Psalm 119:19 Memories of China
"19 I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me."
At age 17 I had the opportunity to spend some time in China. During my stay, I spent some time in Beijing where they had very sophisticated modes of transportation and clearly marked routes. I also spent some time in a much smaller city (comparatively) and even some time in the rural agricultural areas. In each of these areas I found one common problem- I was always lost. Sure, I might be able to trace my route back to where I'd come from that morning- IF I'd been paying close attention- but if not, forget it!
In the rural areas, streets meandered, crossed, and backtracked in any number of directions (unlike most of the United States where streets are laid out largely in a grid-like pattern) and were frequently unmarked. In the smaller cities, street signs were random and infrequent, and again there was the problem of their meandering lay out. In Beijing, every street was clearly marked- in Chinese! So not only did I frequently become disoriented and have no means of reading a sign (should there be one), but very few streets outside the main couple of blocks of each city had dividing lines. You may be thinking, "What's the big deal? We have plenty of one lane roads in the U.S. without lines." The problem here is that we're talking about 4 to 8 lane roads (two to four lanes in each direction)! Combine that with the crazy number of cyclists competing with vehicles for road space, and pedestrians crossing at any given point along the road, and you can see how confusing the whole situation becomes!
Now, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen and experienced it for myself, but yes, the drivers there actually seem to know what they're doing. I'm not familiar with their license standards or education requirements, but one way or another there is a common knowledge of how to conduct oneself amid what we Americans might view as chaos.
"What," you ask "does this have to do with Psalm 119:19?" Well, the verse brought me back to these memories and showed me that without God's law to guide my life in this world, I'm very much a stranger in a foreign land without any knowledge of where I should go and/or how to get there. Without God's law, I'm just as lost spiritually here on earth, as I was physically lost in China.
Specifically, this verse places me at an exact moment in time when I had gotten lost inside a mall in Beijing, only to find my way back to our group's meeting spot and find them already gone on to the next stop. I had been to far too many places that day to retrace our route back to the small university where we were staying, and I couldn't even remember the name of it. I just stood there, helplessly wondering what in the world I was going to do. (And believe you me, I was PRAYING!) The thought, "I'm alone in a strange land, please don't leave me!" would quite aptly have described the situation. So, when I read, "I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me." I was reminded that I am just as helplessness in finding my way through life without God's Word as I was alone and lost in that mall in China.
At age 17 I had the opportunity to spend some time in China. During my stay, I spent some time in Beijing where they had very sophisticated modes of transportation and clearly marked routes. I also spent some time in a much smaller city (comparatively) and even some time in the rural agricultural areas. In each of these areas I found one common problem- I was always lost. Sure, I might be able to trace my route back to where I'd come from that morning- IF I'd been paying close attention- but if not, forget it!
In the rural areas, streets meandered, crossed, and backtracked in any number of directions (unlike most of the United States where streets are laid out largely in a grid-like pattern) and were frequently unmarked. In the smaller cities, street signs were random and infrequent, and again there was the problem of their meandering lay out. In Beijing, every street was clearly marked- in Chinese! So not only did I frequently become disoriented and have no means of reading a sign (should there be one), but very few streets outside the main couple of blocks of each city had dividing lines. You may be thinking, "What's the big deal? We have plenty of one lane roads in the U.S. without lines." The problem here is that we're talking about 4 to 8 lane roads (two to four lanes in each direction)! Combine that with the crazy number of cyclists competing with vehicles for road space, and pedestrians crossing at any given point along the road, and you can see how confusing the whole situation becomes!
Now, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen and experienced it for myself, but yes, the drivers there actually seem to know what they're doing. I'm not familiar with their license standards or education requirements, but one way or another there is a common knowledge of how to conduct oneself amid what we Americans might view as chaos.
"What," you ask "does this have to do with Psalm 119:19?" Well, the verse brought me back to these memories and showed me that without God's law to guide my life in this world, I'm very much a stranger in a foreign land without any knowledge of where I should go and/or how to get there. Without God's law, I'm just as lost spiritually here on earth, as I was physically lost in China.
Specifically, this verse places me at an exact moment in time when I had gotten lost inside a mall in Beijing, only to find my way back to our group's meeting spot and find them already gone on to the next stop. I had been to far too many places that day to retrace our route back to the small university where we were staying, and I couldn't even remember the name of it. I just stood there, helplessly wondering what in the world I was going to do. (And believe you me, I was PRAYING!) The thought, "I'm alone in a strange land, please don't leave me!" would quite aptly have described the situation. So, when I read, "I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me." I was reminded that I am just as helplessness in finding my way through life without God's Word as I was alone and lost in that mall in China.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home