My name is David, and I am a Westerner.

I never chose to be one. I was born into it. Raised in it. Shaped by it in ways I didn’t even realize.

My thoughts, my instincts, my unspoken assumptions – I inherited them. I absorbed them like air, never questioning where they came from or whether they aligned with the ways of Jesus.

For years, I thought I was thinking for myself. But the truth is, I was discipled long before I ever decided to follow Christ. Not by a pastor. Not by a church. But by the great founding minds of Western civilization.

Their wisdom shaped my world. Their philosophies built the culture I call home. And while their insights helped form the West, they have also become barriers to my walk with Jesus.

Because the way of the West is not the way of the Kingdom.

Socrates taught me to never believe, but to question everything. Wisdom, he said, begins with doubt. But Jesus said faith begins with trust (Matthew 18:3). Childlike trust.

Plato taught me dualism. He trained me to prize the immaterial over the physical world. He trapped my mind in an abstract world of endless rhetoric and intellectual debate. But Jesus stepped into this world – touching, healing, eating, weeping. (John 1:14).

Aristotle taught me that virtue comes through reason and self-discipline. He taught me that I can shape myself into a good person through wisdom and habit. Virtue, he said, comes through reason and discipline. But Jesus said, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

Constantine taught me that Christianity should be strong and seek political dominance. He instilled in me a fusion of faith and Empire. But Jesus never sought political control. His Kingdom is built through servanthood and sacrifice (John 18:36).

I have been discipled by the West.
But I am called to be a disciple of Christ.
To take every thought captive.
To be transformed by the renewing of my mind (Romans 12:2).

To embrace faith over scepticism. Presence over detachment. Doing the works of Jesus over abstract rhetoric and debate. Dependence over self-sufficiency. Humility over power.

My name is David. I am a Westerner.
But I am learning to become a follower of Jesus.