Ed Bahler’s Blog…To Enhance Ministry

Wow…leaving Dehli

Tuesday morning we made the 200 kilometer trip to the Taj Mahal. To beat the crowd we left Dehli at 5:00 am and saw at least 200 people sleeping in the streets as we wound our way out of the city. The saddest was a boy that couldn’t have been more than 10. My roots as a conservative Republican were challenged a bit observing the results of no public safety net.

We wove our way through congested traffic of large trucks, buses, cars, three wheeled rickshaws, horses, oxen, camels, elephants,and people walking all on the same road. Imagine all that with no speed limit and nary a police officer in sight anywhere.

We observed many women cutting and shocking wheat by hand. Yes, by hand, mile after mile, field after field. It made me think of the story of Boaz and Ruth. I was right back there in the Old Testament world with all this hand labor, roadside vendors, beggars, oxen pulling big iron wheeled carts and people on foot. All on our way to see the top “Wonder Of The World.” It doesn’t make sense.

And yes, the Taj is all it’s cracked up to be.

I’ve been to Versailles and other remarkable buildings. But there’s something about this white marble monument that takes one’s breath away, far away. There’s a beauty that makes you quiet, wanting to take your shoes off as you enter the grounds.

Imagine, the Taj was built in the 15th century, yes 200 years before Columbus stepped ashore, with 20,000 people laboring for 22 years. All to memorialize a queen who died in child birth with her 14th child.

Well maybe, this king then laid the foundations for a “black marble” replica to honor himself.

There’s a lesson here it seems.

As I stood in awe I thought, this Taj Mahal was really about him. A building that remains as the “First wonder of the world” 550 years later just wasn’t enough. Imagine an ego so big. And yet Solomon warned of such things thousands of years before this building was built.

Another challenging thought was the remarkable technology these people had 600 years before the US was a nation. We also saw an astounding fort, like out of the movies, with 7 miles of walls (think mini”wall of China”). They were built in the 12th century, yes the 1100’s. Yet, as I mentioned, Monday morning we drove past hundreds of people sleeping on the streets, people riding horses, oxen, camels, and elephants, thousands walking, and hundreds cutting wheat as Ruth did for Boaz thousands of years ago.

What happened? Just how does such skill and intellectual talent get lost?

As I listened to our guides tell the stories of past dynasties, it seemed far too much of the story was about them. There was far too much ego resulting in misplaced wealth and conflicts between Muslims and Hindus destroying people and knowledge. A loss India is just now recovering from.

Much of Christ’s story was defending the common man against self consumed rulers and people in high places. The kind of people demanding two Taj Mahals in their memory. A history that provoked our country’s founders to develop a balance of power mitigating such a risk. Interesting isn’t it?

So what are your and my Taj Mahals? What are we setting up for our security, our memory, our ego at the expense of others? What is eroding our ability to really make a difference and leave a legacy for the sake of Christ?