Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Walking Backwards



So have you walked backwards lately? The more that I walk, the more that I realize that my thoughts, actions, and life are so backwards to this world and even my own culture sometimes.

Oh no, the missionary is having culture shock in his own culture again. . .well maybe.
I am grieving the loss a dear young lady who passed unexpectedly this week. I use the term grieving even though I had little actual contact with her other than serving at her church for a while. She was one who was different at times, but she had a wonderful heart and love for people. The one thing that I fear in all of this is that people are giving flowers now that she has passed. We missed giving flowers while she was with us and getting to know who she really was.

We have special people all around us yet we fail to get to know them because at times they are different. This applies to our experience with the Latin people who live in our country. There are many special people who have sacrificed much to care for their families. Some have broken laws to do so. It is easy for us to judge them as we have never walked in their shoes. We have never known such desperation. If we can get past our legalism to see the real people, we would see so much more.

Who are the special, different people all around us? Perhaps, they are different because of a sin or some other circumstance. Why are we so quick to judge?
Sometimes it requires us to walk backwards against the cultural current to do the right thing, but I guess that is what Jesus did.

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