40 Acts of Lent: Day 7 - 'Undivided'

ACT 7: UNDIVIDED  
When was the last time you spent time with someone of a different culture, religion, social background or age group to you? The UK is a mix of cultures and income brackets, but sometimes the divisions can feel stronger than the connections – communities bumping into each other but never really joining together. Break those barriers down today and cross a social divide.

"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; 

male and female he created them."

                                                                                                     Genesis 1:27 (NIV)

After finishing school in 1990 I served an internship for a mining company in the rural north-west of my native South Africa. That area was a right-wing heartland and support for apartheid, still in force at the time, was strong there. On our first day, our training supervisor took us from Johannesburg to the company hostel which would be our home along with other junior employees (mostly mining engineers), two per room, for the duration of our assignment.

At check-in our training manager delivered the day’s first bombshell to the hostel manager. Tshepo, an IT intern like me, was to be the hostel’s first ever black resident. Unruffled, but resolute, the hostel manager refused until a call was placed to the group’s HR director.

I unwittingly delivered the second bombshell. I asked if I could share a room with Tshepo. The hostel manager was stunned. That she should be forced to accept a black guy into an all-white residence (with shared ablutions!) was one thing, but that a white guy would choose to room with him was altogether another.

I would love to say that my choice was purely principled but it wasn’t. My night-owl nature would not have fit a miner’s early nights and pre-dawn shifts so it suited me better to share with Tshepo. But I also knew the biblical truth that all of humanity shares the image of God and I did not need to swim with a current that said otherwise.

Thinking back to those days, I wish I had been more active in chipping at the walls of apartheid. But there are still opportunities today. Apartheid’s walls have gone, but walls between ages, races, income groups and cultures still exist all over the world. It’s worth breaking through them, or simply ignoring them, because as I learnt back then, some of our best friends can be people who aren’t like us.

Choose how to complete this act...


GREEN OPTION:What’s the cultural mix where you live? There might be a large Bangladeshi community in your neighbourhood, or a big Spanish group in your church. Could you read up online and learn a few quick greeting words to use when you meet them? Start with ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ – winners in any conversation.

YELLOW OPTION:
Look out for someone whose social background or culture or religion is different from yours – a neighbour, a parent at the school gates, your local shopkeeper. Spend longer in conversation with them today. Learn a few things about them that you didn't know: about their kids, their dreams, where they've travelled in the world.

RED OPTION:
How can you learn more about and come alongside those from different backgrounds in your community? Send a message of encouragement or thanks to other faith or culture groups in your area – a letter, an email, or face-to-face. Try a different style of church to your own – Anglican if you're Evangelical, Greek Orthodox if you're Baptist, that kind of thing. Start breaking down divisions today.