I had some friends who were missionaries, and after about 6 years in the field they came back for a few months to visit family, friends, and supporting churches. When they arrived at the airport, they got their rental car and started driving. As they’re leaving the airport, they stop at a crosswalk to let people go by, and from the back seat their eleven-year-old asks, in an exasperated voice, “Why do we need to stop for people?!”
For the last six years of her life, no one ever stopped for people. The rule of the road was to just keep going. It’s an example of how something you consider normal or the “right way” to do something could be completely wrong in a different context. We have been given the freedom to choose how we act in the various environments we find ourselves. We can demand our own way, or we can adapt.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 says this about the choices we make with our freedom, “19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
Out of love we don’t need to demand our way of doing things. We can become the type of person someone else needs us to be. We can stop for people.