5 things I’m learning about the culture of honour

1. Celebration is inseparable from a culture of honour. We cannot claim to build the latter if we do not give ourselves wholeheartedly to the former. One of the things that stood out for me about the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son was his inability to celebrate his brother’s return; it really revealed how little honour he had in his heart for his brother. A culture of honour and an “elder brother spirit” (or in other words a culture of competition) cannot co-exist. I think celebration can be one of the easiest things we can tap into to build a culture of honour, all it might need is for us to get over ourselves.
2. Silence speaks…. far too loudly! Unfortunately for us social media has made what we celebrate as individuals and communities painfully obvious. What and whom we celebrate or honour on these public platforms speak ever so loudly about what we value, and also about what and whom we don’t celebrate. I don’t get this right by a long shot! Social media has become an incredible tool to do so much good, but it does expose us and our values too. No, it would be impossible to celebrate everyone and that’s not my point, my point is just that we can start by “making the circle bigger”. I think if we would just expand our circles of celebration a lot more people will feel the love instead  of our silence, and our working together will shift the culture. We can’t do it on our own anyway.
3. Selective celebration is way better than no celebration, but sometimes it helps build cultures we don’t want. Pastors for example are very good at celebrating people in their offices, one-on-one, but appear so selective about who they celebrate publically. This communicates so much that was never intended and sometimes creates the very cultures we don’t want: competition, performance, etc. Again, this brings us back to the point about silence speaking rather loudly. I am a pastor too so I’m pointing my finger at myself here. It’s a hard job to build a culture of honour. But I’m learning that intentionality and the basics of resting in God, grace and security goes a long way.
4. We can’t use “a culture of honour” to perpetuate the wrong cultures. Jesus spoke straight to the Pharisees and didn’t try to soften the blow with placating words. Truth is also inseparable from honour. I don’t profess to know how to confront a wrong culture with honour but perhaps again the basics will help:  speak the truth, don’t flatter, follow hard after God and always remember that our battle is not against flesh and blood.
5. The real test of a culture of celebration. It is easy to celebrate some people, especially high-profiled people and people who do things we are bent to admire. The real test lies in how much or how little we celebrate outside of that small box of what we like. Man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart, we know this well. Becoming students of looking at the heart will help us to celebrate outside of our comfort zones and spread the love a little wider.

Anyway, those are some of the things I am learning thus far. I am not so good at these things yet but I want to be like my Father God and so I am giving myself to honour and to celebrate anyone and everyone I can, as often and as authentically as I can, in private and in public; and in that small way to help change a selfie culture.