If you have ever travelled abroad, you know the feeling of being the foreigner.
My first experience with this happened while I was in the military and we were about to step onto Japanese soil. The company commander called all of us down below. And he said, “I want all of you men to remember that for the first time in your life you are the foreigner. This isn’t your culture, your country, your language, or your people. They know nothing of your homeland except what they see in you.”
What he was saying to us is, “Don’t become the ‘Ugly American.’ Live your life here in such a way that you will create an interest in what it must be like to be in America.”
It occurred to me that that’s the kind of pep talk we need to give every new convert. We need to communicate that they’re now living in a foreign land and the people they’re living around have a culture that is no longer theirs, and many of them speak a language that they no longer speak. They represent a philosophy of life that is no longer theirs. And if I may coin the word, don’t become an “Ugly Christian.” Live a life that will create an interest in the place which you will someday literally call home.
I love the story of the missionary couple that came home after 40 years of faithful service in Africa. They came home on a ship.
It so happened that there was a very important diplomat also on the same ship who got special treatment and special attention. And when this couple arrived, they stood back and they watched on the deck as the band played and the people had gathered and there was great applause. And as he walked down the gangplank he was whisked off in this lovely limousine to the sounds of music and applause.
But no one was there to meet these servants of God. The man put his arm around his wife and said, “Honey, it just doesn’t seem right after all of these years that we would have this kind of treatment. And here this fellow is and just because he happens to have a certain position, he gets that kind of special treatment.”
And she put her arms around her husband and said to him, “But, honey, we’re not home yet.”
Charles R. Swindoll, adapted from “Hope Beyond the Culture: How to Shock the Pagan Crowd” in the Hope in Hurtful Times: A Study in 1 Peter series.
