What a strange thing is it to live in-between cultures.
The first part of my life was in South Africa, I was speaking Afrikaans everyday and we had our own way of doing things. I think we have a very strong, beautiful and deep-rooted culture that not very many cultures could match. I’m was/am completely in love with it!
Then, BOOM…Hello America.
Different everything. Different sports, accents, mannerisms, food. What a shock to a persons system. It doesn’t feel much like one strong culture, it feels like a TON of cultures all mixed together and somehow it feels like a ‘culture’. I still don’t know what I’m supposed to feel to feel like an American, it’s a little easier to feel like a Texan, I will say haha. Don’t get me wrong though, I love it here ‘merica
Since I have been in the US, it’s been spent trying to figure out how to fit in better. To be honest, I have yet to feel like I totally fit in and at home here. I feel like a poser for calling South Africa my home though because I don’t even live there anymore! But that deep rooted culture is such a big part of my heart that I find myself somewhere in the middle. Somewhere that makes me feel like a stranger in both places. It totally used to bother me.
But I have come to realization that has changed everything…
As Christians we are living in the IN BETWEEN. We are going against the worldly culture and standing against the currents. We are in the world, but not of it- our home is Heaven. We are just visitors here experiencing culture shock because this is not where we belong. This is not where our hearts are from.
I thank the Lord for making my whole life story a daily lesson to myself that it’s okay to be homesick, homesick for Heaven.
