Now there are probably some of you out there who would beg to differ, but it has been interesting this past year to see what other cultures find normal, acceptable, and reprehensible. Growing up in a middle-class, suburban, predominantly white, American neighborhood…school district…church, I accepted certain cultural ideals or practices as morally-sound truths on which to base my faith. If Jesus were alive today I don’t think that he’d necessarily be preaching democracy over socialism, he lived during a dictatorship and when asked whether or not he should pay taxes…his reply…give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. Now this isn’t me coming on to validate communism and knock democracy, but does the thought appall you? Why? Have you attached certain moral weight to a neutral element of culture.
I’m not asking you to raise your hand…so be honest. I did. I was convinced that communism was the great evil of the world and that everywhere I went in China people would be scraping to get out. Not so much. People are happy. Sorry to break it to you North America, but despite our economic status as a world power…people ARE happy elsewhere. Sure teens of the world kinda want what we’ve got going on. But as a whole, people are content. Nothing is perfect, but we don’t have it all right. According to Jesus in Matthew (6:24), “no one can serve two masters. either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” So if one is to think that as a nation we have the Christian ideal down politically…we are cruelly mistaken. Our beloved country serves Money. And according to God’s Word, it therefore does not, nay, cannot serve God.
I’m not writing this as an attack on America. Lord only knows there are enough people running around “dispelling the myths” of my motherland, but the evil doesn’t lie in the soil. The sin doesn’t exist within those 50 states but within the hearts of my fellow countrymen and women, it lies in me. I’m also not writing this because I’m moving to Canada within two months of getting home and won’t have to deal with it anymore. I’m not deluded enough to think that moving 2 hours north will separate me from the decisions made by the neighbor to the south. I only know from my own context of the U.S. so that’s why I speak about them…but I’m sure these same truths apply in the modern Western, first world. I love America. I’ve never been more patriotic in my life. But why is that? Is it because I had to get out to realize what I was missing? Nope, but I think a lot of it is that things that I was pretty sure were a solid part of my faith, a part of my relationship with Christ, were just cultural. Just a regular part of living in America.
I’ve learned to never speak in hypotheticals, it’s annoying, so I’ll give an example or two. Up until recently I was convinced that when I attended a worship service in another country and the music wasn’t in my native tongue, wasn’t “my jam” I couldn’t feel as close to God. Because in the States, worship is in English, the words are usually on the screen (or in a book), and the music is at least mildly applicable to the modern era. Enter sob fest of my first Malawian church service. I was enveloped by a language I now refer to as my spirit language sung by the most beautiful voices in the universe. Did I understand a word of it? Heck no, but I did understand it was being proclaimed to the Living God, that he is WORTHY to be PRAISED! Now that message transcends language barriers. (I actually preferred it when our contact/translator Medson didn’t tell us what the song was about.) Seeing worship for what it is supposed to be, for God, to God…not about me and fulfilling some weak understanding I have of who God is. Last month I realized that worship doesn’t necessarily have to look like “singing loudly for all to hear” (reference to Elf). I can sit there silently meditating on God’s Word…who HE says HE is, not who some Powerpoint presentation of floating words say He is. I can sit and listen to the other voices lifted high to praise the Lord and enjoy the (at times) cacophony of sounds and pitches giving glory to God. Sorry that both of my examples had to do with worship, but I think that a lot of my revelations this year have been about what worship can, should, could look like. I for one enjoy everyone praying at once. I could do without the really loud people who distract me, but the Lord knows our hearts. 😉
As this year of world travel and spiritual revelation comes to a close I’m excited to see what the next part looks like. About 6 more weeks here in the heat of SE Asia. Can’t complain though, I do hate rainy snowy slush and the persistent cold. Anyway, thanks for reading, thanks for waiting, God bless.
