The Vision

I saw a definition of culture shock recently that was defined "as trouble adjusting to customs which threaten the basic unconscious belief that you are right."  My first thought was, "Crap...this is AA all over again, just at a deeper level."  My second thought was, "Is this ever over?"  To which God responded, "No."  I sighed. 

So, I'll begin this blog post with the acknowledgement that it is a rant of sorts, a whiny diatribe that encapsulates our current stage of culture shock.  I was going to make a top ten list of things I liked and disliked right now about France, but I realized all ten of my likes revolve around food and eating.  Which in many ways, right now, showcases either a place of gastronomic delight or a manifestation of my unhealthy coping mechanisms.  Probably a bit of both. 

Yes, I did know that life just keeps on happening and our sanctification just keeps progressing if we choose to develop our character.  I even knew there were things that might cause ethnocentric thoughts.  Why can't I have a dishwasher and clothes dryer?  Why can't I buy a decent deodorant? Why can't I depend on mail/parcel delivery in what I thought to be an industrialized country?  Why is every procedure here filled with mounds of paperwork?  Why doesn't customer service exist?  I witnessed a bizarre event recently in a grocery store in which a clerk on a forklift asked an older lady to move.  The older woman did not hear her, so the clerk came off of the forklift, grabbed the woman's cart and forcefully moved it herself.  They had strong words for one another and then moved on.  I think what stood out most, though, was the other shoppers around me.  I was aghast with what happened.  Others went on as if this was quite normal. 

Even deeper questions of raising a family arise.  Why aren't young children comforted in school like in the U.S.?  Why can't kids be kids, make noise and be playful?  Why does everything have to be so formal, polite and stuffy?  Why aren't there many smiles?

In any case, I have started to realize that even when I cannot get my head around why people are acting the way they do, my reaction to it is still in part due to my cultural upbringing.  Of course, weaved into my questions above are my cultural judgments.  Maybe even "Christian judgments," but that is an oxymoron that I don't even want to go into right now.  Suffice it to say, I know it is all coming from from "unconscious rightness," and I hate admitting that I could be wrong.  Deeper still is this wonderment that this ethnocentricity has reared its head.  I am one who does not normally wax poetic about U.S. patriotism.  I love my country of origin and its freedom, but I believe that God's ideal is embracing something far beyond nationalism.  Ironically, though, I may have to go back and revisit once again how my cultural orientation and beliefs may be clouding the truth, obscuring the totality of God's vision.  It is something worth pondering, eh? 

How much of your way of thinking goes beyond your conscious being?  Have you ever removed yourself from your community, country or normal way of life long enough to make you uncomfortable?  Did you stay in that place of discomfort long enough to hear God speaking or did you retreat back to safety?  Did you stay long enough to examine why you, or perhaps your church or community, does the things it does?