Entry #9

How different is your modern culture from the sawi tenants?

I spoke of this briefly in one of my earlier posts, but I still think that ultimately, the differences aren't that big. Architecturally, there are many differences. We usually don't walk down the street seeing a house on stilts or a huge dome of grass and sticks. But we see skyscrapers, and houses with siding, and elaborately decorated shops. Fashion wise, there are many differences. Grass skirts, human jawbones, and feather head dresses aren't exactly the norm now days. But jeans, bright colored shirts, and flip-flops are. Health and medicine practices are completely more developed than that of the Sawi. But, how were the Sawi to know? They didn’t know any different did they? Growing up in modern society, we are exposed to all the new technologies, fashions, and changes of the world. We often take for granted the availability of many resources that we have. What we like to eat is a little different also. Okay, maybe a lot different. I don’t see many people ordering human intestines through the drive through, do you?

Although these significant differences make it seem as though there is nothing similar between modern day and the Sawi tenants, there is. Sawi people were hurting, searching desperately for a peace that would remain, and living to survive and become the best…but so are the people living in the modern world. We are hurting, searching, and living to survive and get to top just like the Sawi. We have similar goals, and no our goals aren’t always to see who can kill the most animals or scalp the most heads, but we have goals like getting a promotion and owning our own businesses. The love we want, the peace we search for, the help we need, the pain we feel, the temptation that looms around every corner, is all the same. We all feel, we all want. No matter if we wear a grass skirt or jeans. If we eat intestines or a hamburger. We are same. Deep down, we long for that something to make us complete. To make this life we have worth living. Jesus makes that possible. And through Him we are all the same. Through his eyes there are no differences.