There's No Such Thing as Karma

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

I recently had the joy of being able to share the Gospel with a young lady named “Kat” (read on for her story).  She is one of a very few people whom I have met that seems to have real interest in Jesus, and she even asked to attend a church service with me when she has time off work.  It is exciting to see how the Father is pursuing her!

Prayer Necessities:

1.  Please be in prayer for me to have wisdom to know how to use my time.  There are so many ways my time could be spent in ministry, but I want to hear His voice and obey it, doing only what He tells me to do.  Please pray that I would walk in the Spirit at all times and would know what to do each day.

2.  Please pray for me as I teach science to a group of kids at The Well for the next couple of months during their summer break from school.  We do science experiments and learn related Bible stories (for example, we made a rainbow from different colored liquids of varying densities to illustrate the story of Noah, the flood, and God's promise of a rainbow).  Pray that I would communicate the stories well and that the kids would get a clear picture of God and His plan of salvation through the lessons.

The kids preparing to make rainbows

The best rainbow of the bunch!

3.  Lift up Kat and the time that I get to spend with her (read her story below).  Pray that her heart would be open to receive salvation and that her eyes would be opened to the Truth.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know:

I frequently hear Americans – and even American Christians – talk about “karma.”  There are all kinds of humorous pictures and videos posted on Facebook in reference to how this or that person who has done something “bad” will get their comeuppance in some sort of appropriate way.  For example, there’s a video of a man who moves a cat from a chair in a none-too-gentle way, grabbing it by the scruff of the neck and then giving it a shove with his foot.  He then proceeds to sit in the chair previously occupied by the cat, which happens to be just underneath the stairs.  The cat, in its hurry to get away from the man, bounds up the stairs and inadvertently knocks a plant right onto the man’s head.  “Oh, ha ha!” say many of the comments.  “Instant karma.”

Karma is a Hindu concept, but it’s deeply engrained in Thai culture as well, since Thai Buddhism is heavily influenced by Hinduism.  Essentially, the idea of karma is that every evil you’ve ever done is repaid to you by the universe in some fashion.  Nothing is ever forgotten, everything must be paid for, and you are the only one who can pay for it.

Can you see how this is in direct opposition to the Gospel?  The part of the concept of karma that is true is that every evil must be repaid.  However, it is not some nebulous “universe” that demands repayment but by a holy God Who is the very one who defined what is good and what is evil.  And it is not repaid directly to us if we have chosen to believe in Christ but is instead repaid by the Son of God Himself.  That is the very essence of the Gospel, that we don’t have to pay our sin debt for ourselves because we could never repay it!

So why is it that even Christians laughingly throw about the term “karma” as if it were a joking matter?  It’s not.  It’s pure falsehood from an evil enemy, lies that keep billions of people trapped in a bondage that tells them they can never escape from their own wickedness and that everything that happens to them – from sickness to financial problems to injustices done to them by others – is the result of their own evil deeds and is merely something to be passively accepted because it can never be changed.

I realize that, in America, we don’t have much knowledge of Hinduism or of Thai Buddhism.  Perhaps you never even knew this is what karma meant or the implications of it.  But, please, my friends, I beg of you:  Don’t throw around the word “karma” as though it were something true.  There is no such thing as karma.  There is only a Sovereign God Who is ultimately in control of the universe He created, and He is long-suffering with those Who rebel against Him.  He is not some vindictive Being out there just waiting for the moment when we do something wrong so that He can let us have it.  He is patient and loving far beyond what we deserve, and He rejoices not in punishment but in lavishing His grace upon sinners.  Let me just give you one example of what He’s really like:

About a month ago, I was involved in an event to women in the red-light areas, which was put on by a local ministry.  We planned a nice dinner at a nearby hotel for weeks.  There was a vast array of excellent food, beautiful roses for each woman, fun games, good music, and a time of testimony by a Thai believer.  We were excited about doing this for our friends, and we told them about it multiple times for a couple of weeks before the event.

Thai believer Joom sharing her testimony

The day arrived, and we went to the hotel to begin setting everything up.  But, as we walked down the street, we were shocked to find all of the bars closed and very few people milling about.  It happened to be a major Buddhist holiday (none of our friends informed us of this when we mentioned the date of our party), and the red-light area bore a shocking resemblance to a ghost town.  It was too late to cancel things, and the hotel had already been paid.  What would we do?

We were reminded of Jesus’ parable of a great banquet that had been prepared for many guests, but they all made excuses not to come.  When the homeowner heard the excuses, he told his servants to bring in the crippled and blind to his banquet.  After that had been done, there was still room, so he told his servants this:

“Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.” (Lk. 14:23)

With those words in our minds, we went out and invited as many as we could find to come to our party.  Most turned us down, but we did find a group of seven – three older women, two younger women, three transvestites, all of them free-lance prostitutes – who were willing to come with us.  As this motley crew of Thais and Americans walked down the street to the hotel, one of the younger women with us stopped in front of a restaurant to invite some friends who were sitting on a nearby bench.

As this new friend invited her friends to our party, I heard a Thai voice behind us urging them to go with us:  “These people are Christians.  They want to help you.  You should go with them!”

Needless to say, I was pretty shocked, so I turned around to see that this new voice belonged to a waitress at the restaurant.  Her name was “Kat” and, when I asked her if she was a Christian, she said no but that she had a lot of respect for Christians because they really help people.  The rest of our group continued on to the hotel, but I remained engaged in conversation with this new friend for the next 20 minutes.  She even specifically asked me about Easter, and I was able to explain how Christ came to die for our sins and how His resurrection means that we can have eternal life in Him.  When I said this, she rubbed her arms and said, “I’ve got goosebumps!”

It was tremendously exciting to me to meet someone with real interest in this wonderful news I have to share!  Kat and I made plans to go out for dinner on her next day off from work.  When that day finally came, I met her and one of her friends for dinner, and Kat immediately wanted to know more about Jesus.  So I began at creation and told her the whole story.

I wish I could tell you Kat became a follower of Jesus that day.  She didn’t, but she is still open to hearing more.  And, rather than using some karmic fist to pound her into the ground for her sins, the Sovereign God Who continues to lovingly pursue her used a Buddhist holiday, bar closings, a group of people on a bench, and the previous actions of Christians to be able to bring to her the story of how He took upon Himself that punishment for her sins that she believes can only be repaid through lifetimes of karma and its unmerciful retribution.

That’s the kind of God we serve.  Not only is He long-suffering and unfathomably loving towards sinners, but He also pursues them to the ends of the earth and through miraculously ordained circumstances.

There is no karma.  There is only the One True God Who is ultimately in control of both punishment and forgiveness.

Let’s be certain that we’re proclaiming that truth and not perpetuating the lie.

Me with two of my Bible storying students