Life is so surreal. A week ago, I was sitting in a terminal in Atlanta. A day later, I was sitting on a bus with some of my teammates driving through the Istanbul watching the sunset over the city, working our way into the Turkish countryside. And one day later, I began work with children’s ministry at a camp in Albania.
Within these 53 hours of travel through America, the Netherlands, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia and Albania, I have realized one thing: when you truly view human existence, we are all the same.
Many people in America cringe at the thought of diversity. They don’t understand other cultures and they don’t make much of an effort to understand.
We hear people speaking different languages and we assume those languages are ignorant. We see people with different skin color and we assume those people are trouble. We smell and taste different foods and we automatically assume those foods could never be delicious.
And that’s where the world’s trouble comes from.
When we stop putting barriers between us and the things we don’t understand, we can begin to truly understand cultures. The men you see begging on the street corner are the same as the men who stand in the unemployment line. They worry about how they are going to provide for their family. The mothers you see in marketplaces who let their children run around barefoot on the dirty ground are the same as mothers you see in the stores in America. They want, more than anything, to see their children to grow up healthy and safe. And the children you see living in garbage dumps are the same as children who live on your block. They want to play, they want to explore, and they want to be loved.
I am reminded of a quote a speaker imparted on us before we launched. “Celebrate diversity. Choose unity.” We can be different from one another and be proud of our differences. But we also need to understand that our differences do not make us better. They make us unique.
So the next time you see an international student on campus, a family who looks different than you in the airport, or news video of turmoil overseas on the news, take a moment and place yourself in those people shoes. What would be your hopes, dreams, and fears? Because I am willing to bet they are the same as yours.
