SG...you can be right and wrong all at the same time?
God remains the same even though KFC is "broken" in Quebec.
For the last week or so while in the Canadian province of Quebec, I noticed several things that felt very North American in nature but yet different. The first was the fact KFC or Kentucky Fried Chicken is known as PFK or Poulet Frit Kentucky.
At first I thought it was a poor ripoff of KFC, but I soon realized this was the genuine Colonel Sanders. I’ve been to France before and KFC is KFC there, so I wondered why the different approach in one region of the world.
This short article explains that decades ago Quebec law required companies to have French names and though the law loosened up over time, KFC had run as PFK so long it just stuck. I was in an alternative Quebecois dimension.
Retail chain fried chicken was not high on our list for food during our trip so this glitch in the “matrix” was easy to pass, but the next peculiarity had a stronger effect on me—seeing the dollar sign in the suffix (or end) position. The first time I saw this I thought these tortillas were $10,000. What kind of tortilla would be $10,000?
This also seems also to be a peculiar Quebec situation because most countries using the dollar sign put the dollar sign first.1 Why do I care about this so much? Because this has been a fight between my youngest son and I for the last year.
My youngest son would set up these makeshift Pokémon stations in the house and put prices on cards for us to buy. When our little entrepreneur lists his prices he always writes his prices like this—1.00$. He is confusing the cents and dollars sign, which seems like a simple mistake, but seeing this same mistake over and over again drove me a little crazy. This is the side of parenting where I am no Mary Poppins or Jesus inviting the children to sit with him—I am the demanding human who wants to see something change now. I want to see dollars signs as a prefix. For my son, he could care less. Was I going to buy this Pikachu card or not?
When I arrived to this Quebecois alternate universe and saw that in this place I’m completely wrong and my son is right…my mind was broken. It got me to consider if what I believe so much about how life works, how I think people should act, and how God works…was I always right?
Like the fish in the ocean, there is so much diversity of life, and even as Christians there are so many characters and personalities. Going past denominational and political lines, just consider the differences of the following:
how you personally process life
how you express love
how you handle risk
how you relate you to others
Because you are follower of Jesus doesn’t mean you do all those things the same way. Some of us are intensely cerebral. Others wanting validation from people. Other looking for a spiritual answer to every question. Others wanting spiritual leadership to give them guidance.
Surrounded by all these crazy dollar signs, the key thing question I am asking myself now is how much do I impose HOW others should do and process things? Envying those who have strong opinions, I often wanted to mimic that conviction on approach on how one does work, family, or church. Often, I even felt I was rewarded for that kind of confidence or determination. But as I think about my life so far, so much has felt mimicked rather than my own. Where we end up just pushing styles we mimic rather than being led by the pouring of our heart and God’s love, I think it is easy to see why Jesus rebuked the pharisees in Mark 7:8 about holding onto flawed man-made tradition rather than living out the true purpose of God’s law. I will say just replacing one’s tradition with another tradition isn’t much better either, which can easily happen when making a change.2 If we push, we push everyone towards Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
As God shows me immense grace, when I interact with others, when I lead, when I am extra sensitive, and when I am seeking a certain result, I need to be more humble and more gracious because God is full of grace. And though I may be right about the position of a dollar sign in the Us, I am not in Quebec.
Have you ever felt like the expectations placed on you were more about tradition rather than following Christ?
First, what about those traditions were Godly?
Next, what about about those expectations didn’t leave room for you to grow as you needed at the time?
Lastly, we all bow before Christ, so where could we have been more humble in those situations? Bring those past actions and feelings to God.
I have different feeling about the euro sign when I see it in the suffix position because it isn’t a symbol I see much of in the United States.
There is the idea of absolute truth, which I firmly believe exists as well. But to embrace absolute truth doesn’t require absolute uniformity.
I’m not talking about we can do whatever we want before God, but as we all try to become more like Christ it is the acknowledgment that we all are coming from different “from” locations even though were are going to the same “to” in Christ. We all just need a lot more humility on all sides as we go through the process.
Your son seems perfectly logical to me by putting $ sign behind the number. Cause.. isn’t that how we say it too?? Like.. this costs 4 dollars!