"If I Had Been Raised In A Different Culture..."

For my final semester I am taking Cultural Anthropology as my final elective.
It's a great class.
Part of the reason I am taking this class (as opposed to any other elective class that was offered) is my deep desire to learn more about the world around me. I live a very diverse neighborhood and this just fuels my desire to try to understand the people that represent lands foreign to me.
Some people eat bugs. But most people in the United States would probably avoid eating bugs.
I have chosen whom I am going to marry. Others come into a fixed marriage.
I chose to follow what Christianity teaches (to the best of my ability).
The question was raised about what would have happened if I were raised in a different culture.
What if I were raised in India?
The climate is different.
The culture is different.
But what about God?
Would I have been raised in a Hindu home?
Lets say that I had.
India is home to many religions and spiritual traditions.
I believe that if God wanted me to find him and the direction he would have wanted me to go in.
If I am to assume that a monotheistic religion is the right way then I assume that two of the most prominent monotheistic religions in the area I would have been drawn to either Islam or Christianity.
Many may doubt this. Many people say that if I were raised Hindu I wouldn't stray from Hindu culture.
But God lead me to where I am now.
I was raised to believe that the Catholic Church was almost all wrong. Nonetheless I was drawn to the Catholic Church.
Is there a perfect church? Not necessarily. But I finally feel at peace when I go to church (for the most part).
God never said life would be easy.
But he did promise to get us through it.
So no matter what God is always with us.
No matter where you're from God's reach is endless and eternal.  

"Give It Up For Jesus"

While Jesus was gathering his disciples he often asked them to give up their lives to follow him.
Peter was a fisherman. Matthew was a tax collector. Mary Magdalene was a prostitute.
There was a time when a man who was wealthy asked what he had to do to follow Jesus.
Jesus told the young man that he had to give up his riches. The man walked away sad because he wasn't ready to give his possessions.
Many of us have given up our preconceived notions about what God really stands for. I personally had to give up on prejudice toward gays and even The Catholic Church.
Maybe you had or have an idea about what God has called you to do only to realize God's plan may be vastly different than yours.
Maybe God is calling you to leave behind a group of friends that lead you to sin.
The ultimate desire of God for us is to repent and turn our backs from sin.
For God leads us not to temptation.
    

"Horror at the Checkout Counter"

    I'm used to seeing trashy things on the magazine rack at the checkout counter. Most of which involve celebrity gossip and bad airbrushing to make some of those celebrities look awful.
    Then the other day I came face to face with the cover of the latest issue of Cosmopolitan.
     The headline was, 52 Holy S**T Sex Moves.
    I was shocked. It wasn't because the article was talking about sex so much as the language they used.
    Pairing the word holy with a dirty word  is bad enough but when you (and children) see it right in front of them makes me scratch my head as once again shocked at just how low society goes when considering their marketing choices.
    Everywhere I go and on nearly every channel I see things that I find shocking and immoral.
     As a new year came  at midnight last night may I suggest a resolution for all of us?
   When we see something like swearing and sexual content on magazine racks or on TV for that matter perhaps we can send a message to the ad department or whomever is in charge of what we're seeing on TV.     But maybe the most powerful thing we can do is pray.
     We can pray that despite the decay of morality in this world that especially when it comes to our children we can ask that The Lord will protect our children from what is being thrown at them at the speed of a bullet from a gun.
     We can teach our children the true meaning of the word Holy. Lets define the word Holy.
Looking at my Thesaurus some synonyms include: blessed, clean, divine, godly.
      Webster's College Dictionary says: related to, belonging to, or coming from a divine being or power.
 So when raising children aren't the meanings of the word holy be something we should model and have our kids aspire to?
     The Lord says be holy as I am Holy. Holiness comes with action in which we do all we can to imitate the character of God.
 It is to rise above our sinful human nature and to be a light in a world of darkness.