By: Christie A.
We can all share a good, albeit embarrassing, laugh over a cultural faux pas. It’s part of the learning process as we engage with new people and places. Whether it’s using our left hand when we were warned to only use our right, or not being able to read the air and miscommunicating. Any seasoned traveler can share with you their hard-learned lessons around culture and cultural faux pas. In the same way, they can also probably list off topics that their worldview was also challenged on. There’s something about being in new cultures and places that expand the way we look at things. It challenges us and causes us to expand our perspectives.
As we’ve traveled the world and engaged cross-culturally on a wide variety of difficult transnational topics, here are 5 important components of worldview:
- Our worldview must be built on a solid foundation of truth. There can be a cultural pull for truth that wants to make it subjective, influenced by the latest fads or trends. Unless we have a solid and unchanging foundation of truth, our worldview will lack the well-grounded ability to carry us through storms.
- Our worldview must be anchored in hope. The writer, The Apostle Paul, reminds us that hope is the anchor of our soul, firm and secure. If our worldview isn’t anchored in hope, then we will easily be overcome by the heaviness of life.
- Our worldview must see people over issues. When I know someone walking through whatever I am seeking to form a worldview on, hearing their stories and experiences lets me understand the real issues and how they affect people’s lives. It provides valuable insight and a unique understanding that I don’t have on my own.
- Our worldview should ask, “what does love require of me?” This keeps the issues from becoming topics that we opine on, and instead, it shifts our approach to consider others. It puts our love and care into action and helps us know how to walk out the things we say we value.
- Our worldview takes time to build. Analyze the breadth and depth of your worldview. A favorite question to ask when we tackle this is, “Is what I believe just as true for someone living halfway around the world in a village as it is for me?” If we can’t rationalize it through, to land at “yes,” then we know our lens is still heavily informed by culture and we must peel back the layers to get to the principles that inform a healthy worldview.
What did we miss? What are the components that you’ve found important in this work of building worldview? We love learning and growing with you, and we are so thankful to be walking in community together.
Did you miss part 1 of this amazing series? Check it out!
Learn more about SOS and how we developed our worldview.
See the impact a healthy cultural worldview can make!
