Another Layer to Culture Shock

 Moving to America naturally has brought along a lot of culture shock. 

Culture shock is very hard to deal with. As I grew up we only visited America every couple years, just for a few months, then we would go back home. So, American culture is largely foreign to me. Moving to a foreign culture that is so vastly different than the one I grew up in is very hard! There are so many frustrating days and instances that make me just want to go home where things were easier. Where things made sense. There are days of struggling, frustration, crying, and wanting to go home. There are learning days where different things are explain to the point where they finally click in my brain a little bit more. And then there are days where I have to make choices about which cultural mindset I want to work in, often I choose a mix. Because both cultures and countries have their flaws, which is the perk of mixing cultures, you can pick the best of both worlds. 

Anyway, one big layer of culture shock that I want to talk about today is something that has been a really big struggle for me. 

The difference in spiritual warfare.

There is spiritual warfare in every country. That's just a fact. I grew up with mainly one kind, so I didn't expect there to be such different kids of spiritual warfare. 

Back home, in Sierra Leone, it was aggressive but I expect that's true in most countries just in different forms. 

Back home we dealt with spiritual darkness so oppressive you could feel it, demons, witches, secret society, curses, witch guns, and just demonic things and atmosphere. I was used to that. I knew how to fight that. I had seen God using the power of praise and worship to bring His power and light into spiritually dark places. I knew that the power of the Almighty God was bigger than the darkness we faced. The darkness does have power. However it too is created. The darkness only has the power that it is given. God is all powerful. He has already won the battle. I grew up knowing this. I was seven years old when I saw a demon. It was cowering. God opened my eyes to see who I am in the spiritual realm. Jesus is inside of me, making me a force to be reckoned with. The power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is inside of me. That's what I was used to. That's what I knew.

Then we moved and I didn't expect the spiritual warfare to be different. But it is! I guess back home the darkness fought against us harder because it knows who we are, who God made us to be, and that He is with us. 

Here the spiritual warfare is aggressive, but it's focused on keeping you in the dark. It doesn't want you to know who you are, or to know who God is so you aren't a threat to the darkness. So it uses poison and uses the weakness of your flesh so you actually want the poison. You want to be comfortable. In control. Have things going the way you want them to. You want to rise to a higher job position. You want more material things. You want revenge. You want to cling to your grudges and unforgiveness. You want to feed your anger or fear. You want to belong. You want to be needed. You want to be accepted. You want to be loved. You want to be respected. Some of these wants are perfectly fine and good! In their proper measure. If we want true satisfaction for these desires we have to seek God. Some desires are unhealthy. Others, however, are God given needs and desires so that we might ask Him to fulfill our needs and grow closer to Him. However if these wants are fed and fed by earthly, temporary things until they grow out of proportion, they become "needs". You HAVE to be in control. You won't do anything that is too far outside of your comfort zone, including obeying God. Because why would He daily ask you to do things outside of your own comfort zone? Surely He didn't mean it. (Preaching at myself there.) You HAVE to have that promotion. You HAVE to have the latest gadgets and accessories. Then these "needs" become what drives you. They become what you live for instead of living for the One who IS Life. We live for our fleshly desires. We live for the temporary feelings or adrenaline rush. We seek "happiness" not caring who or what is cut down in our quest, or the consequences. These desires become idols because we put them above God, and they can consume us.

When we only live for the temporary, or what is on this earth, we miss out on so much and we begin to stray away from God because He isn't the main focus. He's just a side dish we partake of when we want to. We're the main focus. We can only see a sliver of what is actually going on but we act like we can and should rule the world. 

Oh LORD forgive us. 

As perhaps you can see, I'm not used to having to fight myself. My fleshly desires. I'm used to the stench of poison coming from the outside enemy. Not from the inside, not from a jar in my own hand.   

However the facts remain the same no matter what form of spiritual attack we are fighting. God is the Creator. God is All Powerful. God is Light. We are Children of the Almighty God. He is in us and with us. The very same power that rose Christ from the dead is with us. Romans 8:11. And Romans 8:37 says that we are more than conquerors! Christ has already defeated everything we fight today. We fight the aftermath from a place of victory. 

Don't focus on the mirror that can become so easily smudged, tainted, and broken. Keep your eyes on God.