I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it! (1 Corinthians 9:21-23, The Message)
Hudson Taylor was thinking that he should not be ignorant about something the Chinese enjoyed doing, so he went to have a Chinese customary massage during hair doing in a barber shop. Here is how he described his experience: “I bore with a most awful tickling as long as I could, and then the basting commenced, and my back was sore in some places ere it was over.” Then he grew used to the daily beating on which the Chinese set much store for health. But Hudson Taylor had never enjoyed the massage.
(Source: J.C. Pollock, Hudson Taylor and Maria – Pioneers in China, p.52.)
