East to West

Lord, you came to break our culture. So please come, renew us with your Spirit and hit us with YOUR culture, so we may abandon our silly ways and follow the Truth.

I've been meditating on the differences of two cultures that I've been blessed to be very familiar with - the asian (eastern) culture and the american (western) culture. One thing in particular that stands out to me is the way the two cultures approach the idea of Respect. Growing up in an asian family, I understood at an early age that respect was something that was demanded and expected. You aren't really left with any choices - no ifs or buts. When you are asked to give respect, you reply, "how?". Then you are taught to perform all kinds of gestures and humbling acts to show what is due. This eastern idea of respect is extremely black or white - people do not need to perform anything to deserve your respect - you just give it. However, as I stand back and observe my current western surrounding, the idea of respect is exactly the opposite - respect must be earned. When western people are asked to give respect, their reply is "why?". Then, to earn their respect, you must present/act your reason to prove your worth. Because of the extreme capitalistic mindset, which is the heart our western culture, we are taught that we simply cannot give everyone respect before they perform some sort of a dance that is worthy of our clapping. This can come in many forms - school degrees, career positions, looks, or even a humble act that touch our hearts. Only then, when it is reasonable and "logical", can we gift them with the honor of having our respect. Now, I'm not here to point and weigh out the two cultures to see which one is superior. As a matter of fact, I believe that they are both very good, but they both also have fatal flaws that lead to their own ways of destruction. I believe God wants to tell us how important these two cultures are, but each one alone is not good enough. I believe God wants us to know that we need a super-culture that combines the eastern and western mentality, especially in regards to entering His Kingdom. And the chronologic matter - eastern (obedience) first, then western (understanding) after.

It's astonishing (and poetic) that God speaks to us in this manner when we open up His Word. Old testament is all about God saying, "I demand your obedience," and the new testament is when God comes down as Jesus, and explains, "This is why you should obey me." In another words, the old testament is extremely Hebraic (eastern) and the new testament is extremely Greek (western).

If we can think of ourselves as a parent for a moment, and having a child that we love, we would often tell the child, "Do as I say, because I am your parent" - we simply know better from experience, but cannot explain all the details of our reason because the child may not be at the age to even understand. So we put it simply for the child - "I know what is good for you. Trust me." And this is exactly what God does to us - He demands us to obey (have faith in Him and seek His Kingdom), and we will understand everything as we mature. If we look at it from a parental perspective, it'd be foolish not to obey first - for the child to demand answers to all his/her "whys?" before obeying. But isn't this what we often do? Don't we sit there, often demanding all the answers, and even fighting back as He is gracious enough to show us, obvious answers at that (because He knows how weak we are)? I think we've become too Greek...

Although the "obedience" performed by the eastern culture appears great, the problem rises because it lacks depth. Unlike the western mindset, the eastern mentality does not constantly ask "why?". I'm not understating the importance of obedience, but we also need to seek intimacy and depth by pushing to know more of God. Asian culture gives great respect, but often, it's extremely superficial, and this is because people perform "humble" gestures without having great substance to back their actions. Even when seeking God, everything becomes too religious and too much about sacraments. In regards to understanding His Kingdom, people with extreme eastern mindset (on average and from my experience) often lack biblical foundation because much of their faith is really blind and lacks depth. The western culture, however, has a tougher shell, and it makes leaping in to faith that much harder. Similar to needing a proper prerequisite to earn their respect (in the western mentality), when this is applied to the Gospel, the hearts of these people are colder, as they require deep reasoning for their faith. But as soon as they make the leap of faith, by risking their reasoning, they are able to see the warmth of God's embrace. We need to give our almighty God a benefit of the doubt, and trust Him, for He has created the entire universe, and put nature before our eyes as His witness. However, we cannot stop here! We need to solidify our foundation in the Lord, and understand his heart, his will, and develop our Kingdom mindset!

Can we break culture, please? Can we please break both, western and eastern, cultures? Jesus came down to break all cultures - societal and religious cultures! Let's make Jesus culture :)