Becoming All Things

A few days ago, I saw this video of a white girl and a Ugandan boy dancing together surrounded by other Ugandan children watching them. The story behind how this occurred differs. Some think the girl, who is a dancer, taught the boy the dance. Others say that the boy taught the girl his culture's dance. Personally, I believe the second story based on her past talent in dancing and the music sounding foreign to me.

Regardless of who taught who, when I watched it the first time, I replayed it like five times beaming with a huge grin thinking, "Wow! That is beautiful!" I saw two cultures coming together as one. I saw differences embracing one another. I saw joy being shared between black and white smiling faces. I saw beauty within diversity.

Yes, I said a trigger word for some people: DIVERSITY. That is a topic I have had the privilege of learning a lot about over the last few years (and, just to be clear, I am far from perfection in this area!). You see, I grew up in a back ground of primarily white, middle class, Christian individuals. Nothing was wrong with this except it gave me a false idea of what the Bible said about the church and what Heaven will look like one day.

So, when did I start realizing that Christianity was for every tongue and every nation (Revelations 5:9)? That would be on my first mission trip to Costa Rica. While there, I bonded with the people there, despite my broken and limited Spanish. I saw that there was an element that bonds people without even speaking. Love.

"If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal...Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away...And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." - 1 Corinthians 13:1,8,13

It was in Costa Rica that I felt God's calling in my life to be a missionary for the nations. After Costa Rica, I had three more opportunities during high school to go share the good news of Jesus on international mission trips (twice in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti and once in Mazatlán, Mexico) and several local opportunities like volunteering at No Limits Academy with children with cerebral palsy and attending Faith Fellowship Church's Mission Is Possible summer event.

When I came to UF my freshman year, God began to further open my eyes to see the beauty within diversity. I had several international teammates on my distance team, and I took the initial step of becoming their friend. To be honest, I became closer friends with them than most of my American teammates, but I loved getting to know them because there was uniqueness. They taught me their culture, their language, and their beliefs, and I listened and embraced it. I would even type and speak their language just to show them that I genuinely cared and desired to know them on their level.

A couple of months after befriending several of them, my oldest sister Mandy sent me a letter. In it, she wrote about how excited she was for me, but she wrote a couple of sentences that bewildered me:

"I know you will be salt and light to those around you and am praying for opportunities for you to share your hope with those around you! Keep a special eye out for international students! Such a unique opportunity to love on 'the stranger in your midst' (Leviticus 19:33-34)."

Did she know that I would have so many opportunities to lover international students here? Maybe, but, whether she did or not, Jesus knew!

I am a firm believer that God loves diversity and desires for us to embrace it here on earth as it will be in Heaven. What does that mean? It means I have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. It means I have to lose myself to gain more of God and others (Matthew 10:39). It means I must become less so that He can become more (John 3:30). But what does that actually, physically look like???

A couple of days ago, my mom shared this passage with me:

"Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings." - 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.

I read this passage and felt the gravity of what Paul was saying. He wasn't saying that he had forgotten who he was both in himself and in Christ; rather, he was saying that he set aside who he was in hopes to gain more siblings in Christ by stepping into their shoes. What's that old Indian proverb? Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins!

We, as servants of The LORD, should not expect others to come to us asking for Jesus until we step out of our comforts and enter into their life, their culture, their home, their heart. That is why Jesus tells us to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:18-20). We are to go in a spirit of humility and submission.

Again, if this is a new concept to you, then I can understand you wondering how this would look in our day to day lives. Let me share with you some testimonies, both my own and other's.

In a previous blog, I shared a story about a little girl named Grace. Her and her mother are Chinese, and they were temporarily in Gainesville because Grace's mother, Wendy, was studying at the university. After Grace had given me her sweet note with her home address, I visited their place and left my own note with my apartment address and my cell number.

Honestly, I felt uncomfortable. I thought to myself, "This is weird. I would never do this with a random American I just met. Why am I willing to give a foreigner my address?" Despite my worrying, I still placed my note outside their apartment door and returned home unsure of what would happen next.

Grace texted me through Wendy's phone and later placed a new note at my apartment while I was at class. I cannot begin to tell you how happy I was when my roommate presented the note she found outside our door earlier that morning.

Last December, we set a date for Grace and Wendy to come over to my apartment to make Christmas cookies (something they have never done). I was nervous opening my home to them, but I knew God had orchestrated our meeting and He was still working within this time of fellowship. When they came, they gave me a gift, an good fortune ornament with their town's name written on it in Chinese characters. I loved it!

While Grace and I decorated the cookies, Wendy shared insight with me on their culture, how they have enjoyed going to an international church here in Gainesville, and what her opinions on life were. I mainly listened to her and asked questions of clarification when needed. When they left, I felt blessed to have gotten to know their lives and to share my own.

My friends, Grace and Wendy, returned to China last February, but I still get random texts from them like a picture of Grace with her classmates. They have also told me that I am welcome to stay with them if I ever visit China. I might take them up on that offer one day, Lord willing!...

Before the spring break P4H Global impact trip, we had several team meetings to prepare us for our time in Haiti. During one of these meetings, we were practicing introducing ourselves during church, and I and a Haitian team member named Pascal volunteered to demonstrate. They asked me to introduce myself in Creole, and I did like I would in English.

Pascal stopped me, "No, no, no! You can't do it quietly and blandly like you would in America. You have to be loud and animated! You have to be like, 'Hello! My name is Emily, and Jesus loves you!!!"

I stood there and made a bold choice. I belted, "BONJOU!! MWEN RELE EMILY! JEZI RENMEN OU!!" Everyone was laughing and clapping with delight.

Pascal and I laughed, and she told me with a huge smile and hug, "Exactly! Well done!!"

While in Haiti, our team visited Pastor Isaac's church, and our leaders told us that all the girls had to cover their hair. The evening before, I was with a few girls, and someone brought up the topic. I asked, "If we believe there is freedom to not care about what we wear in church, shouldn't we not wear a head covering tomorrow?"

One of my sisters there graciously replied, "Yes, we know there is freedom, but it is not our place to change their traditions. We are guests. It should be the congregation and leaders of the church who bring freedom in this area. However, we are to cover our heads and honor them."

I appreciated these words my sister in Christ shared with me, especially in light of what 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 says. While in Haiti, it was my Christian duty to become as Haitian as humanly possible. That includes learning the language, the culture, the history, and even obeying dress codes in church...

In Caleb Kaltenbach's book Messy Grace, he shares several personally stories and Biblical stories demonstrating how Christians should show love to those identifying as LGBTQ+. He encourages Christians to love them, to hang out with them, to learn from them, to hug them, to be real and honest with them. He calls us to be willing to get our hands dirty and to love without fear of what others think if they see us with this group of beautiful, yet broken, hearts.

I know this is another topic some Christians are uncomfortable talking about, but I do not think the church should not avoid it any longer. Personally, I do hang out with people who take pride in gay pride. Why? Because I am called to love everyone wherever they are at. Also, I have seen how this group of people has been persecuted by society, even by some Christians.

Some of my gay friends have shared with me how people in the name of Christianity have spewed hatred towards them, and my heart hurts for them. I pray that I would not add to their pain, that I would show them love and truth, and that I would love radically through the Spirit. Yet, this radical love starts with me being present in their life, in their homes, in their story. Again, as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 9, "I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some."...

In Matthew 9:9-12, we see Jesus meeting Matthew, a tax collector, a thief, a traitor. Jesus does not tell him to go to hell for His sins. Rather, Jesus tells Matthew to follow Him and then throws a party with Matthew and all his tax collecting buddies and many other sinners. The religious leaders, the perfect law-abiding ones, complained to Jesus' disciples that this act was disgraceful.

Jesus overheard them and replied with these perfectly loving words, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." Jesus was not interested in hanging out with the perfect; He was searching for the lost, the brokenhearted, the imperfect souls that needed a true friend...

My last example will be with my Danish friend. After the first summer I stayed with her, she told me something in her manga-tak-og-ses (thank you so much and see you later) letter that is still to this day one of my favorite compliments: "Your kindness, open mind, understanding, and wonderful character made me realize that you are not American. You are international."

In context, she was not saying that Americans are terrible people. No, she was saying that I did not live as an American while with her in Denmark. I strived to live like a Dane, to understand the language and culture, and to communicate love to the people in a way they understood. I became a Dane (as she called me, "the Dane who did not speak Danish") in hopes to share Christ's hope and love with her and many others.

Those are just a few examples, but I think you get the picture. There is beauty within the diverse church of Christ. If you want to begin seeing this beauty, you have to make the choice of putting aside yourself and becoming all things other than yourself.

I actually have one more example for you, the best example of all. Have you ever considered what Jesus did for us?? Yes, he died for our sins and defeated death by rising from the grave (Romans 4:25). However, he did something else when he first enter this world as a child. He set aside His royalty and became a helpless, fragile human. Why? In hopes to bring many back to His (our) Heavenly Father. If Jesus was willing to become human for our sake, we can/should be willing to become all things for humanity too.

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." - 1 John 3:16