Monday, February 11, 2008
There’s a song that I love by Nick Drake that has a message about a question that I believe is a question everyone asks at some point in their lives.....
“ I could’ve been a sailor, could’ve been a cook,
a real live lover, I could’ve been a book.
I could’ve been a signpost, could’ve been a clock,
As simple as a cat, or steady as a rock...... I could’ve been one of these things first.”
And the song goes on to talk about all the things in life he could’ve been. As a follower of Jesus, I don’t have to ask the question of what I could’ve been as much as I ask the question what it would’ve been like to have been raised in a different culture.
John and Lorna’s little 3 year old son Nathan was talking to me the other day and he asked me a question. We were just getting up in the morning and drinking some tea and Nathan came in with his little toy train. We started talking and he was wondering why I was so tired. So, I began to tell him how I had been through a really long trip and through leaving my home country, etc. Then he asked, “ Why did you grow up in the United States?”. Wow. How do you answer a question like that?
If you read the Bible, you might recall this passage from the book of Acts that came to my mind as I told him, “ You know Nate, I don’t really know, I just know that God set me there, like you were born here, so we might reach out and find Him, even though He’s not very far from any of us.”
The truth is that this question that Nate, in all his 3 year old brilliance asked, is a question that I still consider today and that I think I will consider for the rest of my life. In fact, this is a question I think most people who begin to live in another question will ask. How do we minister, teach, and demonstrate love to people who grew up with completely different value systems and completely different ways of life? What do we have to offer these people?
Another reality that I have been facing is what being American means to people here. In all my travels, I’ve found that being American generally brings one of two responses: 1.) people absolutely love you and want to be like you, basically worshipping the American culture or 2.) people hate Americans and think they are all just ignorant, prideful, and demanding. Obviously, there are many exceptions to these two ways of thinking, but generally people will have some sort of strong opinion of Americans. This reaction never used to bother me as I was traveling, because I thought of it as a challenge to prove to people that Americans had flaws but we can be kind and loving and polite. The stakes are a little bit different now, however, as I realize that this is a reaction that I will have to face almost daily as I meet new people here.
As I go through a period of seeking how God wants to use my background, my faith, and my perspectives to benefit His body as a whole, I am often asking this question, “ God, why did you raise me in the United States?”