Forside Articles Learning to Become All Things to All People
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Skrevet af Jørn Nielsen   
Torsdag, 22. august 2019 04:02

Learning to Become All Things to All People

Let me say this.  I love America and I love the Americans.  No two ways about that.  They are easy to get along with, on the street not the least.

And yet I often put my foot in somebody´s mouth without knowing it because of two things.  I haven´t learnt the art of diplomacy and secondly I´m a Dane though I take pride in becoming an American to the Americans (cf. 1 Cor. 9:20-22).  My success in that field is very limited, however.

I mirrored myself when Mr. Trump cancelled his planned visit to DK on 9/2 because our prime minister thought his manic idea of buying Greenland is absurd.  Greenland is not for sale, she said, that´s absurd.  That  word "absurd" offended good old Trump. "Nasty" and impropriate, he said and immediately cancelled his coming to Denmark.

Of course our prime minister was right, but she should have used another word and  said, "Sale is for the Greenlanders to decide,  but I don´t think they will.  Come however to the table anyway and let´s talk about it!"

It was then I saw myself in that mirror.  My language has often offended my American friends too, even my American family,  not because of its accent, but rather because it was too direct and "accentfree".  And so they "minister"to  me with solemn corrections.  Have I learned from my mistakes?  I´m afraid not.  I´ll still, even now, walk into my own trap.

The Americans are not too sensitive. They are Americans. The challenge is 1 Cor. 9:22.  And some foreign cultures  have been reached, I believe, but I still have much to learn.  One friend in N.C. (a native American) once tried to encourage me, "Remember what the apostle Paul said, "I have learned..."  Indeed I´m learning, and you are too for the sake of the gospel.  Humiliating yes, but happily without condemnation.

Aug. 22, 2019 - jn

 
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