cultural dichotomy

Archive for June, 2007


Posted on June 29, 2007 - by ray

Unhappy

So, here’s a question. Can you be in the will of God, doing what you’re called to do, and be unhappy at the same time? I’m not talking about joy. Happiness and joy are two totally different things. I’m talking about being unhappy with life. And if you’re unhappy how do you fix it?

I was speaking with a colleague today and his opinion was that unhappiness was due to one of two things: either working outside your giftedness, or selfishness. In other words, if you have peace about where you are and what you’re doing, you know that you are in God’s will for your life, and you are unhappy it could be that the work you are doing doesn’t match up with what you’re gifted in. Or, you are unhappy because of selfishness, wanting things that you can’t have or don’t need. For example, when you move to a new culture you inevitably miss things from back home like certain aspects of the city you’re from, friends, familiarity of things, etc. If you begin to want those things in the new culture you find yourself in, knowing full well that you won’t get them, you can become unhappy with your current situation.

So how long should this unhappiness be allowed to last? And how do you take care of it?

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Posted on June 13, 2007 - by ray

A Little Confused

I’m relatively new to the life of being a “missionary”. I’m not new, however, to what it means to “share the gospel”. My hope and prayer is that through building relationships with others they might come to know about the sovereign grace of Christ, that the Holy Spirit will awaken their soul, and that God will call them to Himself.

But how far do you take things in a given conversation when things turn spiritual? In fact, just today a colleague told me that she felt the Holy Spirit was preventing her from taking things deeper in a conversation she was having with a friend.

When is just being a friend and living life with someone not enough? When do you push things deeper, and how do you know that it’s the right time?

Just very simple, basic things I’m working through right now.

UPDATE: After reading through my post I feel that a little clarification is needed. I live in a Western European culture. But I work with Muslims. It’s highly unlikely that someone in this context is going to come to faith through good old fashioned theological debate. The sticking points will always be issues such as the trinity, the incarnate nature of Christ, the crucifixion and resurrection. The point of my post was me asking the question, how often and how deep do I push these things, knowing full well that their witness of my life is more likely to lead them towards Christ than a spiritually deep conversation. And I don’t know that this question has an answer, but it needed to be asked anyway.

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