I do a random online jigsaw every day to wake my brain up. From The Jigsaw Puzzles
I just put all the pieces in a pile and keep taking the the top one until it’s solved.
Gradually I see what it’s a picture of and how they fit.
It helps with software development, which is 90% about solving puzzles. About working out what is going on. How do all these pieces, (of a software program), fit together?

But those jigsaws are often about more out of the way scenes like this one of Red Finnish boat sheds.

What was it about red boat sheds that appealed so much to the Finns so many years ago, that they don’t want them any other colour?

And this one from Turkey.

What is it about colourful terrace houses in Turkey that appeals to Turkish culture?

And Italy.


Wait a second, it can’t be that all cultures like colourful houses except ours!
Or is it more that they appeal to photographers and jigsaw puzzle companies?

Is this something that we’ve been assuming is cultural, but it’s more because of our lens?
We’re only seeing these cultures through the eyes of a jigsaw maker. And of course they like colourful images!

Let’s check Norway.

I knew it!

So, for example, maybe not even the stereotypes we’ve been seeing on TV, and assuming are correct, are anything like typical for people from that culture.
And maybe we know even some people from a particular culture, but that’s no guarantee that the cultural stereotype we see is typical for them, as individuals. That might even be why they left their home culture in the first place!
And it goes the other way too. How much of what we know of the culture of that group is correct, and how much is just about those particular people we know, and we just assumed it was cultural.
Do all their culture like spicy food? Are those who don’t like it ostracised back there?
How much are we just assuming about other people?

What have you been assuming is a cultural issue with people, but it’s more just about how the very tiny slice of other cultures you’ve been exposed to has impacted your view? This is one reason I’m all for living somewhere else for a year.
Being a tourist somewhere gives you a very thin slice of a culture, but living there for at least a year, if not more, learning the language, living like they do. That, will give you some actual understanding of their culture. But still you will have so much to learn. You won’t know what it’s like to be a kid there. To grow up there, go to school there.

Several passages of the Bible also warn us about the dangers of taking on the culture of the world around us.
Not meaning you can’t live in a colourful house, or eat sushi, … but meaning to be careful with actual cultural things.

And… what is it about us, personally, which is cultural? And might be something we never thought to question.
This is why I keep going on about the live overseas thing. And that if you can’t, or when you return, make sure your social circle has people of all sorts of cultures in it.
And really observe their culture. Talk with them about it when you notice things. Think what does it highlight about your own. What about you is just culture and what is actually you?
What should you change?

What can your church change, so it stands out from the culture around it?
Is there something in your country/city’s culture which is not a good thing.
For example, what is your culture’s attitude to the poor?
How can your church show that it is not conforming to the pattern of this world, but being transformed by the renewing of your minds.

How can you?