Many poems fascinated me during my younger days. One of them is Bai Lee’s (李白)“Meditation in the night (静夜思)”. Below is its Chinese part as I have no English translation:

床前明月光，疑是地上霜。舉頭望明月，低頭思故鄉。

It reveals an emotion of homesickness with a feel of serenity. Looking at the two actions of head-up (舉頭)and head-down (低頭),described in the second verse, a sharing idea came up to me.

Let me start with this question: “Have you ever heard a new slang / acronym / term called ‘Head-down group低頭族’”? I was not clear about its meaning initially. Then, my wife explained to me that the slang was trying to depict the odd behavior of current generation of geeks – with all the modern electronic gadgets and technology, such as laptop computer, cell phone, iPad, etc. – they are always heading down to read emails and text their messages, or browse the internet, or play games, or watch videos, etc. I realize that I am one of them too 🙂

The head-down scene is so prevalent that you won’t miss it if you have a chance to go to any public place, such as malls, schools or working places. You may say, “So, what is the big deal?” Well, the big deal is those gadgets captivate our focus and keep our heads down all the time. As a result, we may not pay attention to people around or any surroundings. Sometimes, this is also the case in my house – when I talk to my kids, they are either not listening or respond it because they are heading down to laptops. The addiction is what I am really concerning the most.

On the other hand, I am going to give you a new slang / term called the head-up group (舉頭族)。I still remember my Tai-Chi master’s teaching in the old days. He frequently said, “Head up and back straight! You can’t be skillful if you keep you head down and bent your back all the time 低頭彎腰，所學不高”.  Similarly, in our faith journey, all we can see are nothing but “troubles” and “difficulties” if we always keep our heads down.

The head-up group is a group that looks up to our Lord (仰望神), all the time. This good habit of looking up will keep us from “captivating” by the modern gadgets. Moreover, when we learn to look up, we can then see who is “enthroning” in the heaven as the prophet Isaiah. At that time, we can be as sure as the apostle Paul, said, “If God is for us, who can be against us? 神若幫助我們、誰能敵擋我們呢 (Romans 8:31b)” .

The addiction and captivation by the modern gadgets can sway our focus from God to worldly enjoyment. However, there is a means for us to transfer from head-down group to head-up group – We have to keep up good habits of daily devotion and prayers with our Lord. King David taught us that we have to seek God and pray to God while He may be found; consider Him as our hiding place and He will protect us from trouble and surround us with songs of deliverance (Psalm 32:6-7).  My dear brothers and sisters, are your head still down? It is time to look up!