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I have had the privilege of seeing worship take place in over 10 different countries on 5 different continents, and in that experience, church doesn’t usually look like the Western ideal that we see around us each day.
One of my favorite things to do when overseas is visit a church and worship with believers there. Why? Because in that place, though I look different, I feel right at home. I’m not out of place anymore no matter how their version of a worship gathering differs from mine at home. Imagine my surprise then when one of the locations at home I’ve felt most “out of place” has been the American church -- even though I’m both American and Christian.
It’s like aspartame. It makes your stuff taste sweet but it’s hollow, empty, and the more you take in the more it is likely to wreck you.
Just months earlier, his family left him for dead by the river. His sickness became a burden they could no longer bear. As his body wasted away from illness, they made the decision to leave him to his end and walk away.
I could no longer be the same Southern Baptist woman that I had grown up to be. I had to come to terms with what I was seeing, experiencing, and learning from our brothers and sisters overseas. I had to untangle within myself what was cultural to America and what was global and biblical.