For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Lord, I must listen to you, not to me or to my culture. Please teach me your ways, that I may walk in your truth.
Since most of you who read this blog are international, you understand some of the difficulties of living in a new culture. For example, a Chinese woman here in America once told my family that she was upset when an American lady referred to her as “man.”
“Couldn’t she tell that I’m a woman?”
“Are you sure she said ‘man’?” one of my kids said. “She may have said, ‘ma’am.’” The two words sound much alike, and “ma’am” seemed to better fit the situation, so the Chinese woman felt she had misunderstood the American lady and, thus, should not have been upset at her at all.
Perhaps you have had such problems in your intercultural experiences. Perhaps you have had difficulty ordering lunch at a café or buying groceries at a market. Perhaps you have driven on the wrong side of the road, or spoken out about something that the culture normally doesn’t speak about. Perhaps you filed the wrong paperwork or misunderstood an application process. Perhaps you have accidentally insulted a native or felt insulted when the native was not insulting you. It can be hard to think outside the norms of your own culture, and it is common to find that a foreigner (in any country) subconsciously and sometimes overtly views the new culture as inferior. “They shut up the shops at six? How stupid … My, aren’t they self-righteous prigs here … Do they ever pay attention to their customers? Don’t they know we’re paying their rent? … Their morals are so loose here … Look how they treat their women. It’s like going back to the 1600s … When do these people ever lighten up? … They have no order here … Look at how they drive; they’re maniacs … Why did she look at me that way? What did I do to her?”
Those are examples of judgments rendered on one culture from the lens of a different culture. Certainly such judgments can, at times, be legitimate, but they are more dangerous to make because the one doing the judging rarely understands the cultural values and rationale that lie behind the “stupid” practice. He simply thinks that his culture is right. He lacks information, background, and an appropriate grid to adequately understand the new culture. Consequently, he easily slides into ethnocentrism. I have done it; you have probably done it, too. It is really quite natural.
Now I want to apply this idea of ethnocentrism in a way that most people do not think about, for something like ethnocentrism occurs when we encounter God. You see, God is Himself a culture foreign to earth, and we can naturally slide into a sort of humancentrism that renders judgments against God from a limited knowledge base. Such judgments are dangerous.
Now, previously these blogs have focused on what God is like – the Father, Jesus, the Spirit. But we need to also talk about what we are like, and the moment we do that, we are switching cultures. We are going from heaven to earth. Sometimes we humans have strong opinions about what we are like, but we must understand that God does not view the human race the way most humans view the human race. If we are to understand the human race from a Biblical perspective, we shall have to be open to learning a new culture. We shall have to step out of our humancentrism and be willing to adopt a God-centered mindset. Such a change can be harder than moving to another country. But it is necessary. It requires humility and an open mind. If, however, we cling to our human ways of thinking, we shall miss God altogether.
