Judge not, lest you be.......? pt. 1

Street Scenes:

*a guy walks by, both arms in full tattoo sleeves
*girl in her 20's with a face full of metal
*young dreaded guy runs by, holding on to his saggy pants so they don't fall down
*young woman goes by in an extremely low cut dress- all eyes turn to her
*middle aged woman with slovenly appearance wanders by
*mother stands on the side of the street screaming profanities at her toddler
*three middle eastern men in turbans stroll down the street
*young, effeminate man stops to talk, sounding more female than male

What's the first thought that pops into your head for each of these scenes? Be honest.

"Do you know how long it takes a person to make a judgement when first meeting or seeing someone? How quickly does the average American determine whether there is a possiblity of a friendship between himself and the other person? Thirty seconds? A minute? Five minutes? How long?

According to a study of Americans, it took the average person between 2.4 and 4.6 seconds to decide if there was potential for a relationship.  As a result, we categorize people very quickly, and once categorized, we close our minds about them." *As a note, this happens unconsciously. We're not standing there trying to decide if we want that person to be our friend, or not.

So now, having read all of that, go back up to the top, to the list of people. These are not made up people. They're people that I observed while sitting at a coffee shop reading this afternoon. As I was reading the chapter in "Cross- Cultural Servanthood" that deals with Acceptance and Communicating Respect for Others, the author suggested that I try a test to demonstrate how quickly we judge others. And almost instantly, I understood the message he was trying to get across. Those that met my acceptance and approval based on their clothing, mannerisms, etc., I responded to in a different way than those mentioned above. And though I would be willing to talk to every single one in the above list, I had already judged them without knowing anything about them other than what I had observed in a split second. Now take this unconsious judging that is inside each one of us and take it to the mission field, where not only do we judge, but we judge in an even more uninformed way, because we, as foreigners, aren't from that culture and just don't "get it". Can you see how we can easily run into some big problems in communication?

"Cross- Cultural Servanthood, Serving the World in Christlike Humility", by Duane Elmer, is what I'm reading at the moment, and I'm pretty sure that it's going to go on the list of "must reads" for any missionary or person on their way to the field who might ask for my reading recommendations. Wow. It's already totally convicted me and opened my eyes more to the ways that we Americans go tromping in to foreign countries wielding our "superior knowledge" and ready to educate everyone on the "best way" for things to be done.

And that, folks, was just your intro. I'm pretty excited about this book. Stay tuned for more!