For almost two weeks, I've been adventuring down in the South and it's been quite an eye-opening experience. Sitting in the car with my friend Sarah before we left her driveway, it didn't hit me that we were going to be traveling over 2000 miles to what was almost another country.
When we drove into Virginia, things started to get more spread out. There were cows everywhere, well that and crosses. Many places had three crosses, some were as tall as skyscrapers while others were nothing more than tree limbs tied together. Not exactly sure what the significance was, but it was a clear sign to me that we were in the Bible belt.
Tennessee had to have been the biggest revelation of what the South was. While we were on a self-guided tour to UTenn, there was a place nicknamed Religion Road. Not because there were a multitude of religious organizations but there were different denominations. Each had their own building, a small home that could have housed a family or three; there was a kitchen, a worship area, and even a living room for students to get together. It was culture shock, that's for sure.
People watching is a great way to learn about a culture you're not used to. While we made a pit stop for gas. As I looked out the car window, I was able to make some observations: a teenage couple walking out of the store with mom behind them, a teenage boy with a wife-beater (and to be blunt, looking like a typical southern boy) talking to his friends filling up at another part of the station. Meanwhile his grandfather shouted over to him something of the equivalency of "don't walk away when your car's being gassed up". To my right was a woman who was trying to calm down her lap dog, who apparently thought that I was a threat. All of this was in good ol' fashioned southern talk.
As soon as I got to MS, there was no turning back. Confederate flag driver's plates, a brief comment about the "Northern Aggression", and every restaurant serves frog legs and sweet tea. The first two things are a laugh compared to what the food is. DELISH!!!!
Yesterday we went to New Orleans. Visited the French Quarter, took pictures in Jackson Square and ate beignets while drinking cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde. Need I say more? It was the Cajun experience I've been waiting for.
In two days, I'm going to
attend my first southern wedding. I've been told to expect not a lot of
dancing at southern weddings, it's more a social gathering of chatting
and less tangoing, however, this theme to this reception is "dance the
night away". I'm looking forward to a good time.
This past Sunday was another experience, listening to the sermon at a southern Baptist church. The sermon was about Colossians 2:16-19,
"Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow."Rules are a good thing, however, as we are human and prone to overuse, legalism can set in. As Christians, we have a duty to walk a tightrope without looking to the left or right. Satan tempts us with beliefs of a better life apart from Christ. Job, lifestyle, loved ones, 401K, fashion, "keeping up with the Joneses", etc. Paraphrasing what Paul said in another part of the New Testament, anything that can be beneficial isn't always good for us. It requires self-control, something that by human nature we reject and have been rejecting ever since the Garden of Eden.
What we all face in life is how to apply reading what the Bible says into practical application. While we may not know what is going on in people's personal lives, we each can be beacons of light to others who may be suffering battles. It takes courage to talk to others about things that make us uncomfortable, the question is what will we do with opportunities that God lay before us?
