Oh how they would stare.
Over the summer, I was tremendously blessed when I was given the opportunity to travel to Japan. Before I even departed, many people told me that I would look different - that people would know that I am "gaijin," or a foreigner. I figured that I would look different, but little did I know just HOW different I would appear.
In Japan, there were several occasions in which children would just stare. And stare. And stare... One girl stood on the sidewalk across from us and just stared for at least three minutes; the stares came again when a boy at the train station stared with his mouth agape; children going to school took a double-take when they saw us on the street.
Oh how they would stare.
The act of staring being rude is not an American cultural idiosyncrasy - it's rude in Japan, too. But their manners were immediately overridden by the curiosity swirling in their minds, "You look sort of Japanese. But then again, you sort of don't," "You look Japanese, but you dress funny," "You have a Japanese last name, but you speak English and not-so-great Japanese," "You're different."
1 Peter 2:11-12 - "Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives amongst the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us."
I am an obvious outsider to Japan, but when I take a panorama of the larger scheme of things, I realize that I am not only a foreigner to people geographically, but also spiritually. The calling I have to live a life set apart, holy, from others is so great that those around me shouldn't be able to help but stare. "Your life looks sort of like mine. But then again, it sort of doesn't," "You look like everyone else, but you dress funny," "You speak like others, but you don't use the same words or tone," "You're different."
And that difference is what effects all the difference. So bring on the stares because they just might see something more than you.
How will you be a foreigner today?
