I wanted to share this with you. We are on vacation this week. We delayed our departure one day because I came home from Wisconsin sick. We made it to Wallowa Lake at 2:30 today and when we went to start our Suburban to drive from the lodge down to the lake it was suddenly running rough and the transmission is now shifting very rough. This may change the rest of our travel plans. 11:11 comes to mind.” (smiley face)
I received that text message from Eric in Oregon a couple of days ago. This is how I replied:
“Thank you SO much for sharing your adventure with me in real time! I guess you are referring to page 95 of my book where we were having mechanical problems with our Subaru, and I glanced 11:11. Yes, perfect alignment amid all that is happening right now, and so I am praying for the perfect vacation for your family.” (8/13/23)
The section of my book to which I referred in my response is from Maxim 4, “I and my life are in Perfect Alignment at this moment.” Below I’ve reprinted the paragraph for you:
I may not feel it, when I see 11:11 on the clock. For example, I recently glimpsed 11:11 PM on a Friday night. On that night, my wife and I were immersed in mechanical problems with our Subaru—specifically, the “hill holder” feature with manual transmission. It got dark while we were waiting for the tow truck to arrive. And it was raining. So when I spontaneously saw 11:11, I said to myself: “At this moment, even amid all that’s happening right now, I and my life are in perfect alignment.”
The preceding paragraph in my book — Successful Spiritual Waiting: the 7 Maxims — says this:
What do these parallel lines represent? Sometimes I see them as parallel roadways or corridors. Sometimes I see them as open channels, or conduits. No matter how I visualize them, these parallel lines represent Perfect Alignment. Those parallel lines, 11:11, are perfectly aligned. And so whenever I spontaneously glance 11:11 on a digital clock, I can claim the promise that “At this moment, my life is in perfect alignment.”
I also received a very nice card with a note in the mail from Lynn in Colorado. This is what she wrote:
I have been reading your books and have enjoyed both of them. Thank you for sending them to me. I admire anyone who has writing skills like you do. It is so true about waiting on the Lord and it is all in His timing. I have prayed for my three nephews’ salvation and my sister and brother-in-law’s also for years, and recently my nephew, much to our joy (my 25-year-old nephew) accepted Christ into his life. God put into his life a very nice young girl whom he is going to marry who is a Christian.
Here’s how I responded to her:
I deeply appreciate the testimonial you shared about your nephew’s journey of accepting Christ after years of prayer and patient waiting. It serves as a powerful reminder of the profound impact waiting can have in our lives.
On a personal note, I’m currently in a period of recovery from the aftermath of shingles. It involves repairing nerve damage, which is a gradual process. In a way, this period can be seen as a season of waiting on God’s healing. During this time, I find solace and inspiration in meditating on Philippians 4:6-7: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Similarly, my wife is also in a season of waiting. She recently experienced a closed door and the death of a vision she had cherished, after applying for a position with a faith-based nonprofit organization that holds great meaning for her. Despite this setback, she remains resilient and continues to volunteer her time there, trusting in God’s perfect timing and plan.
Lee Cuesta
Covid culture shock without ever leaving our city
by Lee Cuesta
I have lived and worked on two continents, and in multiple countries. Culture shock is inevitable. I remember a cab driver in London, and even though she was speaking English, I could not understand her! I remember seeing bull fights on the television screens in the Mexico City airport. In Guatemala City, I remember cockroaches on the bus, and slugs on the floor inside the house.
Culture shock is the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes. It’s when the novelty and excitement wear off, and the reality sets in.
We are feeling culture shock, but we didn’t go to a foreign culture; the foreign culture came to us.
In Mexico City, just the simple sound of the truck engines reminded me that I was in a foreign culture — along with all the crazy traffic and the smell of air pollution. Or listening for the truck to arrive in your neighborhood, ringing its bell, which meant it was time to bring out your trash — and give the workers a tip.
Typically, one experiences culture shock when he or she travels to another culture. In our current situation, however, it is reversed: we are experiencing shock because the different culture has come to us. So we are seeing signs of anxiety, stress and confusion — and feeling them ourselves — which are symptoms of culture shock.
This is due, of course, to the rapid social changes that are occurring. The covid culture has arrived, bringing these already familiar circumstances: Weddings and karate classes online. Playgrounds closed with yellow caution tape. Suspicions elicit action from contact tracers.
Where I live, I feel like I woke up at the masquerade party. Face masks are now mandatory, and so at the home improvement superstore the other day, I saw customers with full facemasks, covering their entire face; one looked like Chewbaca. Great for the shoplifters.
Lines on the floor require social distancing at the check-out counter, but none of this is required for rioters and protesters. However, the rioters have discovered the benefit of wearing masks to conceal their identity. Watching the civil unrest in our own cities, or on TV or mobile devices, we feel like we live now in some sort of Middle Eastern culture.
Today, in our society, multitudes experience culture shock without ever leaving their homes — literally — because their own culture is changing before their eyes. When we do leave our homes, it’s like we’re living in a foreign country. We are feeling culture shock, but we didn’t go to a foreign culture; the foreign culture came to us.
In addition to culture shock, our day-to-day society now exhibits symptoms of future shock. This is the title of a book by Alvin Toffler published in 1970. Future shock is now defined as “physical and psychological disturbance caused by a person’s inability to cope with very rapid social and technological change; any overload of a person’s or an organization’s capacity for adaptation or decision making.”*
Every day we are witnessing the inability to cope with very rapid social and technological change. There is deep personal and social uncertainty, plus an inability to move ahead with future plans. The future is too uncertain.
“Future Shock sold millions of copies at a time when society was in churn, amid riots over the Vietnam War, the maturation of the civil rights movement and the growth of centralized mass media. Toffler defined the phenomenon as ‘too much change in too short a period of time.'”**
“Too much change in too short a period of time:” this creates instability in our society. So we worry: when will it be stable again? Yet when our culture does stabilize, it will not be the same culture that we remember. It has changed permanently. It is a foreign culture. And perhaps it is impossible to regain stability. Perhaps instability is the new normal, which provides little hope for escaping these feelings of culture shock.
Footnotes
* https://www.dictionary.com/browse/future-shock
** https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alvin-toffler-future-shock-author-who-predicted-disconnection-modern-world-n601501
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