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25/04/24

Cultural Sunday

To live permanently in a different culture is a challenging thing. I know it from my own experience as we moved to the UK almost six years ago and found out that we have to be very careful about our behaviour, our language, our gestures, and our way of life because what is acceptable and expected in our home country might not be acceptable in the UK. I will give a little example. When you visit someone at their home in the Czech Republic, it is very polite to take off your shoes before you enter the flat or house. But when the owner wants to show high respect towards you, you would be told, “Please, leave your shoes on; it is not necessary to take them off at all.” Here in the UK, it is the other way around. Taking off your shoes before entering might be considered rude as you behave like you are at your own house. It is a tiny example of how we had to change our behaviour to fit in. And I have to admit that it is not easy!

But in the same way, we have to change our behaviour, attitude, and, in fact, our heart when we exchange our earthly citizenship for the heavenly one. And even though God gives us His Holy Spirit to be able to change at all, it is not easy! I believe that I am not the only one who finds this process of change quite challenging. It is the challenge of our whole lives while we are still in our earthly bodies.

I think this is the point of Paul’s teaching in the 5th chapter of 2 Corinthians. He says that while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling (2 Cor 5:4a). But as always, Paul doesn’t just point out the problem, but he also shows the way out. In this particular case, he talks about the correct motivation. In verse 9 of the same chapter, he says: So we make it our goal to please him, whether at home in the body or away from it (2 Cor 5:9).

It is not bad to try to fit in, whether we talk about living as a foreigner in a different country or being a citizen of the Kingdom of God and still living here on this earth. But the important thing still must remain. We have to make it our goal to please God!

God bless – Capt. Petr Janousek