Understanding Timing from a Cultural Perspective
I don't know if you've ever heard anyone say "we are operating on African time today." That basic phrase is uttered thousands of times daily, albeit with various cultures inserted into the sentence. It could be African time, Puerto Rican time, Mexican time, etc. These statements most often made by people who grew up as a minority in America or are visiting/immigrants to America, represent the growing awareness that different cultures operate on a different sense of urgency regarding timing. Minorities recognize it and most Caucasian Americans who are lucky enough to have friends from other cultures recognize it too.
Here's the challenge for most people. We typically like to assign a hierarchy or state that one way of doing things is better than the other. This is what anthropologists call, ethnocentrism. It is a $5 word that simply means, the way my culture does things is the best. For the most part, every culture thinks their way of doing things is the best way to do it. Otherwise, you would change the way you do things. Most people groups, once they recognize that something is inefficient or is not satisfying the needs of the masses change things. No one is sitting around thinking to themselves that the way they do things is broken and they love it that way! So when two cultures are brought face to face and differences emerge, most people will try to say that the other group is not doing it correctly or efficiently or the right way. I use the language of efficiency, because I am from the Caucasian culture in America, where efficiency is a high priority for the most part. We like things to be done quickly and correctly. Get in and get out. That is not typically the highest priority for other cultures. Other cultures then to be much more relationally invested. Accomplishing the task is not nearly as important as greeting people and talking with people along the way. Or perhaps the value is the lack of stress. If efficiency is stress inducing, then by all means do whatever it takes to not feel stressed, even if the project takes hours instead of minutes. That's the beauty of diversity. We all have things we value and there is no right or wrong way to do things. It does mean that when travelling internationally, you must ready yourself for the new cultural norm to be dominate and relinquishing your ideals of how "things should be done." (These are stereotypes. I am not saying that Africans, Puerto Ricans or Mexicans don't prefer efficiency or that Caucasian Americans don't prefer relationships. There is nothing wrong with stereotypes as long as you recognize that you are stereotyping. It's okay to paint with broad strokes, recognizing that not everyone will be represented by those broad strokes.)
It's the process of transformation that is not unlike a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. In the cocoon, everything about the way of life for a caterpillar must die so that the new identity of the butterfly can emerge. If a newly revealed butterfly still lives under the identity of a caterpillar, he will be beautiful but he will never fly like he was intended.
I am in that process right now. I have been waiting on China to issue me a work permit for 7 weeks. I got news last night that they issued it to me, but my name was misspelled. I have no idea whether I will have to wait another 7 weeks or just a few days. Either way, the timing of this process has caused me to have to relinquish my sense of timing and trust the process. May people say that "God's timing is perfect." Whether this timing clash is between the culture of Heaven, American culture or Chinese culture, I don't know. I can't lay blame or point fingers. I can't say that one is right and the other wrong, except perhaps in reference to God's timing. But that is so often just an attribute that we ascribe to situations when we feel out of control. If it's not my timing it must be God's timing. Perhaps it's just the Chinese timing, which could also very well be God's timing. (I am not saying that God doesn't have specific timing for things. On the contrary, I believe timing is very important to God. I am suggesting that there is a difference in throwing out a blanket statement that "God's timing is perfect" and legitimately knowing that God has ordained a specific time for things.)
No matter the timing, I am in a season of surrender. I am laying down my preferences, my sense of how to do things, my sense of security, my proximity to friends and family, etc. I am laying it all down and hoping to gain a sense of adventure, a new understanding of how to see the world and to understand God, a chance to be changed once again from a caterpillar to a butterfly who actually flies.
This journey will be painful, invigorating, surgical, refining, thrilling, adventurous, educational, prosperous, insightful, sanctifying, and much more.
Estimated time of Departure from America: August 29, 2019. But that is purely based in an American sense of timing, which likely has nothing to do with the currently situation, and is highly subject to change.
Here's the challenge for most people. We typically like to assign a hierarchy or state that one way of doing things is better than the other. This is what anthropologists call, ethnocentrism. It is a $5 word that simply means, the way my culture does things is the best. For the most part, every culture thinks their way of doing things is the best way to do it. Otherwise, you would change the way you do things. Most people groups, once they recognize that something is inefficient or is not satisfying the needs of the masses change things. No one is sitting around thinking to themselves that the way they do things is broken and they love it that way! So when two cultures are brought face to face and differences emerge, most people will try to say that the other group is not doing it correctly or efficiently or the right way. I use the language of efficiency, because I am from the Caucasian culture in America, where efficiency is a high priority for the most part. We like things to be done quickly and correctly. Get in and get out. That is not typically the highest priority for other cultures. Other cultures then to be much more relationally invested. Accomplishing the task is not nearly as important as greeting people and talking with people along the way. Or perhaps the value is the lack of stress. If efficiency is stress inducing, then by all means do whatever it takes to not feel stressed, even if the project takes hours instead of minutes. That's the beauty of diversity. We all have things we value and there is no right or wrong way to do things. It does mean that when travelling internationally, you must ready yourself for the new cultural norm to be dominate and relinquishing your ideals of how "things should be done." (These are stereotypes. I am not saying that Africans, Puerto Ricans or Mexicans don't prefer efficiency or that Caucasian Americans don't prefer relationships. There is nothing wrong with stereotypes as long as you recognize that you are stereotyping. It's okay to paint with broad strokes, recognizing that not everyone will be represented by those broad strokes.)
It's the process of transformation that is not unlike a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. In the cocoon, everything about the way of life for a caterpillar must die so that the new identity of the butterfly can emerge. If a newly revealed butterfly still lives under the identity of a caterpillar, he will be beautiful but he will never fly like he was intended.
I am in that process right now. I have been waiting on China to issue me a work permit for 7 weeks. I got news last night that they issued it to me, but my name was misspelled. I have no idea whether I will have to wait another 7 weeks or just a few days. Either way, the timing of this process has caused me to have to relinquish my sense of timing and trust the process. May people say that "God's timing is perfect." Whether this timing clash is between the culture of Heaven, American culture or Chinese culture, I don't know. I can't lay blame or point fingers. I can't say that one is right and the other wrong, except perhaps in reference to God's timing. But that is so often just an attribute that we ascribe to situations when we feel out of control. If it's not my timing it must be God's timing. Perhaps it's just the Chinese timing, which could also very well be God's timing. (I am not saying that God doesn't have specific timing for things. On the contrary, I believe timing is very important to God. I am suggesting that there is a difference in throwing out a blanket statement that "God's timing is perfect" and legitimately knowing that God has ordained a specific time for things.)
No matter the timing, I am in a season of surrender. I am laying down my preferences, my sense of how to do things, my sense of security, my proximity to friends and family, etc. I am laying it all down and hoping to gain a sense of adventure, a new understanding of how to see the world and to understand God, a chance to be changed once again from a caterpillar to a butterfly who actually flies.
This journey will be painful, invigorating, surgical, refining, thrilling, adventurous, educational, prosperous, insightful, sanctifying, and much more.
Estimated time of Departure from America: August 29, 2019. But that is purely based in an American sense of timing, which likely has nothing to do with the currently situation, and is highly subject to change.
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