Culture

Culture has been on my mind a lot lately.

Family is a culture.  Community is a culture.  Country is a culture.  Church is a culture.  Work is a culture.  And each has its own unique way of impacting us.

While I was at school, my parents moved to a new house.  It was a good move for them, and I am happy for them.  It has been a big adjustment for me.  There is something very unsettling about coming home to a house you've only seen from a distance.  And adjusting to the new community, at least for me, has had some growing pains.  This is due in part to the fact that I acclimated rather quickly to life in Wyoming, at Bible school.  And now, I'm trying to readjust when I'm thrown off by the change.  Please don't take this as complaining.  It's merely a statement of the oddity of my current situation.

And now I am contemplating my imminent departure to another country.  Having not yet readjusted to this culture, I am curious to see how things will go being in a new place entirely.

This whole process has certainly given me a better ability to empathize with my dear friends and family who live outside of the culture in which they grew up.  It seems you just get adjusted to the new culture, start to feel like you have a grip on how to interact and what to do and them all of a sudden you are sent back around the world to readjust to a culture that is not sympathetic to your new inability to relate to it.  And you start to integrate into that just in time to return to the other culture where you feel like an outsider again.  Um.  Difficult comes to mind.  But worthwhile does too.  These dear people have gone gallivanting about not on some half-baked whim or ill-advised impulse.  They weren't exactly following their hearts or their minds.  They were following the call of the Spirit of God.  And He has little to do with human logic or feeling.  He uses logic and feelings, but sometimes there is a point where both are telling you not to do something and yet you know you have to do it.

And crazy as it may sound, it is totally worth the time, effort, energy, and culture shock.  Preaching the Gospel, sharing the love of Jesus, building into people.  These are well worth it.  There are two eternal things in this world: the Word of God and the souls of men.  Are you going to invest your time in trying to meet cultural norms, follow logic, listen to your feelings?  Or are you going to invest into the eternal, the souls of men, the Word of God, and KNOW you are doing what God has called you to do even though your heart screams: "This is going to hurt!" and your head screams: "There are much more sensible things to do!" and your culture screams: "Don't say that, you might offend someone!"

Maybe you aren't called into missions or full time vocational ministry.  Guess what.  You're still called.  You still have a purpose.  A divinely appointed purpose to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ with every person you meet.  It doesn't require formal training.  It doesn't require magic words.  It requires a willing heart that is submitted to Christ.  He will open the doors, give you the words, and see to the fruit.  You just have to go and do.

So enjoy your culture.  Enjoy the next culture you come across.  And remember.  No matter what culture you are in, the Gospel is still relevant.