I have been doing informal research for years, poking my nose in places that few Christians are ever found, without compromising myself as a Christ-follower. One of the most fascinating places is the smoking room/terrace/balcony/cafe/bar/ especially in and around airports. It is the ultimate concentration of non-christian world travelers and a great representation of the world as a whole; although lately it seems to be leaning toward Asians and Eastern Europeans who apparently smoke more frequently as a whole, than the basic Westerners do.
The conversations that flow in these places is so different and so not-church oriented, as to seem like I have landed on a strange and unusual planet that has never had contact with the Christ-following world. They talk about business, culture, politics, sex and life in a complete spiritual vacuum. Everything is generally aimed at being humorous and clever when talking about these topics above, while being curiously transparent and honest when referring to the self in any way. I conclude from this that smokers as a group are very genuine when expressing their understandings about themselves and families, and very self-depreciating about cultural subjects in general. They understand that they are not experts in all the issues at play and their positions reveal that while they have a position, they are not defined nor confined by their current understandings.
I would argue that we Christ-followers have much to learn about how to dialogue about ourselves and life in general from the culture at large, perhaps especially from this hyper-Christ-absent segment. One of the things that I have begun monitoring is how people perceive me in these areas, versus the general Christ-following population. Do people perceive me to be genuine and transparent, or do they perceive me to be self-righteous and judgmental? Do they perceive me to be willing to enter into real dialogue about world issues or do they perceive me as believing myself to be right about all matters?
I think these are critical differences between the non-praying world and the praying world. What would Jesus do indeed, and where might we find Him on a sunny afternoon in the Istanbul airport?
