Hide and seek: what is a secret believer?
18 March 08
Ever played hide and seek with a one-year-old?
In terms of actually obeying the rules of the game, it’s pretty rubbish – my godson doesn’t always get that you actually have to hide, and even if he does he gives himself away by giggling. But in terms of his heart-and-soul excitement when he thinks that no-one can see him, it’s right up there. It’s way more fun than playing with someone who actually sticks to the rules!
The game gets more serious as you get older. I played hide and seek at New Year in the dark in someone’s huge back garden – and was chatting till the last minute, so didn’t find a hiding place in time. I squashed myself in a hurry into the middle of a damp hedge and was almost the first one found. I got well and truly laughed at for choosing such a rubbish place, and the game was over almost before it began. It was nowhere near as much fun as the game with my godson!
Now, I know this might seem like a pretty tenuous link, but it really got me thinking. Hiding, which is such fun when we’re little, becomes less fun as it gets more serious. What happens when it gets really serious: when hiding becomes a matter of life or death?
For thousands of Christians across the world, persecution is such a daily reality that they have to hide their faith. Lots of things that to us are simply ‘Western’ are known as ‘Christian’ in a Muslim culture – including drink and drugs problems, invading armies, not knowing right from wrong and the collapse of the family. When people in the Muslim world start to follow Jesus, they become identified with this negative picture of Christianity. The result? They have to hide their faith for fear of bringing shame on their families. If they’re found out, it can mean imprisonment, torture, exile or even death.
These people are known as ‘secret believers’. It’s not just in the Muslim world that this happens – there are secret believers in North Korea, China, the Hindu fundementalist regions of India and other places. And it’s by no means every Muslim that would treat a follower of Jesus like this. But many followers of Jesus do have to become ‘secret believers’ in their Muslim culture: they have to hide, and the stakes are very high.
And yet these people do keep choosing to follow Jesus. It’s a far cry from my madly giggling godson, but in a weird way they have something in common. There’s a childlike joy that these believers have which is a massive challenge to my Western (‘Christian’?) comfort zone. The hiding is no fun – nor the suffering. But the joy of knowing Jesus shines out from them, just like my godson’s laughter overwhelms the game of hide and seek. Lord, let me have that childlike joy in you – and let me be prepared to suffer to find it.
This part of our Christian family is the focus of Brother Andrew’s latest book, which you’ll have seen as you look around our site. It’s a real eye-opener. Written with Brother Andrew’s ‘I Sincerely Love All Muslims’ firmly in mind, it’s a loving and deeply challenging picture of a deadly game of hide and seek. You can get hold of the book from us, or have a look at www.secretbelievers.org to find out more info.