Smoke and Mirrors

How is Beijing? ... I am not sure how to answer that question. My first impression when we stepped out of the airport was that this city is very dirty. Some days the smog has been so bad I couldn't see more than 100 yards in front of me, but then there are days like today which is beautifully blue and cool - so refreshing that I had to get out and run a few miles this morning.

The people can be curious, polite, and friendly; or proud and aloof; or just plain annoyingly persistantly trying to get at my American money. There are prostitutes who have no reservations about grabbing at any and every white male that walks by. Some store owners, and some beggars will also physically grab foriegners to get our attention.

Yesterday my buddy gave some money to a young beggar boy who was not even waist tall (my waist...) He followed us a few steps mumbling something in Chinese and then after we hailed a cab, he ran over grabbed the door and the seat of the car on my side and with tears rolling down his cheeks, wailed (in Chinese) "give me money, give me money!" I was at a loss; we had already given him money and I could not just close my door without crushing his hands. I tried to gently, but firmly push him away, but despite my obvious size and strength advantage he hung on with all of his might, all the while screaming and crying. Finally, my buddy got out of the car and picked him up so that I could close my door, and I reached through my window to grab the child by the arm so that my friend could close his door and we drove off, leaving the wailing child behind. It was unnatural to push him away, I would rather have taken him home and fed and clothed him, but what could I we really have done? There are people here that have been left in the dust of China's economic success whose home is the dirty street-side. One cannot help aching for these people.

Jesus says, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but he whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become a spring welling up into eternal life." A few Quai will buy food for a day, but the Chinese beggars, and everyone here, needs eternal sustinance much more desperately.

So how is Beijing? The city and its people are full of contridictions. Chinese people are very deep, and very spiritual, but they are not very open, and their spirituality has no central focus, no savior. Just like any big city there is good and bad, the very rich and the very poor, but the differences seem more distinct here. Here's my analysis: I don't know what to think - it's not at all like home.

I am still having fun though, don't doubt that! I do not at all regret the decision to come to China; there is so much to learn here about the country, about myself, and about my relationship with a God who desires that all peoples may have life abundant.