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A Full Life
author:
Julia Chiang
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In
a deserted wasteland called Patmos Island, a man named John saw a vision from
God – the vision of the Holy City in New Jerusalem. |
中文 |
John
saw a new city of God. This city is perfect in every aspect, and its width,
height and length are of equal measure. John described:” The city was laid out
like a square… and as wide and high as it is long.” (Revelation 21:16)
This reminds me of the three
dimensions that would make our lives complete: the length, the width and the
height.
The
length of life refers not to the years one have, but the dynamics of life that
reaches its apex, the inner concern of a person for true blessedness.
The width of life refers not to
popularity, but the capacity one has in caring for the respect expressed to
other’s lives, the outward compassion for the well-beings of men.
The height of
life refers not to the fame or achievement, but the intimacy one has with his
Creator, reflected in his interpersonal relationship with others.
These three
dimensions of life is like a triangle with self, others and the almighty,
omnipotent, infinite God at each of the angle.
The
Length of Life
The
length of life represents a person’s own goal and ideal that he sets for his
life. This is a more personal dimension in one’s life, a moral, rational concern
one has toward his life. If an individual cannot care less for his own life, it
would be impossible for him to care for others.
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The belated Jewish
rabbi, Joshua Liebman wrote in his book “Peace of Mind” that it is good
to love oneself properly:”Unless you have sufficient love for yourself,
you would not be able to love others realistically.
Therefore,
every human being has the responsibility to care about himself enough to
discover the meaning and purpose of his existence. Once a person has
identifies his mission, then he should work toward the goal without any
reservation, seeking to accomplish what he is to reach with every ounce
of energy within him.
Regardless
of the line of work, or whether one’s endeavor is far from being ‘heroic’ in
comparison with the great monumental achievement some giants in history has
arrived, as long as an individual realizes the calling of God in his life and
serve his fellow human beings, his humble existence has great significance. |
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Applying
this attitude to its extreme, then even if I am just a sweeper for the street, I
would sweep it as if I am Raphael working on a great painting, or Michael Angelo
doing a sculpture, or Beathovan composing a masterpiece, or Shakespeare writing
a sonnet, I should do my sweeping to the best of my ability so that even the
angel in heaven would exclaim:”Look, how clean he had made the street!”
Douglas
Mallock once said:”
If
you can't be a highway just be a trail ,If you can't be the sun be a star; It
isn't by size that you win or fail-- Be the best of whatever you are . When you
do that, then you already mastered the first dimension of life – the length of
life….”
The Width of Life
However,
if an individual cannot pass his concern from the length of life to the next
dimension, meaning, the width of life, then life would still be pitiful. Unless
he can transcend the personal concern of life and reach out to care for the
well-being of human kind, he still has not truly lived.
Remember
the story of the Good Samarian? One man came to Jesus and posed a question of
‘Love’, Jesus answered it with a story:”
A man was going
down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They
stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.”
(Luke 10:30)
Afterwards,
three people passed him one by one, the first two did not stop when they saw
this injured man. Only the third passer-by, a Samaritan, stopped and helped this
person in pain.
Jesus
then pointed out that he was a great man. His greatness is expressed in his
ability to go beyond personal concerns to concerns for others.
The
priest and the Levites did not have time to slow down for this victim.
Maybe their mind was preoccupied with more urgent matters. Or they might be
scared of the path they were walking on. If danger can happen to this
unfortunate guy, if I do not hurry, who knows if I might become the next victim?
But the Samaritan was asking a different question, ”What would happen to this
poor man if I don’t stop and give him a hand?” His greatness lies in the fact
that he dared to sacrifice for the goodness of others. His greatness lies in the
fact that his width of life outweighs his concerns for his length of life.
John
Donne the poet used a very picturesque image to portray men’s interdependent
relationship: “No
man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a
part of the main.
...any
man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never
send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." tolls; it tolls for
thee.”
The Height of Life
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Faith
is life a gusty wind that can remove any barricades and walls allowing
the daunting, impossible tasks to become feasible and achievable. If we
desire to lead a full life, then we have to reach out upward to seek the
help of God.
Herbert
George Wells once said:”A man without any religion is like an existence
that does not know its beginning and vanishes into nothingness.”
In
our modern society, people can be so much tied down by the mundane
things that they are unknowingly saying: ”Take care, God! We need to
leave you alone.” In this whirlwind of Secularism, it is very easy to
be washed away by the Materialism around us. |
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Pitirim
Alexandvith Sorokin, a Sociology professor at Harvard University said, ”
in the civilization that accentuates senses, people have reduced their
faith to things that are visible, and touchable, tangible by our five
senses. In reality, many great truths in the universe is beyond our
naked eyes!”
When
you stroll at night and lift your head up to the starry host, you can
see the ever-shining stars like sparkling candles in the canopy
displaying the amazing beauty of creation unreservedly before your naked
eyes. But you can never use your eyes to see the gravity that holds the
universe together.
When
you linger in the garden, you might see the ornate carvings on the
gazebos and pavillion, but you can never get into the mind of the great
architect to visualize the blueprint behind the design he created.
Man can see the architecture but
not the ideas in the architect’s head. Man can see the physical body, but not
the character inside a person. As Plato said: “The visible is only the shadow
of the invisible.”
The truth of the
matter is that even if you cannot see God with your naked eyes does not deny the
reality of His existence. Even if all scientific apparatus cannot detect God,
He cannot be expunged from the microscopic nor macroscopic view of the universe
He has created.
The
more one understands the universe, the more he should revere the Creator
God behind the universe. God has been here the whole time. Seek Him,
and He would become the strength of your life and the fountain of your
joy.
Without
Him, all your efforts would only turn to ashes one day. Without Him,
life would be only an absurd play with no rhyme or reason..
With
Him, uplifting hope can be sighted in the abyss of despondence. With
Him, dark and dreary night would inspire joy that comes with another
dawning.
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Listen
to Saint Augustine’s gentle whispering prayer:” My heart
cannot
truly rest nor be entirely content, except it rest in Thee1’
Love yourself. It is a reasonable and healthy moral self-respect every
human being should have toward himself. Love others as how you love
yourself. That is the magnitude of life. Remember, also, to “'Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your strength and with all your mind.” Only then, can you live out a
full abundant and complete life. |
(Published
on 《Overseas
Campus》bi-monthly
Campus Evangelical Fellowship-OCM No.79
April, 2007
translated by:
Violet Chen)
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References： |
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Liebman,
Joshua Loth，《Peach
Of Mind》，New
York NY. Simon & Schuster，1946
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Martin Luther King,
Peace of Mind |
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Philip
Yancey, Soul Survivor,
HK: FES Press, 2002,
p.215 |
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Augustine, Confessions of St. Augustine, |
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Scriptures sharing: |
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'Love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as
yourself.'"(Luke 10:27) |
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