Who's Dirty Anyway?

I sat up leaning over the small table while the cantankerous old teacher leaned forward to whisper a secret. “I don’t like those Uigher people.” The grumpy old Chinese didn’t surprise me with her opinion. Nevertheless with a glance at the open first floor balcony window and a quiet voice, I responded “why?” “They’re dirty!” wrinkling her nose. “They are lazy - just sitting around with each other all the time. They don’t study and aren’t very smart.” I happened to know that the brightest student and best English speaker in Jonathan’s class was a Uigher man who took two years to find a teaching job while his Chinese classmates only after a week of searching found some great English jobs. I simply listened and asked questions. “Why do you think they are dirty?” Shaking her head with contorted features she frankly replied “They let their kids play in the dirt outside.” Her raspy growl and expression spoke more than what her words declared. I left with a feeling of needing a bath. I wonder if she thought the same of us Americans and our children who not only played in the dirt but actually had a marvelous time once while making mud pies. We we dirty?
That afternoon as the Uighers celebrated the Korban holiday I dropped by an old Uigher friends apartment to eat the traditional pollo (lamb mixed in rice and carrots). While we enjoyed the merry mealtime the conversation turned unusually private. Gulzeera disclosed her thoughts to us. “I don’t like the Chinese.” To draw out more of the meaning I asked the question “Why?” She confidently with a half crooked smile explained, “They’re dirty!”
What did she say? How could this be? I began to feel that the earlier morning’s confabulation was merely a rehearsal for the latter. What could she possibly mean? “How are they dirty?” I repeated my line from the earlier drill. As an inferior in the Chinese society she seemed self confident of her superior islamic culture. “They grow their nails so long. And they never have time to talk. They are all so busy and never have time for relationship.” Hmmmm. Now this was different. I had not previously thought about how disgusting long nails would be on women who knead bread and noodles everyday.
This day was an exercise in learning about the conflicting values people and cultures have not only around the world but even within one country, one state, one neighborhood. Where one values tasks and learning another finds meaning in relationships. Who is right?
This doesn’t happen in church does it?

Prejudice......

To explore the whole nature of prejudism expands way beyond black and white, rich or poor, young or old. It's center is the core heart in each of us. Consider that each human is raised with certain values, practices, dreams to hope for, convictions all boiling down to world view. At the center of each of us we sacredly hold true to what we deeply have been convinced of. When we encounter one of another kind (which really is everyone and anyone) if we have not been taught differently we humans tend to judge those others according to our personal standard. Next is a little story which illustrates .....

a little prejudice

I am partial to a cute little fellow i found in the field just yesterday! He is so tiny i hope he makes it. It was a beautiful site to see Jonathan pastor this little one by bottle feeding him his first food- just enought to boost him to be able to get up and nurse on his mommy. - Jonathan indeed is a good shepherd.

Then Cocoa wanted to be fed also from Darragh's apple cider.

Pride and ........(title to be continued- fill in the blank)

One of the first things that occurs in the process of revival is a new or renewed understanding of how great God is compared to our humanity. Being humbled by the mightiness of God?
After living in China with a number of people from different nationalities I made some observations regarding pride and humility. When a person of one nationality would seek to express humility in one way the other nationality would think he was being proud. For instance: Here in America we are trained to say thank you when paid a compliment. If you say thank you to someone from another race they might think “thank you” is admitting with pride that indeed your dress looks nice or that you look good today etc. and are acting in pride. Another example of this is some nationalities offer a gift to someone and make sure they play it up big, “I got this in a very expensive store and paid much money for it.” They were taught to do this because one wanted the receiver to know how important and worthy they are to buy an expensive gift. However others are taught in humility to play it down, “It isn’t anything too special, just something I picked up.” on order that the person would not feel too uncomfortable or committed to the giver on account of an expensive gift. One might consider a person proud because he or she views another’s behavior in light of their own experiences and knowledge. The same is experienced even with people in the same culture but in different families.

In pursuit of humility one of my favorite quotes the last five years is this quote by Ben Franklin. “Pride perceiving humility honorable sometimes borrows her cloak.” Any of us can “look” humble. We can become good actors. Ok, so why all this talk about humility? What matters most is - Are we truly humble before God or are we faking it before man? Has our cultural practices or personal convictions defined us before our great and Mighty God? Do we actually recognize the inconceivable greatness of God in comparison to our feeble humanity. And then do we ignore or implement the joyous truth that our frailty is covered by His clothing of grace. This is humility but probably incomplete in definition. Just my thoughts as i keep moving forward.

scenes from a favorite movie- "Pride and Prejudice"