A jogger gains more than exercise

In 2012 a storying seminar was held in Singapore. After the seminar one of the visiting facilitators had this experience.

On the morning after the seminar I took a bus to the city, alighting at the YMCA on my way to meet a friend. As I walked up the hill to the YWCA a man was slowly jogging ahead of me. I commented, “Your jogging looks like hard work.” He stopped to rest and chat.

It turned out that he was a Hindu, originally from India. I mentioned that I had lived in Allahabad. We chatted about that. At Allahabad the sacred Jamuna meets the sacred Ganges, and at the joining the sacred Saraswati river, unseen by all, wells up out of the ground to join the confluence. We also chatted about that. At the point where the three rivers meet, Hindus take a sacred bath to have their sins washed away.

He asked me what I was doing in Singapore. I explained the storytelling seminar and told him the story of Jesus healing the paralytic, where Jesus first said, “Son, I forgive your wrong-doings.” I asked him what he learnt through that story. He said, “Many people do not live in peace, because they don’t learn to forgive. In fact they harm themselves by never forgiving themselves or others.” He then brought up two further points in the story. He said that all religions have good moral values. He shared his knowledge of Christianity, having lived in Germany for 35 years.

He also pointed out that the Gospels were written over a 50 year period, and that many of the insights therein came from hindsight. I agreed, telling him that even Jesus’ followers did not understand that he was God for some time. I told him the story of the resurrection of Lazarus, which illustrated his power. He was shocked that the religious leaders would immediately plan Jesus’ death in the face of the evidence of Lazarus’ resurrection.

He spoke of the Hindu god-men. It seemed to him that Jesus fit the pattern fairly well. I told him the resurrection story from Matthew, where despite the guard’s report on what happened at the tomb, the religious leaders paid them to report that they had gone to sleep on the job. By now he was late for work. He is a medical doctor, and had flown overnight from Sydney. He was taking a jog before going off to work. No wonder he was tired!

To illustrate his point that even Jesus’ close followers were slow to understand I told him of the two resurrection appearances to the apostles, the first when Thomas was absent and then when he was present. He knew about ‘doubting Thomas’, and had visited the St Thomas memorial church in Chennai, where St Thomas was martyred. We spoke of the historical evidence for St Thomas being in India. Somehow or other that story led to the Pentecost story. I said, “But you will be late for work!” He said, “Don’t worry. I want to hear that story as well.” Before parting he got my email address and said, “I would like to attend the next Bible storytelling seminar in Singapore. Let me know when it is.”

Used with permission of KB.