Binding up the brokenhearted

What I love about no longer being a grad student is that I actually have time to read books that I want to read again! It's not uncommon for me to go to bed at 9:30 and end up reading until 11:30 every night! I love it.

I've been gobbling up anything Japanesey from the library for a couple of weeks. Mostly not anything good. The Japanese literature (and movies) I've been reading and watching have been for the most part depressing! But some have left me hopeful.

The Girl I Left Behind, Shusaku Endo

This is a story about compassion and selfless love. Endo was a Japanese Christian who has written other books that I hear are amazing but have not had gotten my hands on yet. I liked this one a lot and would recommend it. I'll let you know about the others later on... By the way, the figure in this picture is an old-fashioned egg basket. I orignally thought it was supposed to be a sculpture of a woman. I guess I was trying to be too artsy?

Right now I am reading The Secrets of Mariko: a year in the life of a Japanese woman and her family by Elizabeth Bumiller. I'm a couple of chapters in and have found it really insightful into the minds and hearts of the "average" Japanese family. The author was pleasantly surprised that Mariko (the mother of the family) would be so willing, without any persuasion to allow a year-long, invasive interview to happen in her household. In a culture that is so concerned with "saving face" and not shaming the family name, her candidacy was shocking. Mariko offered this explanation:

"For me, this is a good opportunity to look back at the old days--and to look forward to the future...It doesn't happen very often that you can open yourself to people like this. I can't say this to anybody else-there are so many things you try to hide here. Sometimes you just want to bring them out, all these things that are stuck inside. I feel very happy to bring all those things out that I have hidden for so long. This is a tremendous opportunity for me to think about myself, and my life."

Can you hear this woman's cry for being truly known and truly loved? She has such a desire to be led beside calm waters and to have her soul restored, to be given a new song to sing!

Jesus, you know this woman's heart. You were there when she was knit together in her mother's womb. There are so many more like her in Japan. They don't know you. They don't know the intimacy of living a redeemed life with You. Lord, have mercy on Japan! Bring them to you! Prepare me and many others to LISTEN and to BIND UP the BROKENHEARTED! Give us your heart and may we weep for them as you do. AMEN