If you walked into a corridor lined with various stone sculptures, you will face a duel reality...and yet it most likely that it will completely pass over your head and you will only recognize one of the two reality. Some will see the statues before them and see stone...overs might see carvings. What I mean to say is that some will look at them and will simply recognize that they are all stone...of the same essence...all "alike". Other, however, will see the details of the artists carvings and scrapings and say, "look how different they all are!", but few will recognize the duel nature that they are all different but they are all the same.
One aspect of culture that I find fascinating is the tendency for people to all fall into a pattern together. I have found that there are very few people in the world you are are truly unique or "different". This is not a bad thing, but it is often taught as such. I hear teens talk about wanting to be unique, their own person. The best part is when you ask them why and they respond with "because all my friends are!" I find it rather humorous that pop culture teaches teens to "be your own person so you can be like everyone else" and they fall for this false ideology. In the end the most unique person is the one who is trying to be like someone else. Admittedly, I have gotten to see quite a few interesting expressions of fashion and artistic interest because of this cultural set up.
The beautiful part though is that it can inspire one to get out and try something new...discover their abilities or their skills. Granted this can also do the opposite...I believe it does more good than harm. I do not think that I would have discovered this about culture if I had not myself gone and interacted with other cultures in Europe and the Middle East. Italy specifically drew out this reality in that I saw people WANTING to be the same. The desire for "individuality", as Americans use it, was all but nil.
We must remember that God designed humans with a need for community and fellowship...something that is evident in our nations addictions to social media, MMORPG's (Massive Multi-player Online Role-playing Games), etc. Those who are always alone are depressed, angry, hurting, or mentally unstable. This is one of the reason why Paul commanded the believers to "not forsake the gathering of the saints" because he recognized the need for fellowship with like-minded people and the need for us to encourage one another. Are we supposed to be carbon copies of one another? No....HECK NO! We being different...complete each other. We all have different talents, hobbies, and interests and we make up a grand collage that displays God's handiwork and paints a picture of life and death, good and evil, beauty and perversion called...humanity.
So therefore we must learn to be ourselves, but maintain our connection to the rest of humanity...each a working of the Great Artist. For we are all designed uniquely, and yet of the same flesh or "essence". It is not culture that effects us...its that we effect culture by swinging to one of the two initial needs for individualism and community, and we must train ourselves to be of the mindset that draws out both needs and satisfies them.
For the Church, it means actually getting in there and doing what you're good at, being the member of the body that you are and stop sitting back and being lazy or complaining that you don't have someone else's task, etc. You dishonor God in wishing you were someone else, slapping God in the face by saying that the gifts and talents that He graced you with aren't good enough. Worship and honor your God by seeking to fulfill His will for your life...form and fill the Earth with the talents and gifts that He gave you. I struggle to fulfill this myself. It's one of the taints of the fall, but we must strive to do this, even in the knowing that we will fail time and time again! God knows and understands our weaknesses and He will aid us if we seek Him and run after pleasing Him. I believe the Holy Scriptures clearly teach that He desires us to be in communion with Him and to Worship Him with all our minds. our souls, and our strength...and if it's His will He will make it so that we can overcome every obstacle that keeps us from fulfilling that task!
The beautiful part though is that it can inspire one to get out and try something new...discover their abilities or their skills. Granted this can also do the opposite...I believe it does more good than harm. I do not think that I would have discovered this about culture if I had not myself gone and interacted with other cultures in Europe and the Middle East. Italy specifically drew out this reality in that I saw people WANTING to be the same. The desire for "individuality", as Americans use it, was all but nil.
We must remember that God designed humans with a need for community and fellowship...something that is evident in our nations addictions to social media, MMORPG's (Massive Multi-player Online Role-playing Games), etc. Those who are always alone are depressed, angry, hurting, or mentally unstable. This is one of the reason why Paul commanded the believers to "not forsake the gathering of the saints" because he recognized the need for fellowship with like-minded people and the need for us to encourage one another. Are we supposed to be carbon copies of one another? No....HECK NO! We being different...complete each other. We all have different talents, hobbies, and interests and we make up a grand collage that displays God's handiwork and paints a picture of life and death, good and evil, beauty and perversion called...humanity.
So therefore we must learn to be ourselves, but maintain our connection to the rest of humanity...each a working of the Great Artist. For we are all designed uniquely, and yet of the same flesh or "essence". It is not culture that effects us...its that we effect culture by swinging to one of the two initial needs for individualism and community, and we must train ourselves to be of the mindset that draws out both needs and satisfies them.
For the Church, it means actually getting in there and doing what you're good at, being the member of the body that you are and stop sitting back and being lazy or complaining that you don't have someone else's task, etc. You dishonor God in wishing you were someone else, slapping God in the face by saying that the gifts and talents that He graced you with aren't good enough. Worship and honor your God by seeking to fulfill His will for your life...form and fill the Earth with the talents and gifts that He gave you. I struggle to fulfill this myself. It's one of the taints of the fall, but we must strive to do this, even in the knowing that we will fail time and time again! God knows and understands our weaknesses and He will aid us if we seek Him and run after pleasing Him. I believe the Holy Scriptures clearly teach that He desires us to be in communion with Him and to Worship Him with all our minds. our souls, and our strength...and if it's His will He will make it so that we can overcome every obstacle that keeps us from fulfilling that task!
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