians in China outnumbers the number of Christians in all of the United States and Europe. That brought me great sadness as most of the Christians in China have to meet in secret and take great risks to follow Jesus. But, just like the early church, the more they are persecuted the more they grow and spread the Gospel.
I long to have that kind of faith.
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