Culture

Its practically impossible to escape what is surrounding you. Don't believe me? Try seperating yourself from your shadow on a sunny afternoon (Peter Pan couldn't do it!). Or try to out manuever the "floaties" in your peripheral vision. Sorry folks, it ain't gonna happen. They are there to stay.

The same can be said for the culture we live in. Many times this is a pretty cool thing. I love how excited small southern towns get about high school football. TV commercials promoting Halloween and Christmas are lots of fun. And who isn't grateful that we actually get to chose who we marry (or to not get married) as opposed to being in an arranged ceremony?

The dangerous thing about culture is the effect it can have on the way we view the world. We graduate from college and consider ourselves financially uncomfortable to be making less than $30,000 dollars per year. How soon do we forget that very few people in the world will ever own that much money! Or maybe we are excited to hear that our best friend has started dating this great girl, until we see her for the first time and are shocked to find that she is black. We find ourselves fixated on and heartbroken over a hurricane that overtakes one of our countries cities while barely noticing the thousands of slaughtered children in Africa, sometimes at the hands of other children with M-16s strapped across their little chests.

Its hard to get around. Our culture socially constructs our worldview. I've viewed the world through the lense of my culture. You have too.

The good news is that hope exists. Yes, even for you and me. Christ called those who followed him to live life counter-culturally. To turn the other cheek. To consider others better than ourselves. To pray for those in persecution while blessing those that persecute. To forfeit the freedom of life itself, so that others would see the glory of God.

And yet, as hard as it is for us to see the world through this lense, doing so only brings our vision clarity.