Proof

Anomali Coffee - Ubud

"You are not a Balinese, are you?" the shop attendant asked me the question I have been asked a million times in my life.

"I am a Balinese" I replied.

"But how come your skin is so different!"

I looked at my arm feeling amused. "Why am I so dark, you mean?"

"Yes!"

I rolled my eyes and then laughed reluctantly because he himself was a Balinese boy with a dark skin and I don't think him and I were quite that different lol.

Most people judge firstly from my accent. And then they move on to my appearance. Not sure I comprehend what they think. Plus, it doesn't matter that much. 

Ethnicity is how people separate other people (this reminds me of my best friend Dewi who once said that Chinese is not actually an ethnic group but a lifestyle!) But what they believe in is how God separate people from people. And to make it more amusing, they start questioning my identity (Balinese, Javanese, Timorese, Filipino, etc) when I have started changing my belief....... No one doubted my true Balinese blood back in the old days.... BC. I walked, I breathed, I looked, and I spoke in ways my spirit was plugged into.

Do you think your faith is your accent? Do you think it is interpreted into some physical characteristic? Well I believe whatever happens in the spirit can affect the flesh.

So the curious boy kept interrogating me to find out a reasonable excuse I didn't look like his idea of a native Balinese and I was tempted to pull out my ID card from my wallet but I thanked myself for not doing it. Proofing to others that I am something I already am is the silliest thing I could do to my own person.

On the way home from the shop I thought if the world would just...... stop. 
If you and I just pause and think. 

For a moment.

Whatever we are trying to prove. Stop it right there. Right now. Because you and I already are. Yes you are. Yes I am. Just........ stop. 

Put the fruit down (if you happened to pick it already!) 

and leave the snake. 

The image that Eve was trying to be was the exact image imprinted on her being, right when Jesus fashioned her, out of Adam's rib. The exact image she tried to prove by listening to too many questions. And then all of a sudden she realised, she was naked.

Sudi

xx