True North-Up

Have you ever seen a cartographic interpretation of the world where south is up?  The one I am referring to was an Aussie-centric map that was south-up rather than the typical ubiquitous north-up maps. It was very similar to the one below.

With a South-up move, McArthur’s 1979 projection of the earth made a profound statement of his weariness of being considered inferior because he lived below the equator (considered the bottom dwellers of the earth) and challenged the belief of European superiority as the global norm (Eurocentrism). So with a flip of the map, he moved 68% of the land mass below the equator and shifted the remaining 32% that were once bottom dwellers to living above the equator! McArthur brought an interesting perspective to the world with his universal corrective map.

A South-up map is fully functional if we keep the prime meridian (0° longitude from which east and west are calculated), latitudes (imaginary lines around the earth, parallel to the equator), and longitudes (imaginary lines parallel to the prime meridian) intact. Regardless of the orientation, the magnetic compass will still point to magnetic north; though admittedly, we are not accustomed to looking at the countries upside down or according to the McArthurian view – his right side up. Even if you put Australia dead center of a two dimensional map, as long as the locational grid shifts with it, the map remains functional even if the prime meridian is off center.

When I first saw McArthur’s interpretation, it was both unsettling and refreshing to me at the same time. It was unsettling because it revealed just how indoctrinated and entrenched my perspective was of the physical world; it was refreshing because it gave me another way of looking at our physical world. I do believe North-up (our normal orientation) is the correct two-dimensional projection in cartography, but the value of the map is that it serves as a reminder not to be too narrow minded in rejecting other possible points of view that does not alter reality. 

Somebody once quipped that our minds are like a parachute that only works when it’s open. Anyway, it was refreshing to see this upside down world point of view even though I know it to be upside down from a spiritual perspective regardless of north or south up or any other orientation for that matter!

Let me show you a right side up map that is still intrinsically partial even though it is universally accepted, though reluctantly by some.

The 0° longitude (vertical yellow line) also known as the prime meridian, Greenwich longitude, or Greenwich Meridian is running through a borough in London called Greenwich. The prime meridian and the equator are the great divides of the great hemispheres of the earth. When looking at the prime meridian, everything to its left is considered the Western hemisphere and Western time zones, and everything to the right is understood as the Eastern hemisphere and Eastern time zones. On time zones see b. Above the equator is the Northern hemisphere, and below is the Southern hemisphere.

It’s my understanding that the determination of the prime meridian at Greenwich was finally official by the International Meridian Conference in 1884. Until that time there were all kinds of maps in circulation obviously claiming their own prime meridian! The benefits to a universal prime meridian were obvious, but ultimately the decision was arbitrary. It could have easily been in the US or some other country other than the United Kingdom. Allow me to illustrate.  

Imagine our north-up map immediately above is on the screen of your smart phone, and the app is designed so that if you swipe left or right, the prime meridian and the longitude lines (vertical) remain constant but the world scrolls horizontally left or right. Wherever you stop, any place could have been 0° longitude. Though this would make a muckle of navigation because all of the established GPS coordinates on the planet and the time zones around the world would have to be calibrated to the new prime meridian and not to mention publication and distribution and updating all navigational software and devices.

Nonetheless, this illustrates that the prime meridian could have been located anywhere in the world. 0° longitude could have well been coursing north and south through Jerusalem, Israel; Sydney, Australia; or Cleveland, TN, US, instead of Greenwich, London of the United Kingdom. 

This South-up map will never take hold as a replacement for the North-up maps. I suspect that 68% of the land mass doesn't take too kindly to being thought of as bottom dwellers, which includes the United States; individual or national ego can be a sensitive thing. As far as a change in the prime meridian, this is in all probability very unlikely to happen either; for it is very doubtful that the majority of the nations of the world would endorse a change in the 0° longitude at Greenwich, if for no other reasons than yielding to practicality and costs. 

Irrespective of where the prime meridian should or should not be, it pales in light of this truth, “heaven and earth will pass away” (1 Jn 2:17; Rev 21:1). Though this corrective map of the world has sold tens of thousands of copies, it remains a novelty map rather than a navigational map.  

There is another perspective of when our world is turned “upside down” from negative situations that are unsettling, like death in the family, divorce, terminal cancer, financial reversals, loss of job, and so forth! Obviously, there is nothing refreshing about any of these circumstances, but we can still rejoice in the negatives not only because we are commanded to do so (1 Thes 5:16), but also because God is on the throne (Psa 103:19). Though all things are not good, we can rejoice in the fact that “all things work together for good” (Rom 8:28). Did you catch that – “all things? There would be real concern if it was said, “some things work together for good!”

One of the goods that come from tribulation is being a comfort to others. Recently, my pastor mentioned adversity creating an opportunity that provides an open door to touch someone’s life. God uses our tribulations so that we can be a comfort to those who are going through similar ordeals (cf. 2 Cor 1:4). This is one of the benefits of attending church and being engaged in the life of the church. It offers a support mechanism for encouraging and ministering to hurting believers. 

When our world gets rocked, turned upside down, or spun around in a dizzy frenzy, we can get disoriented fast. Our spiritual and physical GPS location is not where we are supposed to be. We find ourselves blaming God for the dislocation or accusing Him of being unloving or unfair or of desertion or all three! Through adversity a door of opportunity is opened for something greater in service to God and others, not a door for expressing anger and accusations.

In those troubling times the best thing we can do is pray and grab our moral compass, God’s Word, and in the power of the Holy Spirit regain our bearings and purpose at the spiritual and physical GPS locations of God’s will. It sounds so simple, so fundamental, but many attempt to flesh out their situations instead of exercising their faith (Heb 11:1-2). As believers we need to look at the world through the lens of Scripture in order to properly understand how the Creator looks at this world, a world radically upside down and anything but right side up with Him spiritually because they are coursing through this world by the map of their own authority (cf. Gn 6:5; Jdg 21:25; Prov 16:25; Jn 3:19).

The Bible is our moral compass that reveals the declination of sin and its attractive pull from the truth. In using and trusting our compass we remain right side up in an upside down world that is dark, evil, and spiritually dead until He takes us home or comes for us. If we foolishly set the Word aside and trust our instincts (cf. Jer 17:9), we will wind up shipwrecked or lost in some bewildering wilderness of sin somewhere.

There are no blessings in that nebulous somewhere for a believer being upside down in an upside down world. The Word of God, our true North-up, is a vastly superior and safer orientation in navigating through an upside down world than all other orientations! <><