by Andy Johnson

Director of Worker Care

Part of our role in Care here at MRN is to help churches and care providers understand what it’s like to be a cross-cultural worker. Speaking on behalf of our global friends is one of the privileges (and truly fun!) parts of the job. This month and next I would like to share with you my favorite story that helps explain why workers seem so, well, different. It’s really a parable (allegory? fable?) of sorts – I’m hoping you have ears to hear!

Imagine you are a triangle (stick with me here – there’s a point…three in fact). You are born to triangle parents in TriangleLand. You enjoy triangle food and speak fluent Triangleese. You work your way through the triangle public school system, surrounded by triangle friends. You move throughout the world in a triangle-shaped rhythm.

You also attend a triangle church. Here, you learn to read scripture through triangle-shaped eyes under the loving guidance of triangle shaped leaders. You sing songs written by and for triangles about things triangles care about. You might never say it out loud, but in your heart, you think of God as a triangle.

Then one day a funny thing happens. This triangle God asks you to pack up all your triangle belongings (at least the ones left over after the garage sales) and move across the ocean to:

CircleLand.

You arrive in CircleLand full of hope and excitement about how you are going to serve (maybe even ‘save’?) the circles. While the triangle goodbyes were tough, you enjoy CircleLand at the beginning. Circle foods are fun. The circle landscape is striking and different. The traffic in the capital, Circle City, is so bad that it’s funny and makes great stories to tell your friends back in TriangleLand to help illustrate just how silly and cute these circles are.

You want to get close to your new circle friends, but you quickly realize triangles are more pointy than you ever knew. Some of the things that make you you just seem to poke into your new friends. You aren’t trying to, but you keep accidentally offending your circle neighbors. The way you flip through life doesn’t match how they roll. Your hard edges – so task oriented – cause others to trip and stumble as they try to curve into relationships. Your points wind up wounding the people you’ve come to serve.

One day, after the honeymoon wears off, you come to the conclusion that the circles are doing it wrong. They are lazy. They never get their tasks done. They accept corruption and even seem to approve of the whole it’s-who-you-know thing. Circle food is actually monotonous. CircleLand looks like west Texas and who would choose to live there? The traffic is of the devil, and circles drive like bats out of hell.

One of the most alarming things – and you may not have words for this – is the way in which newly-Christ-following circles think about God. It’s way more circle-y than triangle-y, and you’re not sure how you feel about it. You’re afraid they’re missing something.

With time, you realize that the circles, rather than missing something, might be on to something. The way they roll makes sense in CircleLand. Relationships do trump task sometimes! The food isn’t as bad as you thought and is actually pretty healthy (which helps with those 15lbs you pack on every time you head to TriangleLand on furlough). You wake up one glorious morning, look in the mirror, and realize you are no longer just a triangle. You weren’t born a circle, so you’ll never be one. But, with some years and the grace of God, you just might be gifted to become:

A hexagon!

Now you are able to (mostly) roll with the circles, even if you still can’t quite dance like one. You appreciate the values they hold, even if many are still in need of redemption. You LOVE circle-sized afternoon siestas. You see how CircleLife, appropriately-redeemed and spirit-filled, honors God.

Speaking of, you even start realizing that there are some parts of this beautiful, overwhelming, creative God that you missed when you only thought of Him as a triangle. Reading scripture through hexagon-shaped eyes is way more fun, and singing both circle and triangle hymns about Him is more fulfilling.

These hexagon years are the good stuff! Years full of fruitful service, deep friendships, and life-on-life discipleship.

Then one day a funny thing happens (again). This multi-faceted God calls you to pack up all your triangle and circle belongings (as well as that hexagon-shaped table you enjoy meals at), sell the rest in a garage sale to your closest triangle and circle friends, and move back across the ocean to:

TriangleLand.

Now, it’s all happening in reverse. The stuff that used to make you you pokes into you. The triangles around you seem oblivious to the fact that they are more pointy than they think. Triangle stores feel funny. This triangle life feels rushed, and you feel like people don’t care about you because the conversation is over just when you think it’s starting. Your clothes don’t quite fit in with the triangles of today, but they are not old enough to be retro. And don’t get me started on how out of touch your understandings of technology and politics are!

Triangle Church is hard. You’ve grown accustomed to worshipping a God seen from both circle and triangle perspectives, and now listening to sermon after sermon about a triangle God while worshipping with songs that are only about his triangle aspects feels, well, one-dimensional.

With time, you’ll change again. You’ll catch up on triangle technology, and you’ll learn how to shop. You might become pretty square eventually. But here’s a hard truth:

For having rolled with the circles, you will never be fully triangle again.

Be looking for next month’s Messenger to find out who the real stars are in this story as well as some ways to consider what you can do to serve the hexagons in your life.

Hexagonally yours,

Andy

The Shape of Things