I was born and grew up in central China where I was taught to believe in materialism and atheism. Even though I'm fond of reading religious histories and stories, I was quite cautious about converting to any religion until I met Robert, who is a devout Christian.
Robert gave me a Bible in February after we had a discussion about the existence of God. He is always ready to answer my questions as I highlight passages from the Bible. I am now a follower of Jesus.
Recently, we had a deep discussion on the following verses:
"When Jesus was asked about the most important commandments. He answered: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second one is this: 'Love your neighbour as yourself' There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark chapter 12, verse 30-31).
For sure, God is the creator of all and we shall follow him, listen to him and love him unreservedly. I totally agree with the first commandment in any way. Nevertheless, I can't convince myself that to love my neighbour as myself is as important as it is to love God.
The impolite expressions to my neighbor
I work in central Beijing and share the apartment with a young couple. House prices are rather expensive in Beijing and it's always nice to have someone to share the rent with you. The young couple moved in a week earlier than I did. They came and said 'hi' to me before the day I moved in. It was a nice gesture and I was glad that they appeared enthusiastic and friendly.
But things went wrong a week later. I was woken up by loud talking and laughter over several consecutive nights. Lack of sleep made me quite weary and grumpy during the daytime. I tried to admonish them of the noise at midnight. They promised to lower their voices.
However, their promises had gone with the wind overnight and I have suffered from several noisy nights again. I got even angry and annoyed because of sleep deprivation and their dishonesty.
To love your neighbour is to love God
"How can I love such a neighbour as myself?" I asked Robert after telling him the whole story.
Instead of replying my question right away, Robert corrected me that 'neighbour' here not only refers to people who live beside you, but also people who you are in contact with every day in different occasions.
"It might be a very tiny thing, but I think it's probably a small thing that I could offer to make it convenient for my neighbour." Robert added. "The Starbuck down to the office is always busy in the morning. Sometimes, customers need to line up and wait for the waiter to clean and dust the table from the previous clientele. Under such circumstances, I prefer to take away my trashes after I finished my breakfast so that the table is ready for the next customer."
"To love your neighbour is to love God!" Robert continued.
Robert's story enlightened me: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of brother and sister of mine, you did for me." (Matthew chapter 25, verse 40).
According to the text I could not love God without loving my neighbor.
My difficulty, loving God sounds abstract as God is almighty and ubiquitous (omnipresent). In other words, all I can do to show my affection to Him is to love the people around me! To treat my neighbours as I wish to be treated. To love my neighbours as I wish to be loved. To do every tiny nice thing for my neighbours as I wish to be done for me.
Take action
My mind set has changed! I was no longer considering myself as a victim. By contrast, I put my feet into my neighbour's shoes. The fact is that the young couple work in different places and they hardly have time to talk with each other during the daytime. The only time that they could communicate with each other is in the late evening.
Bearing the fact in mind, I had a heart to heart talk with them and we both made a compromise: no noise is allowed after 10:30pm! In this case, they will watch the time of night talk and I won't demand them to be quiet at 10:00pm and get upset if they are not. Things worked out quite well afterwards. We became friends later on and invited each other for dinner once in a while.
There must be something I can do
I was taught and encouraged to dream big ever since I was a child. I was always dreaming to do something influential to transform people's thinking and lifestyle when I was in university. The harsh truth tells me that all I can do is to support myself after graduation. It turns out there are not many "dramatic" projects actually need me in my field.
"What else can I do?" I kept questioning myself since my "dream career" looks unlikely to occur. God must have a purpose for me! There must be something I can do! I now work in Beijing while continuing to explore in my "wish career".
As I had time available, instead of wanting to do something great, I start to pay more attention to what tiny nice things that I could do for my neighbours.
This has given me inner peace and contentment by doing small good things for others. One example, helping a young mum with her stroller onto the subway, offering a breakfast for a homeless person, and contributing to my local church. I'm content with where I am.
Cheng Xingyi (known as Cindy) was born and brought up in central China. Cindy enjoys travelling and reading history books. Cindy is inspired by talking with local people when travelling abroad experiencing different parts of the world, as well as herself.
Cheng Xingyi's previous articles may be found at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/cindy-cheng.html