Its official...I am now a cultured young man. I have been to New York City, and I have flown on a plane! The City was amazing! Never have I ever seen so many different people in such a small space. There were New Yorkers, Europeans, Asian, Hispanics, and Africans. There were poor people and rich people. The reason I went to New York was for a class that taught us how to exegete the city. Basically, we learned how to observe, understand, and adapt to different cultures, specifically those found in large cities.
Not only did I learn about exegesis, I would say that I learned 3 important facts about New York city:
1) I am not skinny enough to live there. Everyone is soo tiny! I once heard a statistic that 67% of Americans are overweight. The 33% that aren't overweight seem to all live in NYC. But there are reasons for this. People walk everywhere! Not everyone owns a car, so they rely very heavily upon the Subway and Bus transportation. This often involves walking a long way just to get to the Subway Station and places of living and work.
2) I am not beautiful enough. Now I'm not trying to play the pity party by saying I am an ugly dude. I am just saying that New York City is a place full of beautiful people! Of course, there are 8 1/2 million people who live there so there is a greater chance for more attractive people, but I still NYC has a higher attractive rate among its inhabitants.
3) I can pass gas in public, and no one will ever know. The city is a loud place, so no one can hear it. And it doesn't have most pleasing aroma either, so anyone can get away with the occasional passing of gas. (However, I give one warning: Do not do this on a subway.)
But on a Serious Note, I really did learn a lot of amazing things while I was in the Big City. Probably the most influential, life-shaking truth that I did come to learn is the fact that God is the God of all peoples. For as long as I can remember, I have always had this mentality that God belongs in this certain socio-economic style church...and of course this church is in the Midwest. One night while I was in NYC, our group went to a church called The Brooklyn Tabernacle. It was definitely not the socio-economic climate I was used to. There were black people from all over the world worshiping together. Mixed in were Hispanics and a few white people. But as I was singing, I realized that there was only one race...Christian. Just like when Adam and Eve realized their nakedness and shame after they had taken a bite from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, my eyes were immediately opened to my parochialism (this is a word I learned that week...it means a narrow way of thinking) and shame. My entire life I thought God was my God...basically, God was a God for middle-class white people. And I am going into ministry so that I might share MY God with people who were less privileged than myself. But when I entered through the doors of that church in Brooklyn, NY, those people shared their God with me. People were praying with eachother and praising God in the midst of their troubles. They sang to God with such vigor and passion that I had never seen before. They literally repeated the same chorus over and over again, but you would have thought that they were singing it for the very first time.
Shame on me....shame on me for ever thinking so arrogantly in myself and erroneously about the LORD. God is Lord for all peoples everywhere, and I, by the grace of God, have been chosen to take that message to those people.
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