Norms That Shouldn't Be Norms

I feel like the Father always speaks to me through my own life experiences. Some would probably say I over spiritualize, but I just feel He is always speaking, and there is always things we can learn, even from every day life. He makes me smile in that I can always find glimpses of Him and his voice in my day-to-day life.

Today, I stood on a bus and realized I was the only white person. While I was in the capital city of Delhi, filled with thousands of westernized Indians I still stood out. I looked around and from the corners of my eyes I could see that in every direction people were watching me. In the last week alone, multiple people have told me I look Indian. I think this is a compliment, and I take it as one that I am doing my part to fit in, fit the role, and blend in appropriately as a Western American. There are days I could certainly try harder, but in general my goal is to blend and not stand out.

I realize that though I try as I might, even in my most modest salwar suit and dupatta, my white skin will always give me away. As I stood the focal point of so many eyes on the bus what bothered me most was not that I stood out, and not the stares, but that I realized in a new sense that so many in this country wish they could me. (I realize that sounds prideful and pompous, but keep reading). It pained me and made me sad. I realized this was a life unknown to me. I can’t even really begin to understand.

From what I have heard and learned is that most Indians wish to have fair skin and be "more westernized", and to live overseas in Europe or America. They wish to be someone other than who they are. If I have understood correctly, it goes beyond looks and color to a belief that Westerners and Americans represent status and in a sense worth and respect.  As in an American or Westerner is believed at some level to be more important, more respectable, more beautiful, wiser, more valued than an Indian even of a higher caste. While the caste system is supposedly eliminated and gone, it very much still exists subliminally and deep within the beliefs and core values of the people here. I have heard believers argue over who gets to stay in a nicer room based on their caste. I have heard stories and seen appointments and positions within leadership and the ch*rch appointed to people based on caste. At times, when someone refers to someone else and is trying to prove the person's character, it's like they are sure to slip in the fact the person is Brahmin.  "That man has a good education and is good at everything he puts his hand to; he is from a Brahmin family of course".

It rips a hole in my heart to think of this. How can we overcome something so engrained in a society and people that they breathe it without knowing? (I am talking in generalities of course. There are believers and people actively working to overcome these societal norms.)

I don't ever want to be someone viewed as better than someone else. I don't want to be looked to as wise or "better" because of my color or nationality. I want the beggar on the street corner and the bathroom cleaning lady and the businessman on the bus to know their worth, their dignity, and their importance. I want them to know we are equals. I want them to know their placement in the Kingdom of the Father, and their significance and voice and worth in that Kingdom. I want them to see now on this earth, in the land of the living the vision of us all singing choruses together in heaven to the King, side by side, in unison, in harmony, because one of us is not better than another. I want that truth to be the reality for them in this lifetime.

While I can't change societal norms overnight, and maybe not even in a lifetime, I believe I can with the help of the Father fight those lies by speaking truth over those around me, by looking the beggar in the face, by holding the hands of the cleaning lady and telling them their worth, and sharing my care and concern, and helping them to know they are loved and worth something more than they can ever imagine. And my hope and prayer is that overtime, as Father grabs hold of more and more hearts here in this beautiful country He loves so much, that they would stop looking for someone else to acclaim as higher or better than themselves and simply see the KING as the only one higher than any on this earth, and even see their worth in Him.

Societal norms run deep. The sad thing is they usually shouldn't be norms, because far too often they are based on lies. I challenge you, no matter where you live, to look people in the face; to see their worth; to speak it over them; and to ask yourself, "Is there ever a time I treat someone else as less than me?".