In a way, re-adjusting to your home culture is like driving a car again. We make sure to tune the radio to our preferred station or pop our favorite “mixed tape” into the CD player; turn the air conditioning to right temperature; adjust the seat to the right angle; put down the visor; and set the cruise control. After a while, we often become self-absorbed as we daydream our way down the highway. It isn’t until we look into the rearview mirror that we recognize we still aren’t alone on the road. Even then, we may not sense any need to change our relaxed disposition. Yet we should be aware and alert. For, despite what we perceive at that moment, objects in the mirror are closer than they appear.
My time in South Korea is now in the rearview mirror. Yet I pray that, in my comfort, I will not forget the things that have been stirred up within my soul. I hope I will not seek to (perhaps futilely) “un-see” the things I have seen. Despite any feeling of distance between then and now, I want to remember…
There is still great suffering in the world.
A few weeks before departure, a family at Evergreen Church invited me to tour the Independence Hall of Korea. Mr. Lee, the father, is the Secretary General there. The Hall reveals the (formerly suppressed) history of Korea from 1910 to 1945, when the people of Korea suffered greatly under Japanese imperialist rule. As the description reads, it is also “a memorial that details the history of brutality and cruelty that swept across Asia a century ago and the history of resistance and rebellion for freedom and national independence.” It was a very eye-opening and moving experience for me.
One section of the memorial graphically depicts the kinds of torture that the Korean people endured in this period. It begins with pictures of wounds inflicted through merciless flogging. It was there that I also saw the wooden cross where the people laid, while they were beaten and belittled…
I looked at Pastor Lee and said, tearfully: “Just like Jesus. They suffered just like Jesus.” What he said took me by surprise: “Yes. God loves the Korean people greatly.” I wouldn’t have put that together in my mind—that the love of God expresses itself in allowing His people to suffer like Jesus. But that is a biblical reality embraced by believers around the world, yet often pushed aside in my “need” for comfort.I have been challenged to think upon that since my return here. The disciples in Acts were beaten and charged not to speak of Jesus again. “Then they left the presence of the counsel, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (Acts 5:41). The Apostle Paul said he wanted to not only know Christ in the power of His resurrection, but also “share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:10). Peter comforts the Church with this: “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name” (1 Peter 4:16).
In the imagined distance of the rearview mirror, I often neglect the reality of suffering. It seems so “far away” from life here in the States. Yet it is much closer than it appears. There are two means of suffering: the suffering we endure personally and the suffering we willingly share in, by working to bring about freedom. In that, we also acknowledge…
There is still great evil in the world.
A part of imperialist history just now coming to light is the use of “comfort stations.” The Japanese captured thousands of women from around Asia (and even the Netherlands) to use as comfort women—sex slaves forced into prostitution. The museum at the Hall displayed hundreds of yellow dots, all of which represented locations where women were daily beaten, raped, and used by soldiers…
In order to avoid accountability for this crime, the Japanese killed the women who didn’t escape as the war ended. They burned down the stations, hoping to keep this part of history hidden from the world. However, brave women have recently spoken out about it.My sister and I chatted about the movie Precious last week. We said the content of the movie was quite tough to watch, and we agreed that Mo’Nique truly embodied (in playing Mary, the abusive mother) what some have deemed “the most evil villain ever depicted on screen.” Yet we also said that the most shocking part of the movie may be…that thousands of Precious and Mary’s still exist today, “hidden away” in inner cities and places all over the globe. Yet, in our comfort, we often choose to change the channel.
Of course, it is easy to vilify Japan or Mary or any other “villain” we so deem worthy of hate and destruction. Another shocking reality is the amazing grace given through the cross of Christ, which shows us…
There is still grace available for the world.
In our insulated silence, we all share in the guilt of evil and suffering. Not only that, we are all born as children of Eden, bent toward rebellion against God and hatred of the light. Yet we are not without hope.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). I pray that truth never becomes a passing thought in the rearview mirror. I want it to stay near me, and in front of me.
“But the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim) because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:6-9).
My hope in returning here is to keep pressing on, for the sake of the gospel. I do not want to become self-centered again, but to remember where I have been, recall what I have learned, and embrace what I have experienced— as part of a greater plan for the glory of God. Now, the world is in my sights. And I pray, in my bent toward comfort, that its suffering—and its great Hope—do not come to appear further than they really are.
