Snow, Soccer, and Hell

Ice skates. Sled. Skis. Snowboard. This past week I had the privilege of teaching some 25 Paraguayan third graders English words for snow sports. Why any English textbook would include such a flurry of arbitrary words I have not the slightest idea; but behold, such has been my struggle with destiny these past few days. The situation wasn’t helped, of course, by the fact that half the words about snowy things weren’t even mentioned in my Spanish-English dictionary. Trying to find the correct translation, therefore, took the form of me performing complex charades as to how these instruments of winter frivolity practically function along with a base commentary of broken, utterly confusing Spanish. I must have looked like I lost my mind pretending to snowboard and speaking in Spanish tongues to so many kids who have never even seen a snowflake.

Yes, there are certain cultural and linguistic boundaries that just cannot be crossed; gaps of understanding that utterly prohibit the communication of ideas. And it’s not just a problem with Paraguayans, either. Coming from a part of the world where soccer gets the media’s attention only every four years with the World Cup, I haven’t the slightest clue about futbol culture or how so many people can waste so much time being so wrapped up in it. When my students ask me which soccer team I prefer (in Paraguay, Cerro o Olympia? In Argentina, Boca o River?), I respond with a shrug of the shoulders and say I don’t really care or know about it at all. Cultural boundaries there certainly are. Entirely different worldviews persist. A hopeless lack of communication remains.

It all reminds me of the difference in thinking between Christians, those who are being transformed by lives of faith in God through Jesus Christ, and mundanos, those who are staying in the world for the sake of living for the pleasures of the world. The scriptures in so many places describe how there is a complete chasm between the thinking of a Christian guided by the Holy Spirit and the thinking of a non-Christian guided by the flesh. “What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?” “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” The difference, really, is light and dark, day and night, Heaven and Hell. One cannot even be touched by the other; there is not even the slightest point of connection. Just as my students haven’t the smallest idea about snow and how snow-things work and I haven’t the slightest idea or desire to know about the many complexities of soccer, as believers we too must strive to maintain a purity of light in our relationship with God so that we may not know or even want to know about the darkness that can swallow us up.