Plus grand que vous.

Growing up has been a pretty amazing experience for me. I have been surrounded by the rich and elite, middle class, and less fortunate. I have lived in New England and the South East. I have experienced life on the West Coast, Europe, and Asia. My first memory was riding a donkey in Greece at the age of 1. I spent the first two years of grade school in Tokyo, Japan. I had my 7^th birthday in Hong Kong. (I had cake with whole strawberries in it…. Yuk!) I have walked on tropical beaches next to armed guards with Uzi’s. I have been to countries that you can no longer travel to safely. I have had friends growing up that were Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, gay, and every nationality you can think of.

What I really treasure from my childhood is the attitude that it afforded me. I feel so blessed to be where I am. Even at my poorest moments in life, I always knew I was so lucky compared to the cities I’ve been to in Thailand for example. Further more, I’ve always felt that Americans are so isolated geographically and it is so easy to become disconnected from the world around us. I’ve learned so much from all the different cultures, people, and experiences I’ve been around, and it has really shaped the person I am now.

As a Christian, I’ve evolved this cultural philosophy into my faith and view of God. I realized it was pretty vain to assume that the American Protestant Christianity was God’s intended purpose all along. When you realize that African Christianity is so different from South American Indian Christianity, and both are so different from our own, you have to ask yourself “which one is God in?” The obvious answer is all of them. I have learned that the more you get out into the world and the more you step outside of your sphere of influence, the more you learn how big God really is. I think it is vital to bring different styles and cultures into our knowledge base so that we never become victims of a limited vision of God and never fall into the trap of believing that our way is “the best and only way”.