A strange world I ...

Monday, Mar 5, 2012. I have been in Japan over the past ten days. It was a visit to work and to meet people, a quite intense time for collaboration, for meeting a large variety of different people, of Japanese food and little experiences with this eastern culture.

Similarities and Differences …

How many times have I been here? I have not counted the many scientific visits over the past 15 years. But every time I am here I see more of the similarities of the Japanese society with the European way to do things. Of course, there are many differences … from the way restaurants are run to the friendliness of people everywhere.

But my impression is that I know the culture now much better. Things which seemed strange initially, are now very familiar. People who appeared to me as difficult to access I know now, and seen from within the Japanese culture suddenly appears as very friendly, quite playful. Perhaps we can learn something from it: what is strange, can become familiar. What seems unclear, can become open and clear. What has been different, somehow becomes a part of us. I really like to be here in Japan!

I have made similar experiences in science, even now during this week where I did a mixture of conference and intensive work with a colleague. Things which seemed unclear to me for many years suddenly are very easy and clear. I realize that I made progress in understanding - and that is a fantastic feeling ever and ever again.

It is God's world

The world is God's world. Europe is his world, Japan is his world, Australia is his world. Just everything. He made it. He maintains it. He saves it. That is another point which we might not really see usually. Here and there we will meet many people who do not know God, yet they try to live in truth and friendliness. There are others, who have difficulties with that - and there are many good and many less convincing reasons. But the world does not seem so different to me in Europe or in Japan, with all its differences!

Somehow, it is good if we see the world as a strange world sometimes. When you see how things can be done differently, it catalyses ideas how to change things. It can give you new courage and new motivation!

Somehow, God is the one who is completely different, since he is fully true and fully love. He is completely reliable, and wise beyond our imagination. But yet he is the one reaching out to us, the one who created everything what is pleasant, as well as things which can damage us. Shall we trust him? Can we trust him? Do we want to trust him, the old stranger, the creative origin, the loving companion? What is strange now, can be well-known tomorrow, it can be very familiar and an open book to us! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts