All my life, though I have never been to other places but Leyte, Samar and Cebu, it still seems that I have never had left the very place I once was born. Every place in this world is the same for me. That is why I thought I would be immune to what they call a 'culture shock'.
It remained true until I left the world to die and raised up again.
It all started when my life went crazy. Though I was used to extreme struggles, my efforts were no more than futile. Then I figured out to call a timeout.
I decided to inquire of the Maker my purpose in life. I read His words which now currently compiled into the worldwide best-selling book. It's the only information I needed.
I left home. I left everything—my family, my studies, my life—everything just to know where I really belong.
For almost three months, I spent my life in a place where God is the most important treasure. And in that period of time, I greatly changed.
The culture in that place was very different that any other culture. Contrary to the idea of cultural relativism, I finally found the culture that is above any other—the culture of being holy.
Who wouldn't be culture shocked? Everything in that place is just so brand new. The air we breathed was the presence of the Lord. The clothes we wore were the righteousness of Christ. The food we ate was the Word of God. The language we spoke were the language of angels. Our religion was taking care of the orphans and widows in their suffering and preserving ourselves from being corrupted by the world. The water we drank was the Spirit of God. There was no night in that place. There was no sun because the light in that place was Jesus Christ. We went to school were the Teacher was Jesus and we were graded according to our humility. No other wisdom can equal the wisdom that was taught to us. Everything in that place was the opposite of all the cultures of the world combined.
In a span of almost four months, I became a different person, a different creation, a different being.
When I went back to my previous home where everything was not how it was before, it seemed that I was away for centuries—longer than the eighteen years of my existence. The reverse culture shock was greater than the previous. It felt like I was in another world when I came back.
Then I was sent again to school—where everything taught has already become useless in my eyes--having given the wisdom it takes for man to live. My eagerness to learn in a worldly school suddenly faded as though it had never sprang up.
In the world I had returned to, those who were smart were given high grades; those who want to be great make others inferior to themselves; beauty is only skin deep and people are living by sight and not by faith. Everything in this world is corrupted.
My desire to return to the place I belong burned in me like fire in the furnace. I wanted to escape the world once again. I don't live in this place.
As the song goes: Comparisons are easily done once you've had a taste of perfection, and perfection is found only in the Lord Jesus who is forever to be praised. Amen.
And that was my culture shock experience.
