Where am I from?

During my last visit home (North Carolina) I was struck by just how much living in Canada for the past 11 years has shaped my thinking. As I interacted with family and friends I realized that I have begun to think more like a Canadian and less like an American. Perhaps the biggest surprise was to see that I had ever thought like an American. We don't realize how much the culture we live in shapes the way we think, feel, and act. Different cultures hold different ideals. They allow the freedom to question other cultures but are very slow to question their own. So now I seem to be more Canadian than American in the way I think. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all that I have been given from the US. But I have to admit that I think differently now.

This all has big implications when I reflect on Hebrews 11, especially verse 13-16. "...All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."

My ultimate reality is that I am neither American or Canadian, I am a citizen of the Kingdom of God. I am a stranger and an alien living here in British Columbia. And if the Spirit is at work in my life I should be experiencing a shift in thinking. What the Kingdom of God values should be increasingly more important to me. That's where it all comes to a head. Followers of Jesus are from another world. We should think and act differently. We should be able to question the cultures we live in from heaven's perspective. May God help us all to live as though we are longing for "...a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."