Culture, culture, culture

Yeah, so I know that it has been a while, and that most people probably quit reading when I haven't posted for a while, but anyway, here is a new one.

This past week I had a great conversation with a pretty sharp guy about what it means to study culture. We just met through a business transaction, and through it, we started talking a little bit about how important it is to be a student of our culture. I think that in order to be successful in anything you do, you must become a student of who your target audience is. In order to offer them assistance, guidence, customer service, whatever, you have to be able to understand where they are and where they are trying to get.

People are people, and at the core of things we all have the same basic needs. These are some that stick out to me:
1. To have meaningful relationships with other people
2. To be a part of something bigger than ourselves
3. To feel like our life made a difference

I think that at the root of all that makes us feel content, happy, or fulfilled, we will find one of these three things.

I believe it was Socrates (but it might have been his apprentice Plato) who said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Pretty profound. I believe there is a lot of truth to that. But how often do we really stop and examine our lives. How often do we stop and examine the lives of those around us. The culture around us.

I believe that the tragedy of many "Christians" I have interacted with, or maybe even most "churches" is that we become so inwardly focused that we forget to ask the question, "What is going on with our culture? My neighbor? What are they searching for? How will I communicate God's love to them?"

Let us never forget to look around at the people who pass us every day. The people who wait on us at our favorite restaurant. The people who we rub shoulders with at the mall. The people who stand in line in front of us at Starbucks. The people we work with in business transactions everyday. They are people. And they have the same basic needs that I do. How can I help them on there journey?