Where do you go to get perspective when you don’t understand your circumstances or what is happening in your life? I take James 1:5-8[1] at face value and get on my knees. If I am willing to stay there until God answers, he usually does… just never quickly. He wants to make sure I really need to know. In the process, I gain confidence that he cares and that he will answer. Certainly, we want our international student friends to have the same joy and confidence as they come to know Christ personally and learn to follow him prayerfully.
 
At times, however, the Lord desires us to seek perspective from others in the body of Christ—pastors, elders, teachers, counselors, older friends and peers—or possibly from non-believers. Sometimes the question we have requires specialized expertise like from a physician, accountant, or lawyer. Proverbs 15:22 NLT reminds us that “Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many counselors bring success.”
 
Put yourselves in the shoes of an international student newly here. Who do they ask for help or perspective—especially if the question is a heart issue or deep sadness? Who can they trust? How much will help cost? The unknowns are paralyzing for that student. We desire to be the kind of friend that student will feel free to come to and ask.
 
But wait… before helping that student, do YOU have friends you can go to and ask anything of: deep issues, hurtful issues, or sin issues? Those kinds of friends, mentors, and counselors have to be developed over time. Some people are more fortunate than others and have people in their world who they naturally feel close enough to and can go to any time. But most of us have to develop those kinds of relationships. It takes time. We must learn that these special people really care, will take the time for us, will listen without making judgments, will sufficiently know God’s Word to be a real help, and are willing to speak into our lives regarding some of the hard issues.
 
Seeking to develop these kinds of relationships in our lives will not always be easy. People will let us down, hurt us by acts of commission and omission, and we will have to deal with that through grace and personal forgiveness. But it is worth it! We need these kinds of people in our lives!
 
Accountability partners can sometimes serve more than one function for us. Prayer partners can also. Mentors and counselors can help with perspective. Life coaches can use questions to give us insight into our own thinking. Best friends can be a help, and others have a reputation for listening well (e.g., cab drivers and hair dressers). Self-help groups which focus on specific issues (e.g., grief, job loss, or difficult children) give us access to folks who have gone through what we are facing. The people who know us the best are our spouse and our parents. Often these get overlooked as sources of perspective and counsel. They sometimes tell us things we wished we had not heard just because they do know us so well!
 
It is said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Therefore, time spent in study of the scriptures, in memorization, and in meditatation on them when the going is good is worth the investment for when times are tough. II Timothy 3:16-17 NLT reminds us that “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God's way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.”
 
The bottom line here is Jesus first… all others second… when we need perspective and guidance. We need it… and we need to teach it to the international students we hold dear.
 
Principles cited in this blog: We need Jesus for counsel and comfort, but we also need people we can go to for perspective, hearing us out, and providing wise counsel. Time spent meditating on God’s Word prepares us for difficult times. It takes time and intentionality to develop the depth in relationships for them to be there when we need them.
 
Application for ISI ministry: The students we care so much about need to learn these things from our example and our teaching. Much of this may be more caught than taught.
 
Next blog topic:  Transculturalism
Doug Shaw with Derrah Jackson


[1] “If you need wisdom - if you want to know what God wants you to do - ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent you’re asking. But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. They can't make up their minds. They waver back and forth in everything they do.
(James 1:5-8 NLT)
 

Being involved with international students, we frequently use the word “worldview” in our vernacular. The word engulfs the totality of a person’s and his or her culture’s values, beliefs, traditions, religion, identity, philosophy, and assumptions about all that is around them. It answers the large questions in life about who we are, how we got here, why we are here, and what we should do in various situations.
 
Most of worldview is “caught” rather than “taught.” This means that it is part of our acculturation [1] as we are steeped in our own culture. Because of that, we rarely think about our worldview until it is challenged or until we encounter another culture with a different worldview. Viewing our own culture in light of others makes us stop and compare. When we see a difference, we realize we have to make a judgment about it.
 
For most of us, in light of culture, things that are different than what we are used to or things that we don’t understand are typically classified as “bad,” and they might even make us angry. When this happens, we might think that people holding to a view different from our own must be either crazy or evil. In reality, we might think this way simply because we don’t understand the foreign culture. Learning to work and minister cross-culturally requires learning to suspend judgments and seeking to understand at a deeper level. We seek to understand the person’s worldview so as to be able to interpret what was said or done within that context (instead of comparing it within our own worldview context). 
 
Many of us born before 1960 grew up with a Christian worldview as it was the dominant worldview at the time in the U.S.—even among non-Christians. It was simply the culture of the time, and everyone was raised in it. However, today in the U.S. there are many worldviews competing for one’s attention. “Postmodernism” asserts there is no objective truth and moral standard, only opinions. “Moralistic therapeutic deism” is predominant in U.S. culture today and teaches that God just wants us to be kind to each other and for us to be happy. God might answer a prayer or two here or there. “Secularism” asserts there is no God, and we are little more than animals conditioned by circumstances to behave one way or another. “Pluralism” assumes all religions are equally valid perspectives on the ultimate reality; none can be exclusive. The traditional religions—Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and the like—can also be worldviews when one grows up in cultures that abide by these religions.
 
As Christians, we have the transcultural Word of God which asserts to be truth in every aspect it teaches for all humans at all times. Because God created us and understands all cultures at all times, He is able to speak truth into our hearts and minds at any time. As believers, God has given us his Spirit to reside inside of each of us to give us the wisdom and discernment we need for whatever he sends our way. The Scriptures assert, “And now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people.” (Eph. 1:13-14a NLT)
 
Because of the Spirit’s presence, we have the ability to discern truth from error. “So I want you to know how to discern what is truly from God: No one speaking by the Spirit of God can curse Jesus, and no one is able to say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.” (I Cor. 12:3 NLT)
 
Truth is a critical part of a Christian worldview. Our enemy seeks to blind people’s eyes from the truth so that they will not draw near to their Creator. However, when we focus on the common elements of two different worldviews, we find as humans that we have much in common. These commonalities may sometimes be used to build bridges of understanding between two people with apparently radically different worldviews.
 
For help in building those bridges of understanding, consider ordering from the online store one of many booklets on building a friendship with an international student or how to share Christ with them. Go to http://store.isionline.org/categories/Booklets/ and download one or more of the PDF documents.
 
Principles cited in this blog: Worldview is an important concept in cross-cultural ministry and understanding it allows us avoid the rush to judgment when we encounter differences; knowing something of worldviews other than my own helps me to know mine better.
 
Application for ISI ministry: Often we have more in common with another worldview than we realize and seeking those common values helps build a heart-bridge to the other person.
 
Next blog topic:  Perspective
Doug Shaw with Derrah Jackson


[1] cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture