Editorial: Recovering God’s image in us

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

3114 Edition

October 31-November 6, 2011

Editorial

Editorial: Recovering God’s image in us

Translated by Lydia Ma

As we marveled at Japanese people’s resilience and efficiency in the days 
leading up to the 6th month anniversary of the March 11 earthquake, we couldn’t 
help but contrast the Japanese government’s performance in the past few months 
with our own government’s performance. 

For many in Taiwan, this has been a dismal year in government performance. To 
mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of China, the Ma 
administration planned many celebrations and supported a few select 
corporations with taxpayers’ money when they hosted events to draw attention to 
this special 100th year milestone. In the hoopla surrounding the 100th 
anniversary, issues such as poverty, public security, and corruption were put 
in the backburner. 

Perhaps many Taiwanese may feel saddened that they can’t seem to find God’s 
image in their people anymore. But in the midst of a dismal year, two 
achievements captured our attention and gave us comfort – Yani Tseng won the 
LPGA Championship and Taiwan won 26 gold, 45 silver, and 12 bronze medals at 
the Nuremberg International Invention Exhibition. It is comforting to know that 
though God endowed Japanese people with resilience, he bestowed creativity and 
energy to Taiwanese people.

When Tseng was interviewed about her success, she said that she just tried to 
focus – one putt at a time. She also said she never stopped learning, 
especially from her mistakes, and this helped her not to make the same mistake 
again if she could help it. 

Asked about the journey to his gold medal win, Professor Chang Hong-jung said 
he was the son of a fisherman who often helped his father and elder brother get 
rid of fish scales when he was young. As result of this hard work, he would 
oftentimes wind up with a dirty and smelly face and several cuts on his 
fingers. These experiences inspired him to invent an equipment that would get 
rid of fish scales and ease his family’s and many other fishermen’s burdens. It 
was this invention that earned him a gold medal at the Nuremberg Exhibition.

A popular Taiwanese proverb says there are two sides to everything when it 
comes to people and events. For example, Japanese people are faithful, orderly, 
and determined. The flip side of such noble characters is that they sometimes 
tend to be too rigid as well. To Japanese people’s credit, knowing their 
weaknesses has propelled them to make the most use of their strengths.

In contrast to Japan, Taiwanese people are much more multicultural and 
competitive, but we need to learn not to repeat the same old mistakes again. 
This is what we must do to succeed and to be recognized in the international 
arena.

When God created the universe, every creature was equally valuable and the same 
goes for every human God ever placed on earth. The difference is whether humans 
will endeavor to find God’s image and whether they are willing to take on 
challenges that will raise them to a higher level. 

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