I’ve been thinking about the limitations we accept in our lives.
It came up again in conversation tonight. I’m not sure how we got there, but we ended up talking about how culture affects what we accept. How in so many ways, the culture we live in sets the limitations and expectations of our lives. It can be the culture of our society or the culture of our church. It either frees us or binds us depending on the situation.
Last week we ended up spending one night in Spokane, WA. I’ve been looking for a knife that I can take on my Kilimanjaro trip and thought I might find one at a place called ‘The White Elephant’. When I walked into this super surplus clearance store for all things outdoors, I was immediately reminded that I wasn’t in Canada. A long counter and one huge aisle were devoted to guns, particularly handguns and holsters. Not going to see that in Canada.
Now depending on where you were brought up, you may think carrying a gun is a God-given right or a retreat into barbarianism. Either way, you are likely more influenced by your culture than anything else. In Canada we conclude that someone carrying a handgun is either a police officer or a criminal. In America, it’s just someone on their way to work.
My friend, Dave Spell, as equally bible-believing as I am has an entirely different view on guns than I do. He’s a cop and a theologian who thinks an appropriate birthday present for his daughters is a new handgun. He has written a whole blog series on should I get a gun? His thinking is probably as reflective of his culture as my thinking is of mine. Same would go for health care and possibly a number of other issues.
The point is, we are all more defined by our culture than we realize. At least I think so.
The thing is, our preconceptions, our assumptions, and our culture are probably keeping us running through the maze when we could have jumped the wall.
A few years ago I was at a training program that involved an exercise where our group had to move along a rope while blindfolded. I don’t remember all the rules but I do remember that we made some assumptions that were not true. We assumed we could not take our hands off of the rope and as a result we didn’t complete the assignment. Basically our assumptions limited us.
I’m really interested in knowing what things you recognize about your culture that have limited you. How did you recognize them? I think the more we find out about our culture, the more we can grow beyond our limitations. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
