In This Issue: Seeing Somalians and Other Cool People
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Practical Mobilization by Shane Bennett is published once a month.
Seeing Somalians and Other Cool People
By Shane Bennett
The cornerstone on the building indicated it had been dedicated as a church about 100 years ago, but we couldn’t find a sign or anything to show what purpose it now served. In a fit of bravery the guy I was with stepped up to the slightly ajar door, pushed it open, and popped inside. We were greeted by a couple of men who were probably having an important discussion, but they let us interrupt them. Through bumbling introductions we discovered one was from Yemen and the other from Somalia. I had never met someone from Yemen, so that was cool, and the Somalian let me practice the four or five Somali words I had learned in a conversation a few minutes earlier.
My friend proceeded to chat with the Yemeni man while I parried questions from the Somalian. He wanted to know if Americans really supported President Bush. Maybe he was truly curious; maybe not. It was hard to tell. But I may have been the only real American he got to bounce his thoughts off that day, maybe that whole month.
As I walked away, I was thinking how fun that conversation and a couple of others like it had been. I love chatting with people from other cultures. I wondered if it did anything for them. I think maybe it did . . . and does. Something good happens when we step across boundaries, disregard cultural fences, and take a stab at connecting with a stranger. Maybe we need to start seeing, really seeing, more people who are unlike us.
Wouldn’t you agree that we tend to screen out much of the daily stimulus that comes our way? Of course we do. It’s a survival mechanism. If we absorbed all that came at us, we’d go insane. Sadly though, a lot of cool people who could tell us amazing stories don’t make the cut for our attention. Several people I would have simply walked past made the cut for Jesus, though. There was the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. Jesus saw her. He connected with her. Then there’s Zacchaeus in Luke 19. Up in a tree, hoping to see Jesus, he is seen by Jesus. And there’s the dear widow Jesus notices a couple chapters later in Luke 21. We don’t know if he talks to her, but he sees her. He notices her. He honors her.
When we gently disregard social barriers and interact with someone from another culture, we honor them. When you chat with Bengali guy at the gas station about life in Dhaka, he’s blessed. You honor him and his culture. We also honor God when we appreciate the beauty inherent in a people. Here in the US, we recently celebrated our annual liberty love-fest, our Fourth of July Independence Day. While our global reputation has been better, we still have good things in our culture to celebrate. When we likewise celebrate the beauty in Eritrean or Kashmiri culture, we honor God for the wonderful things and fascinating peoples he has created.
When Jesus saw and spoke to the woman at the well, he set the stage for a conversation that changed her life and the lives of many in her town. The same possibility is there for us. I’m not a big advocate trying to get through the Four Spiritual Laws before your Big Mac and fries get bagged and put on the counter. But with a little patience, we might be surprised to find that God is still changing lives in a big, Zacchaeus sort of way.
At the very least, we open up opportunities for learning in two directions. I like to think that my Somali friend from above no longer thinks that all Americans are brain-dead imperialists bent on colonizing Mogadishu (although maybe I overestimate my influence!). I do know that I learned good stuff from that encounter. Besides a few words of Somalian, I have a deeper sense of the concerns and issues facing immigrants. I expect that will inform and shape future conversations with other immigrants.
Here are some questions in this arena that I need to continue to consider:
1. Whom do I need to see the way Jesus saw them? While I have active radar for people from other cultures, I’m sure I have blind spots. What are they? What – and who – does Jesus want me to see?
2. What do my church and the people who make it up need to see? Are we missing the opportunity to honor people in our community because we’ve filtered them out? Who are our neighbors?
3. Finally, how can I help the people over whom God has given me influence to see the wonder of overlooked people around them? What are the words, the tools, and the experiences that will help my family and friends see the harvest for God in our midst and around the globe?
I would love to hear your thoughts on seeing and connecting with people from other cultures. If you have answers to the three questions listed above (for me or you), please send them in. As is our practice, I’ll compile the responses and float them out for our mutual benefit next month. Send insights to me. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.
Questions? Problems? Submissions? Contact publisher/managing editor Marti Smith.