{"id":23347,"date":"2019-06-11T02:29:32","date_gmt":"2019-06-11T09:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=23347"},"modified":"2019-06-11T02:29:32","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T09:29:32","slug":"living-as-strangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/living-as-strangers\/","title":{"rendered":"Living as Strangers"},"content":{"rendered":"

My husband is a five on the enneagram. That means he likes to be \u201cin the know.\u201d He\u2019s the kind of person that would eat up books like Culture shock! London<\/em> and Culture Shock! Great Britain.<\/em> These books explain everything from how to hail a taxi to what to wear to different social events. I suppose I\u2019m someone who likes to learn and discover these things on my own, as I experience them.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, it\u2019s always a good idea to know basic rules of etiquette when traveling abroad. The more I travel, the more I find myself growing in my observation skills. I may not read books about every country I visit (or rather, I never read books about any of the countries I visit); however, I do watch what others do, ask how to say \u201cplease\u201d and \u201cthank you\u201d in the local language, and try to be a good student of the local culture and a polite guest.<\/p>\n

And this learning to be a guest, or in my case, living life as a stranger, is teaching me much about what the apostle Peter was referring to when he wrote: \u201cSince you call on a Father who judges each person\u2019s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.\u201d[1]<\/a> Living in a country that is not my country of birth makes one an alien, but indeed, as believers, this is to be our stance as well. If missionaries engaged in their cultural adaptation process as a spiritual journey as well as a cultural journey, they would grow in humility, mutuality, and love, equipping them for greater effectiveness as ambassadors for Christ.<\/p>\n

Terry Tan, author of Culture Shock! Great Britain<\/em>, makes some statements and observations that ring true on both the cultural and spiritual levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the foreigner, and most of the accommodation has to come from my quarter\u201d[2]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a tough one for the missionary, who arrives to announce the Kingdom of God and knows from her own experience that those who come under the reign of Christ will experience great transformation. Missionaries come anticipating the transformation of the other, not expecting to have to be transformed themselves. Historically, missionaries have even imposed certain \u201cChristian\u201d behaviors, expecting outward change to lead to salvation. Culturally, I must be the one to adapt. French greet with a kiss on the cheek, not a hug. I make the accommodation. But what about us as strangers spiritually? Even there, do we make accommodation?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m afraid we do. We must.<\/p>\n

We submit to human laws. We live in human economies. But the closer I come to Christ, the more these things break my heart. I don\u2019t blame them or criticize them, I merely see in them how desperately all of creation is crying out for a savior. Even the greatest political and economic systems cannot meet the deepest needs and desires of the human heart. And while in some places revolution is the Christ-like response to these systems, for most of, peaceful accommodation is the better option.<\/p>\n

\u201cRicher are those who assimilate without clouding their sense of identity.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

But even as we assimilate into these human systems, we do not lose sight of our identity in Christ. As he changes us, we become those yeast-like change agents that breathe holy life into our surroundings. We live non-consumerist lives in capitalistic economies. We seek the good of others, going beyond justice (what is fair) to mercy and grace. This is how we are salt and light. Consider how Martyn Percy described the salt of the earth: \u201cThe salt must always respect the type of earth in which it is situated.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a good word for the missionary as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be anti-social even if you are disinclined to have \u2018one for the road\u2019 after work.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a sort of reverse-hospitality that must be enacted as we cross cultures. While the host culture is the one that receives the stranger, we who travel must choose welcome their customs and ways and integrate them into our lives. If having a beer after work goes against one\u2019s religious beliefs, go out with your friends and order a Coke. In France, wine is a way of life. Many a missionary have missed out on true fellowship because they were disinclined to accept a glass of wine. When we pull back from their customs, we stay disconnected from their lives. If missionaries want to have an impact, we have to live where they live, eat what they eat, drink what they drink.<\/p>\n

As temporary visitors to Cape Town, Hong Kong, and London, we get to taste new cultures, but we are not actually required to adapt. We ma adjust our way of living for a short time, but we anticipate returning \u201chome,\u201d where we will easily fall back into our own way of doing things. But as Christians living as aliens in the world, we must swim against the cultural tide, choosing to continually adapt to Kingdom Culture and to be transformed into the likeness of the King.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Holy Bible, New International Version\u00ae, NIV\u00ae Copyright \u00a91973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.\u00ae Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. I Peter 1:17.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Terry Tan, Britain.<\/em> (Tarrytown: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2008), Kindle loc 186., http:\/\/proquest.safaribooksonline.com\/9789814435956.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Tan, Kindle loc 191.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ian S. Markham and Joshue Daniel, eds., Reasonable Radical? Reading the Writings of Martyn Percy<\/em> (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2018), Kindle loc 5584.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Tan, 4482.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My husband is a five on the enneagram. That means he likes to be \u201cin the know.\u201d He\u2019s the kind of person that would eat up books like Culture shock! London and Culture Shock! Great Britain. These books explain everything from how to hail a taxi to what to wear to different social events. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1560],"class_list":["post-23347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-tan","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23348,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23347\/revisions\/23348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}