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.

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

  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.

        (Published on 《Overseas Campus》bi-monthly  Campus Evangelical Fellowship-OCM   No.79  April, 2007  translated by:  Violet Chen)

References：

Liebman, Joshua Loth，《Peach Of Mind》，New York NY. Simon & Schuster，1946

Martin Luther King,  Peace of Mind

Philip Yancey,   Soul Survivor,   HK:  FES Press,  2002,  p.215

Augustine,  Confessions of St. Augustine,

Scriptures sharing:

'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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