A number of weeks back I was sitting in a cafe in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala when a friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in two years shocked me.
She said, “It’s so good to see you Jonathan. And it looks like you’ve gained weight since I last saw you!”
The smile on my 185 pound body quickly turned into a slight scowl, and I waited for her to continue.
“You look great. You were too skinny before.” After pausing to reflect on her own body, she continued, “I wish I could put on a few pounds. I’m too skinny.”
My scowl transformed back into a smile. I burst into laughter thinking about the absurdity of her comment.
As I composed myself, I told her, “I can’t imagine this exchange happening in the United States.” And after a few minutes of explaining how people often view each other’s bodies in the United States, we each continued dinner with our enculturated views about weight and beauty challenged and expanded.
The next morning Rev. Juan Pablo Ajanel picked me up from one of the many parks in the city and we rode in his pickup truck to a Methodist Church a few miles away. As we made our way through busy streets, I didn’t know what to expect in worship that morning.
Click here to read the rest of my guest post at Seedbed.com.
To read this article in Spanish, click here.
Here are some more photographs from my trip:
La Casa Del Mundo – Jaibalito, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
This was my hotel one night!
Paragliding with Realworld Paragliding Company – Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
El Parque Central – Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala
[Read more…] about What If Beauty Isn’t What We Expect? Lessons from Worshipping in Guatemala