Culture Shock

Yes, I know. I’m not from a different culture, but I can still experience culture shock. I feel like the past two weeks have been chock full of it for me.

In Romans 12:2, Paul states that we are “not [to be] conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…” What does that look like?

This verse has been repeatedly brought to my mind over the past two weeks as I’ve had my eyes opened to the hideousness of the culture we live in.

My Spanish instructor said she would give us extra credit (applied to our final exam no less) if we went to a play that she was performing in. It was a comedy called Fuddy Meers, and she played a stroke victim whose speech came out backwards (“haa toke king tall baa” = Had a stroke; talk backwards). She did mention—because she knew some of us might be sensitive—that there was a little bit of swearing in the play, but that she was the primary swearer. Since I could barely understand the sample lines she gave us, I figured that I wouldn’t even hear the swearing, so why not take advantage of a fun way to earn extra credit. Mom and I went on a Saturday afternoon (I even traded work shifts so I could get off early to attend). Well, let me just say, that the play was NOT a comedy, and if that was only a little swearing, I don’t want to know what normal is. Just about every-other word spoken was vile, and the verbal implications were full of wickedness. In short, the play was utterly foul. What was almost just as shocking was the number of people who laughed at this wickedness! How could the crowd find humor in something so obviously evil?

(By-the-way, Mom and I left during intermission and went to the Bible Bookstore—which was having a sale.)

I was shocked! I’ve heard profanity before, but never anything as concentrated or foul as I heard that day. Ever since that play, I have been extremely sensitive to any swearing I hear: be it a casual passer-by at school, or in a song at the grocery store. I physically cringe when I hear it now.

A second “culture shock” episode happened at work. I was tutoring two girls who were prepping for their English final, when one of the girls stopped, looked at me, and said something about my appearance that I assume she thought was a compliment. I’m not well versed in popular slang, so being unsure as to exactly what she said (it sounded like a compliment), I responded: “Thanks—I think. But that’s off topic, so lets get back to how to write a thesis….” It wasn’t until I got home—and googled the word she’d used—that I fully realized what she’d said. That was her definition of a compliment? I was extremely disturbed and offended!

But should I really expect anything other than twisted thinking and speech from this world? They are blinded by the god of this age, and the depravity of their own hearts.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
- Jer 17:9

It’s only by God’s grace that I am not saying and thinking the same things they are. I am so thankful that God, in His mercy, reached down and plucked me out of my sin, replaced my heart of stone with a heart of flesh, and continues to grow and shape me into the likeness of His character.

To end on a lighthearted note, I want to share a genuine cultural “boo-boo” that took place at work about three weeks ago. I’m not joking!

I was wrapping up a tutoring session with an ESL student, when he turned to me and said he’d seen me before. “Really?” I responded. (I didn’t recognize him). He went on to say that I had come to his class and given a speech for the Writing Center. I mentioned that it must have been several semesters ago because I hadn’t done that recently. He replied:

“Yeah. You were kind of fat then, but you’ve got skinnied now. What did you do: start working out?”

You just gotta love those ESL students!

Next time: God’s grace in the gospel.