Bumi Dipijak: The Malay Proverb

The Malay proverb goes, di mana bumi dipijak, di situ langit dijunjung, which can be translated, “on the ground where one stands, [in that place] one must bear the heavens”. In other words, man must live wherever he finds himself and not somewhere else. I must renounce my tireless quest for some “better place” in “better times” (past or future), for there is here and there is now.

A basic sentiment—and a Christian one, in my opinion. If the world is in fact a sacrament of God’s presence, if He is still acting and speaking today, then I must strain to listen and to live in the place where I am (whether in Denver or in Klang). Part of what it means to be a Christian, I think, is to believe that the Transcendent God reveals Himself in history, and can thus be found in my seemingly-profane life of eating, sleeping, work, bills and scraped knees.

A basic sentiment—but one which I find myself having to learn again and again. Too often I find myself living better lives in alternative universes. In those places, I usually suffer less, people are nicer, and things tend to turn out according to my wishes. The great tragedy (or consolation, depending on how one sees it) is that these worlds exist only in my head, and sooner or later I find myself pulled back into Reality once again.

If the God “ineffable, inconceivable, invisible, incomprehensible, ever-existing and eternally the same” (the Anaphora of St. Chrysostom) has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, who was crucified, who rose from the dead and who lives even today, then I must live in the “today” which is the day of salvation. Other worlds of my own making might appear more attractive, but the earth on which I stand is the only one He created, the only one He has redeemed, and the only one in which He continues to reveal Himself. In this very place I am asked to bear the heavens: to love the neighbors He has given me, to enjoy its trees and sunsets, and to find Him in my eating-sleeping-bills-scraped-knees life.