‘When I’m in Cyprus I feel so far from God, but when I go home everything returns to normal within a few weeks.’
That was the comment made to me by an international student. All of us become accustomed to worshiping God with a certain kind of music and for a certain length of time. We’re used to preaching that is from a manuscript or extemporaneous or somewhere in between. We’re used to being told not to drink alcohol and then we see Christians who drink. We’re used to clubbing but then get told its a sin. We wonder why the food at church is so hot or so mild.
Frustrated at the way things are done in Cyprus, another student once asked, ‘Don’t they have any real churches in this country?’
The things that trigger good, spiritual feelings when we’re home are absent here and suddenly we feel far from God.
If there happen to be enough Christians from one particular culture, then they often go off and form their own church where they can sing, preach, pray, and eat in ways that are comfortable and familiar – ways that fire the spiritual triggers and make them feel good about God.
But for this student I reminded him that our relationship with God is based on fact and not feeling. Though he may not feel close to God, he needs to remind himself every day of the objective truth that Christ died for his sin and has given him new life. Because of Christ, he is close to God – whether he feels it or not.
When the spiritual triggers aren’t going off, preach the Good News to yourself.
I found that, through the many trials of the year I spent in Cyprus, as well as through helping others who themselves felt distant from, that I was drawn closer to God in that setting!
Life in Cyprus can be a rough road some days (I’m experiencing one of those days today!). But God is at the end of the road, and the longer we walk it the better we become at recognizing his voice that leads us on.
Why is Cyprus such a pressure-cooker for so many people? so many people have so many problems while living on the island and life is very hard for very many, with the result of a feeling of distance from God. Is it just the displaced/refugee/student/foreigner crowd, or does it run elsewhere, too?
For the ex-pat community, Cyprus is where many of their dreams crash. It’s the ‘far country’ where the prodigal son ran to and wasted his inheritance. Some people keep running, others finally get honest and hopefully find Christ as the ultimate source of life. We often say in the ministry of NIC, ‘If it’s up to us, this is where people will stop running.’ That means confronting them with the option to be satisfied with nothing less than Jesus. In that sense, evangelism/discipleship here is ‘confrontational.’
In other ways, this is a broken divided country and has been ever since Barnabas and Paul parted ways because of their ministry here. Materialism, a lack of solutions to ‘the Cyprus problem,’ economic pressures, and growing dissatisfaction with the Orthodox Church (as well as other churches) all have an impact.
There are a lot of really great things about Cyprus, but like people every place, people will not find rest until their rest is in Him.