He had long hair and wore bracelets on his arms. When I first met Brother Le Dao, I could tell through his appearance and temperament that he is indeed an artist.
Brother Le Dao's life is exceptionally rich. He had gone through a total of seven stages in his life before and after he came to faith in Jesus Christ. Before he followed Jesus, he had believed in Buddhism for more than ten years and in Taoism also for more than ten years. He had worked in different fields including school and business before entering art – and all that before receiving Christ.
Le Dao wore a jade chain on his arm, which looked a bit like a Buddhist Mala. He said it was not a Buddhist prayer bead necklace and that he wore this to reach out to Buddhists and Taoists in hopes of being able to evangelize them. He summed up his beliefs by saying: "My body is in the world, but the heart is in Canaan - that's my life."
His friends had repeatedly suggested he start a short video platform, knowing that he was financially poor. That was because he would accept almost no money other than for calligraphy works of Bible verses and particularly excellent texts that supplied people with positive energy.
"Why do you want me to write?" Le Dao asked humorously. "This is a narrow path I have chosen for myself. They said a short video platform could be very popular and at least 300-500 people would donate money each night if I wrote things like: ‘A true gentleman has ample virtue and is accommodating of all things’. But I said I would find that very boring. Then I would be nothing more than a printer of money and my mission would be gone.”
Le Dao thought much about the relationship between secular life and the heavenly mission. He believes that Christianity needs to shift from emphasizing the visible church to emphasizing and cherishing the invisible church.
Le Dao says that rather than spending tens of millions of yuan to construct church buildings, it is more important to lead people to God and Jesus. By loving each other, people will transition from the visible to the invisible church, which is the root and foundation of life.
Le Dao has as an artist come in contact with many businessmen, some of whom are Christians. He reported that after he had written the “Great Compassion Mantra” and the “Shurangama Sutra”, Buddhists snapped them up quickly despite the high prices. The same thing occurred among Taoists after he wrote “Tao Te Ching”.
But this sadly was not the case among many Christian entrepreneurs. He shared that wealthy Christian business owners he had met paid millions of yuan for villas and fancy cars. But when one talked to them about the Bible, they turned a deaf ear. They were also often indifferent to Christian art involving calligraphy, painting, or sculpture.
Le Dao was very surprised by this. He stated: "Running a big business, they are enthusiastic about donating money to construct churches. But the real way to influence people is not through a church building. A beautiful Christ-like life can bring many more people to the faith.”
This artist believes the most important thing for Christians is, of course, faith itself. Their existence should integrate life, mission, and the commandments. Initially, their faith needs to be built up, only then can they go into service or into money-making.
“When we do our best, we make an impact on the world. But the reality is that Christians often don't do things very well. Others don't notice our influence then and our speech has no power. We report on our good faith and life, but that in itself is often not enough to convince others.”
"Therefore, in addition to believing that we must do our best, we need to make sure we are also striving to do our best in the outside world, for ex. in the fields of art or business,” he added.
"I am doing my best in order to glorify God. This is not for my own benefit, but so that others can see God through me." Le Dao concluded: "If you do your best, you don't need to find ways to attract others. They will approach you on their own initiative and desire to meet with you.”
- Translated by Abigail Wu
留着长长的头发，手上戴着一串手链。初见乐道弟兄的时候，还没有开口说话，透过他的外貌和气质就能判断出来，面前的这个人应该是一位艺术家。
乐道弟兄的人生经历却异常丰富。他在人生前后一共经历了7个阶段，最后才归信耶稣基督。他介绍说，自己在信耶稣之前，曾经信佛十多年，信道教十多年，还曾经进入过学校、企业等等不同的领域，后来又进入艺术领域，最后才是进入到基督里面。
乐道弟兄手上戴了一根玉石材质的链子，跟一些佛教徒戴的佛珠什么的有点像，但是又不完全一样。他说这个并不是佛珠，他之所以这样做，目的是为了接触佛教徒和道教徒，跟他们见面的时候有个谈话的由头，然后目的是为了给他们传福音。
“身居世界，心在迦南——这就是我的人生。”他如此概括自己的心态。
乐道弟兄的朋友曾经多次建议他经营短视频平台，朋友们都知道他生活上是很清贫的，原因是因为几乎除了圣经和特别优秀的带给人正能量的作品他会写之外，其他作品一概不接。
“找我干啥？找我也不接。”乐道弟兄幽默的说，“这是我自己选择的窄路。心甘乐意，这是一个。第二，他们讲到了这个短视频平台，说现在很火。他们说像你这样的水平，你写’厚德载物’什么的，一晚上至少能够有三五百个人对你的作品打赏。我说那不累死了。不但累死了，而且这样做的话那我就成印钞票的人了，我的使命就没了。“
乐道弟兄在世俗生活和天国使命之间思考很多，他认为基督信仰需要更多从强调有形教会转为强调和重视无形教会。
乐道弟兄说不是外面花了多少钱，花费几千万甚至更多的钱来建造教会，比起这些，更加重要的是要让人能够进入到上帝和耶稣基督里面，然后人与人之间彼此相爱，从有形教会进入到无形教会，这就是生命的扎根和落地。
之所以有这样的观点，是因为作为一名艺术家，乐道弟兄接触过许多的商人，当中有的人是基督徒，有的人不是。乐道弟兄说，佛教有大悲咒、有楞严经。只要一写出来，但是很快就都被佛教徒高价抢购。道教的道德经只要一写出来，马上就被相信道教的企业家购买收藏了。但是基督徒企业家有很多却不是这样。乐道弟兄就讲到了他见过很多做企业的基督徒老板，他们会买别墅，会买高级的车，好几百万的豪车都能买好几辆，确实非常有钱。但是你跟他讲圣经，他们却往往置若罔闻；面对基督教艺术品比如字画、雕塑等，他们却无动于衷。
乐道弟兄很为这一点感到奇怪：为什么会这样？ “你别看他企业多大多大，他捐款建造教堂什么的也很有热心。但是真正的想要影响更多的人并不是通过有形的教会，而是你要有耶稣基督一样美好的生命。这样的话我们才能够把很多的人带到耶稣基督里面。”
乐道弟兄认为，对于基督徒来说，最重要的当然是信仰本身。作为基督徒我们必须要有生命、使命、诫命，三命合一。建造好我们的信仰，然后就去服事，或者去赚钱。但是，不论我们做什么事情、任何的领域，都要做最好的。
原因很简单——“因为做到最好的时候，才会带出影响力。”他说到自己的观察，“但是现实常常是我们虽然是基督徒，但我们做的很多事情却并没有做的非常好。因此别人就感觉不到你的影响力，讲话没有力量，你光讲你信仰好、生命好，可是问题是也没有好到让别人能够感受到。”
“因此，除了信仰要努力做到最好以外，我们要必须把我们外面所做的事情努力做到最好。比如，是从事艺术领域的，那就把艺术做到最好；是做生意的，那就把生意给他做到最好……。”他补充说。
这个做好不是说简单的跟不相信上帝的人PK或者说竞争思。“我是为了荣耀上帝，因此，我一定要竭尽全力。我不是为自己，而是让别人通过我看到上帝。”乐道弟兄说，“如果做到最好的话，那根本不用你去找别人，他们会主动过来，非常想跟你见面。”
人物|基督徒艺术家乐道弟兄：身居世界，心在迦南
He had long hair and wore bracelets on his arms. When I first met Brother Le Dao, I could tell through his appearance and temperament that he is indeed an artist.
Brother Le Dao's life is exceptionally rich. He had gone through a total of seven stages in his life before and after he came to faith in Jesus Christ. Before he followed Jesus, he had believed in Buddhism for more than ten years and in Taoism also for more than ten years. He had worked in different fields including school and business before entering art – and all that before receiving Christ.
Le Dao wore a jade chain on his arm, which looked a bit like a Buddhist Mala. He said it was not a Buddhist prayer bead necklace and that he wore this to reach out to Buddhists and Taoists in hopes of being able to evangelize them. He summed up his beliefs by saying: "My body is in the world, but the heart is in Canaan - that's my life."
His friends had repeatedly suggested he start a short video platform, knowing that he was financially poor. That was because he would accept almost no money other than for calligraphy works of Bible verses and particularly excellent texts that supplied people with positive energy.
"Why do you want me to write?" Le Dao asked humorously. "This is a narrow path I have chosen for myself. They said a short video platform could be very popular and at least 300-500 people would donate money each night if I wrote things like: ‘A true gentleman has ample virtue and is accommodating of all things’. But I said I would find that very boring. Then I would be nothing more than a printer of money and my mission would be gone.”
Le Dao thought much about the relationship between secular life and the heavenly mission. He believes that Christianity needs to shift from emphasizing the visible church to emphasizing and cherishing the invisible church.
Le Dao says that rather than spending tens of millions of yuan to construct church buildings, it is more important to lead people to God and Jesus. By loving each other, people will transition from the visible to the invisible church, which is the root and foundation of life.
Le Dao has as an artist come in contact with many businessmen, some of whom are Christians. He reported that after he had written the “Great Compassion Mantra” and the “Shurangama Sutra”, Buddhists snapped them up quickly despite the high prices. The same thing occurred among Taoists after he wrote “Tao Te Ching”.
But this sadly was not the case among many Christian entrepreneurs. He shared that wealthy Christian business owners he had met paid millions of yuan for villas and fancy cars. But when one talked to them about the Bible, they turned a deaf ear. They were also often indifferent to Christian art involving calligraphy, painting, or sculpture.
Le Dao was very surprised by this. He stated: "Running a big business, they are enthusiastic about donating money to construct churches. But the real way to influence people is not through a church building. A beautiful Christ-like life can bring many more people to the faith.”
This artist believes the most important thing for Christians is, of course, faith itself. Their existence should integrate life, mission, and the commandments. Initially, their faith needs to be built up, only then can they go into service or into money-making.
“When we do our best, we make an impact on the world. But the reality is that Christians often don't do things very well. Others don't notice our influence then and our speech has no power. We report on our good faith and life, but that in itself is often not enough to convince others.”
"Therefore, in addition to believing that we must do our best, we need to make sure we are also striving to do our best in the outside world, for ex. in the fields of art or business,” he added.
"I am doing my best in order to glorify God. This is not for my own benefit, but so that others can see God through me." Le Dao concluded: "If you do your best, you don't need to find ways to attract others. They will approach you on their own initiative and desire to meet with you.”
- Translated by Abigail Wu
Do Your Best to Reach Unbelievers, Says a Christian Artist
