| | Today is the luckiest day in China. 8-8-08
8 is pronounced "ba" and the word for fortune sounds just like it. Using this number whenever possible is irresistible to the Chinese. Many of them have an 8 in their cell phone number. They get married in August. They even try to have babies during this year. But today, is the luckiest day of all. The Chinese people have been waiting for this day for 9 years now, ever since 2001 when the Olympics were announced to be in Beijing. China has been preparing for this day like I've never seen any event prepared for in my life. Motivational speeches over the past 9 years have envoked the call to make a great Olympics. Imagine hearing the same thing for 9 years, "Do well at your job, to make a great Olympics!", "Study hard at school, to make a great Olympics", "Build this building...", "make this incredible sacrifice...". Any thing you can imagine. I've wondered for a while now if this isn't going to be a great big let down.
This must be the greatest feat of irony that was ever constructed. For a country that seems so superstitious as they believe in luck, they sure do a lot to fashion their own fortune. It's kind of this vicious self-perpetuating superstition. 8 is a lucky number, therefore I'll do all I can to fashion my life around 8. Since I've worked hard to make 8 so great, everything seems to go my way. I work hard to have good fortune and I have good fortune because I've worked so hard. On the one hand you sort of have a derivative of the biblical principle of reaping what you sow. That principle isn't in their mind though. What's more likely their perspective is the height of humanism. All of your hope is found in what you've put all of your work into. If your hard work isn't able to achieve it for yourself, then blind luck is all that you have left.
This is what I find most saddening anywhere I look in the world. Everywhere we go we can see people who put their hope in something that will ultimately burn like chaff. Satan's greatest tool is giving people ill-founded hopes for issues of eternal significance. He allows people to see that things aren't the way their suppose to be. But he makes them believe that if they just had this one thing, then everything would be right. If we just had enough money, or the right job. If we just had that girl or that house or that car. If we just elect this politician or pass this law. If ____, then all would be right in the world.
I too hope that the Olympics will be great for China. I hope it brings good forutne and international relationships for the Chinese people. I hope it makes China a better place. I hope it makes China a place where the Good News roams freely between all people.
But honestly, I'll be happy when this whole thing is over. I'll be happy not to hear another English speech about all of their hope is found in a glorious Olympics. I'll be happy when people don't think that this is the best thing for them. I'll be happy when this distraction is over and people begin to think about what object of hope can truly give them eternal significance. Where does hope not dissappoint? What (Who) do we hope in?
So fill in the blank: If ____, then all would be right in the world.
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| | Posted 8/8/2008 10:48 AM - 26 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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