Late nite musings

As is usually the case, nights in Korea have a way of bringing out the surreal and abstract. It also narrows in on feelings and emotions that are usually sub-surface.

To preface this post, let me paint a little background. I've been working night shift for the past 2 weeks. Twelve hour night shifts to be exact. So now that the work part is over, my body is still very much on night shift. So now I'm here, awake, and I'm just reading through various expatriate blogs of foreigners' opinions and experiences in South Korea. Unique reading indeed.

So, with that as the physiological backdrop, let me express some thoughts...and be warned, there are no filters.

I have a very weird relationship with Korea. Initially, it seemed to represent a lot of freedom for me. But as I learned more about it, I also discovered ways in which I hated it for the bondage that it represents in me. It has been a constant tug between these two ever since.

Until I met my amazing wife, I often looked to Korea as a big pinnacle point for me for the most part. But even in trying to assimilate Korean culture (learning the language, opening myself to the culture, etc.) I discovered some of the EXACT same fundamental frustrations that I experience with American culture, just with a completely different twist. Every culture has them. Every culture is in bondage to these problems.

However for the most part, these frustrations would easily be overlooked because of the good experiences and memories that I have of trying to be a part of a different culture. I even thought that I would surely meet a Korean girl that I would hit it off with and marry.

Oh, how foolish we can be!


I now see the moment I met Christine as being the second major defining moment, and certainly the most important moment in my growth over the last several years.

When Christine entered the picture, I suddenly had a woman that was ridiculously attractive, intelligent, and everything that I wanted in a woman...regardless of what culture she was from.
But what made it especially interesting was that she turned the cards on me in one particularly powerful way:

Christine is half Chinese. It gives her a physical beauty that is unmatched by any other in my book, and a family background that is destined to be interesting for the rest of our lives.
Her Chinese heritage represents mixed emotions in her life. While she certainly appreciates on some levels that she is part Chinese, there is also parts of her that are really reserved on the topic, and for good reason.

So suddenly, instead of being able to approach her within the context of me wanting to study a "new culture" that I'm excited about learning, I must actually put off my selfish desire to "prove my worth" in learning the culture in order to address who SHE is.

Let's make it clearer.
My desire to learn and love other cultures is wholesome. My motivation...WHY I wanted to learn it, was selfish.
There was a deficiency in me that I was trying to fill by proving that I was "able" to assimilate a new culture that was very different than my own.
This has powerful implications for me, and really for anyone who is trying to make sense of how to love ALL neighbors that we have been put in contact with.

I was already plainly attracted to Christine in all respects. But the fact that she was part Chinese just happened to play into my selfishness in a way that needed to be addressed.

As I daily studied her and learned more about this person that I am crazy about, I started to see where these notions that I had about impressing her by assimilating her culture were really getting in the way of loving her and treating her with the respect that I wanted so desparately to give her.

I began to see that our common ground was between our souls. It was in how we communicated. It was in how we loved one another and then expressed that love to others. It was in how we wanted to live our lives, and what things we considered to be important pursuits.
I stopped trying to find our common ground in "old things", and I began to invest "new things" into our relationship.

Marriage was the only choice. There were no questions. Christine Alison Hu was who I desparately needed to be with, and no one else.

Now, while I certainly want the foreground issue to be this romance, I want to take a moment to address the back burner issue:

Culture is temporal.

Beautiful? Sure
Complex? Absolutely
Interesting? Without a doubt...

...but its temporal.

In other words, with my worldview of who Christ is and how He relates to us, I would say that culture is NOT something that we should be investing our time and energy into.

"But...!" you say.
"Steve, culture is so tied with language and EVERYONE is part of a culture....there is NO WAY to ignore culture!"

And my answer to you would be this:

In order for culture to be truly appreciated, it MUST be submitted to things that are NOT temporary. It MUST be submitted to love.
Any other configuration will cause division, strife, bias, and ultimately death.

All things that are temporary must come into submission to who Jesus is.


And now I'm tired.

...To Be Continued