What happens when you let your walls down and you embrace in the culture surrounding you? You gain so much I have learned. They say “come sit, have some tea” and you are filled up with an overwhelming spirit of love as they pull a chair over for you. Back home this is a quality I want to establish in wherever I am living, because isn’t this how Christ calls us to live? He calls us to “count others more significant than ourselves,” (Philippians 2:3b) whether we have known them for years or for a day.
My heart’s cry for years has been to embrace each culture you step into and let it fill you with the goodness it pertains, but a lot of times I say this and don’t actually act it out. I’ve also learned quickly that actions speak a lot louder than words. Country after country I have visited I haven’t really acted out what my so-called “heart’s cry” is.
This month is the first time I fully believe I am living out one of my main reasons of coming on the race. I remove my shoes and step into the house of an Indian family who pours their love out on me. We sit and talk about God, my life back home, and their lives here. I feel love for these moments deep within my bones.
I hear the children of our host family call for me, “sister, come sit with me,” and suddenly I’m not just a stranger. I am their sister. As I am filled with love for my sisters back home I begin to feel that same love for my new Indian sisters. Each new day, they constantly pour more blessing out upon me.
That’s the thing though, in a matter of days you become family. I don’t have to spend years building the closeness, it’s already there. You have to allow that closeness to be there on your end as well. I can’t just let my new family pour their love out on me and not give that same love back. Each time I step into the house and sit I am to listen wholeheartedly and want to be there wholeheartedly.
When you let those walls crumble and you allow yourself to be engulfed into the culture surrounding you, you gain so much more than just a conversation. You exchange a lifetime of love and thankfulness. You get to experience love from a family, even though you are thousands of miles away from your own family. You get the joy of knowing you aren’t just in a new country, but that you are there living as the people there live.
I encourage wherever you are in the world, whether its a foreign country or your own neighborhood, do not be afraid to step outside those walls you have built up. Whatever culture is around you embrace it and love the people in it well.
