Walking from East to West: God in the Shadows

'A frank, endearing story of a respected apologist and evangelical statesman's life....[It] starkly contrasts the real implications of rejecting or accepting the lordship of Jesus. Nothing short of meaning in life is at stake, and Walking from East to West exposes the silliness of much popular religious pluralism by underscoring the gravity of worldview selection....This is storytelling in the fashion of C. S. Lewis: rational argumentation expressed in narrative.' -- Christianity Today <br><br> ( Christianity Today ) x93Outside were stray animals and people, each about some pursuit. Sometimes it was a beggar at the door, sometimes a leprous hand reaching for a handout with a plea for compassion. Life with all its hurts and pains squinted at you, squatted before you, and stared you down daily. This was the street where I grew up.x94 Ravi Zacharias has lived an extraordinary life. He has walked with great leaders, slept in the villages and homes of the poor, and crossed continents to bring the good news of the gospel to the world. Already a man of two worlds by the time he was twenty, Ravi never dreamed that God would lead him from his birth home in India to Canada and the United States, and eventually to a platform on the world stage. For thirty-three years he has spoken all over the world. He has addressed writers of the peace accord in South Africa, the president's cabinet and parliament in Peru, and military officers at the Lenin Military Academy and the Center for Geopolitical Strategy in Moscow. He has given the keynote address at the National Day of Prayer in Washington, DC, and has spoken twice at the Annual Prayer Breakfast at the United Nations in New York. Walking from East to West is Ravi's life story, a deeply personal journey into his past. Dr. Zacharias invites you back to the southern India of his early childhood, and into his troubled youth in the sophisticated capital city of Delhi. He recalls the importance of a mother's love and his difficult relationship with his father. He tells about his long search for truth in wrestling with Eastern thought and the newer ideas of Christianity, the cry for help in a dark moment when he tried to take his own life--and the dramatic turning point that led to a life lived for Christ. Zacharias recalls his early days as a new convert, what it was like to find a new life in the Western world, and the eventual birth and growth of a worldwide ministry. This is a story about an amazing man. Yet it is also everyone's story about belief--how it begins, how it grows, and the struggles associated with it. Walking from East to West is a heartfelt personal story of one man's discovery that God is the author of our destinies, no matter how dark the shadows that hide the light. Ravi Zacharias is President and Founder of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Their global outreach grew from humble roots in 1984 and includes fielding a team of itinerant speakers who operate from offices located around the world including the U.S., the UK, Romania, the Middle East, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Canada. The Hallmark of Ravi's heart is his strong evangelistic and apologetic that manifests itself from a position of compassion. SPANISH BIO: Ravi Zacharias, master en divinidades de Trinity International University, es un orador reconocido asi como presidente de Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. Su programa semanal de radio, Let My People Think, se retransmite por mas de mil quinientas emisoras de todo el mundo. Es autor de varios libros para adultos y ninos. Su ultimo libro, De Oriente a Occidente, fue editado por Editorial Vida en el ano 2006. El Dr. Zacharias y su esposa residen in Atlanta, Georgia. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Walking from East to West Copyright 2006 by Ravi Zacharias This title is also available as a Zondervan ebook product. Visit www.zondervan.com/ebooks for more information. This title is also available as a Zondervan audio product. Visit www.zondervan.com/audiopages for more information. Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zacharias, Ravi K. Walking from east to west : God in the shadows / Ravi Zacharias with R. S. Sawyer --- 1st ed. p. cm. ISBN -- 13: 978-0-310-25915-2 ISBN -- 10: 0-310-25915-0 1. Zacharias, Ravi K. 2. Christian biography --- India. 3. Christian biography --- Canada. I. Sawyer, Scott. II. Title. BR1725.Z33A3 2006 269'.2'092 --- dc22 2005020433 This edition printed on acid-free paper. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means --- electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other --- except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Published in association with the literary agency of Wolgemuth and Associates, Inc. Part 3 title page photos by Tigert Communications, Nashville, TN, USA Interior design by Beth Shagene Printed in the United States of America We want to hear from you. Please send your comments about this book to us in care of [email protected]. Thank you. Preface Some books are difficult to write; others border on the almost impossible. This one is in the latter category. Many friends and even strangers over the years have asked if I would pen such a story, and when Zondervan asked me to write a book of my memoirs, I concluded that the time had come. The difficulty lies on many fronts. First is that of accurate recall. How does one piece together all of the past? How does one be truly objective when one's own feelings are locked in to the situation? Then arises a very personal matter. How do you tell a story of such intimate issues and not at the same time make someone else look unduly bad or good? That was the toughest challenge of all. It is one thing for an individual to disclose his or her own heart, but to do so for someone else runs an unfortunate risk. If I have erred here, I sincerely hope it is not because of any personal ill will but only because I know the story did not end as it had begun. As I struggled with these issues, the publisher agreed to have me tell the story to another writer, who would spend hours with me and others to cull the material and then write it in the way it unfolded. I took the narrative he penned and wrote the story line in my own words, along with his. Throughout this process, the publisher asked if I would keep it at a simple level of reach and not make it inaccessible in content and depth. The goal was simple: 'Tell us your story in the simplest terms with your heart on your sleeve.' I suppose being accustomed to writing on philosophical themes, this was a reminder to me as 'a word to the wise.' So that has been the approach. Much more could have been said and said at a lofty level portraying all my philosophical struggles and so on. But we avoided that. Maybe some instances in the narrative 12 preface need not have been shared, but were in order to show the backdrop of what was shaping me all along. What I do know is that as I retraced steps and memories, some of them were hard to relive, while others brought a renewed sense of happiness; some memories brought the depth of tears to the surface, and yet others brought to mind cherished moments long forgotten. I have concluded that it is an exercise that is well undertaken by everybody --- to journal and write down one's thoughts at shorter intervals. Memories are good reminders of what God has done and where we could have done better. I remember the time an older man asked me when I was young, 'Do you know what you are doing now?' I thought it was some kind of trick question. 'Tell me,' I said. 'You are building your memories,' he replied, 'so make them good ones.' If each reader would glean just that from the book, then it will have been worth it. But there is something greater here, and it is this: as life progresses, you wish there were some safeguards you had taken along the way, and even some different decisions you had made along the way. For one, I wish I had talked more to my parents about their past and about my ancestors. What did they know? What were the stories of their lives? What made each one the way they were? Now it is too late for that, for my parents have both passed away. I nevertheless come away with the absolute certainty that God has ordered my steps and that God was there, even in the darkest moments of my life. I know this as surely as I know I exist. He never abandoned me and has brought me by His grace and mercy this far. This is the most certain truth I possess, and it is truly liberating. One other great enrichment was to think back on my youth in India, even as now the West has become home. India gave me much that I can never repay. It really is an intriguing culture --- weaknesses and ironies notwithstanding. Now living first in Canada and then in America, these countries have become home. I am so grateful to God for the privilege of living here. Beyond my residences, the heart has found its home in my faith and love for Jesus Christ. I sincerely hope and pray that as you read these pages, you will feel Him near to you and that you will be guided by His wisdom and kept by His grace. Without Him, this story would not be worth telling or reading. Part 1 East Chapter 1 A Life Out of Nothing One of my earliest memories is of the old man on my street, a mystic who wore only a loincloth. He was tall, with matted hair and piercing eyes, quite fearsome to look at. Mud was caked all over his bony frame, his face was scarred by deep gashes that were self-inflicted from his religious devotion, and his skin was burned by constant exposure to the torrid heat of the midday sun. 'How did he come to look like this?' I wondered as a boy. 'What had he done to himself?' I found out soon enough. Two or three times each week he would appear on our street; then, almost like a coiled rope unwinding, he would lie down on that filthy road and begin his routine. Cow dung and dog droppings littered the path, to say nothing of the stones or sharp objects that cluttered it as well, yet he would roll down the length of the street with a howl that sounded as if it came from the depths of a cavern. 'Govinda! Govinda! Govinda!' I had no clue what his cry was about --- I only knew it terrified me. It was an astonishing sight to a five-year-old, and I recall scampering to my mother and asking her, 'What is he doing? What is he doing?' 'He's OK,' she replied. 'Just ignore him.' 'But what is he doing?' I would implore. 'Why is he doing it?' 'He's calling to his god!' she said. That did not quench my curiosity. But I did not pursue it as long as he continued to roll away from me, and his voice became a faint but haunting sound in the distance: 'Govinda!' Read more