常識... Common Sense

Tonight was another annual tennis farewell party hosted by parents. In the midst of the conversation the 2 tennis coaches talked about the uniqueness of Tamasei. they both talked of how strange things were at Tamasei when they first started, a different world, probably you could say that for them as Japanese men having no contact with Christianity Tamasei was their... "Twilight Zone". One thing that was said that for them looking at Tamasei through their cultural eyes, everything that was common sense (joshiki), at Tamasei was hijoshiki, or you could say the opposite of common sense.

Again I was reminded of what my mission is here, how to make Christianity relavant, to find it's joshiki in Japanese society. Where is the line, why do the two have to be at such odds. I don't think they have to but for to many reasons they are. How do I stand among my colleagues and show them Christians aren't all strange? What will it take to touch the hearts of my colleagues? In thinking about this from now on when they talk on this subject and I am there I think I'm going to tell them I'm a Kakure (hidden) Japanese. Isn't this sort of what Paul was saying when he said, I have become all things to all men so that I might when a few.