End of December Thoughts

Christmas Eve candle lighting service in Kobe

The five of us and Millie, our Kobe SAM

What’s happened to my brain? With so many Christmas-related activities, family coming home for the holidays, and our traveling back to Kobe from Tokyo to lead the church in celebrating Christmas and New Years, my head seems to have shifted into neutral. As a result, it’s been two and a half weeks since I’ve written for our blog. I’d like to change that today while everyone is out shopping. Besides, shopping isn’t a favorite pastime of mine, even if my head and body weren’t tired from the pace of December.

Let me say up front: I’m not a kanji expert. In truth, I use these thousands of Chinese characters as little as possible, which explains why my Japanese reading and writing level is actually quite embarrassing for someone who has lived nearly thirty years in Japan. Still, I know a few characters. One of the most interesting is the kanji for busy—in Japanese, isogashii. It is made up of two parts. The right half is the character for “to lose.” The left half represents “heart.” In other words, when one becomes busy, one risks the danger of losing one’s heart.

In fact, this is exactly what has happened to me this month. Certainly it’s nothing I’m proud about. After all, as a Christian, Christmas ought to be one of the most meaningful times of the year. Writing Christmas cards should be a joyful exercise in sharing the good news of Jesus’ birth as the angels did when they appeared to the shepherds on the hillsides outside of Bethlehem. Instead they gave me stiff shoulders. I felt more pressure than pleasure as I wrote and wrote and wrote, and I’m still not finished although Christmas Day 2007 is now history. (And from yesterday, the Japanese custom of writing New Year’s cards was added to my never-ending “to do” list.)

Then there’s the busy church calendar of special activities, including the Christmas Eve candle service, a children’s Christmas party, and a New Year’s Day service not yet planned, much less prepared. Even if I only attended these, they would still take time. On top of this, our family of two suddenly has expanded to six, so there are many added household chores, never-ending trips to the grocery store, and dinner preparations that begin almost as soon as the last meal’s dishes have been washed, dried, and put away. I’m thankful everyone is helping eagerly, and I’m overjoyed our family is together once again—usually we’re in three different countries—but I sometimes find myself sighing loudly with physical and emotional tiredness. Isogashii seems to have taken its toll.

I am reminded that Jesus left his disciples at the end of a busy day to go up into the mountains to pray. He’d just had a major teaching assignment for a huge crowd that had gathered on the hillside. Afterwards everyone was hungry, so he miraculously fed five loaves and two fish to five thousand men, not counting the women and children. (And I thought I had a houseful to feed!) Day after day, and not just in December, the demands on Jesus were endless. The only way to keep from losing his heart in the midst of it all was to protect his quiet time with the Father whereby he could be refreshed and renewed.

In fact, this is exactly what I did this morning. Is it any wonder I’m feeling my heart again?

Still Meditating on Christmas

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together

in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully

and wonderfully made . . . . My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place" (Psalm 139:13-15).

No one will ever know the impact this one life could have had on the world.

The product of a high school liaison, the baby was conceived in secret and kept that way until there was no choice but to confess what the boyfriend-girlfriend couple had done. Many offered grace—God himself offers it. A Christian organization would have provided a home for the young mother-to-be where she could have delivered the child and then given her up for adoption. The agency’s director met with the family and shared that there is a long waiting list of people eager to adopt babies—even here in Japan where adoption of children outside one’s blood line generally has not been accepted.

Many prayed for the baby to be allowed to live, but in the end, the decision to eliminate was made. It is best for all concerned, the woman who would have been grandmother declared. Easier perhaps, but best? For whom? Certainly not for the baby.

And what of the teenager who would have given birth? Now she is heavy-hearted with guilt about both the illicit relationship that brought life and about her decision which ended it. I recall that Mother Teresa often spoke out against abortion. I cannot quote her directly, but she once said something like, “One sin isn’t corrected by a second one,” as she pleaded with young women to allow their babies to live.

Abortion. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, 46 million babies are aborted worldwide each year. This statistic becomes even more striking when it is broken down: 126,000 babies aborted daily, 87 each minute, almost 2 every 3 seconds.

In Japan, abortion is the number one method of birth control. Illustrative of this fact, there were 341,588 legally induced abortions in the country in 2001. This represented a 2.5% increase over the previous three years. From 1998-2001, both the abortion rate (the number of legal abortions per 1,000 women) and the abortion ratio (the number of legal abortions per 1,000 live births) increased by 8.3% and 5.4% respectively. Like the teenager I’ve been thinking so much about lately, women less than 20 years old contributed most to these increases. (According to one 1990 study, pregnancies among Japanese adolescents occur at a rate of about 22 per 1,000 girls. Most of these pregnancies end in abortion.)

Especially at this season of the year, we celebrate the birth of One whose life has made an eternal difference for the world. I cannot help but wonder what if Mary had chosen the easier way?

More Thoughts before Christmas

Christmas lights in Shibuya, downtown Tokyo

Christmas is everywhere in Japan. So many are the Christmas trees, lights, and carols playing in the stores and along the streets that, at first glance, one would never imagine that this nation has no Christian heritage and little real understanding of what and Who Christmas really is. Conversations, however, are revealing.

Last week, for example, I was at our exercise gym. Kaori, one of our trainers, was chatting with me. Of course, she could chitchat since she wasn’t working out. I, on the other hand, was struggling just to breathe. Needless to say, the conversation was quite one-sided, and my responses to her questions were more monosyllables and grunts rather than real dialogue—until she broached the subject of Christmas.

“What are you doing for Christmas?” she queried.

“Going to Kobe,” I managed to answer while continuing to attack the green and purple stacking blocks used for stepping up and down. (Good for your heart, I was told—as long as you don’t have a heart attack.) Then I coughed out three more words, “To our church.”

“Nice! A church must be a great place for Christmas,” Kaori responded enthusiastically.

Her comment brought me to an immediate halt in mid-step. More than a little incredulously, I blurted out in reply, “Of course! Church is where Christmas is real. Where else would you celebrate Christmas?”

Kaori laughed, “We Japanese love festivals, any festivals. Buddhist, Shinto, Christian, Hindu, whatever.”

At her prompting, I resumed my up and down rhythm on the blocks. Trying to talk further was difficult, but since I was pondering her words, it was just as well. To Kaori, Christmas is an excuse for a party. She’s open to a fun time anywhere, even in church. But nothing will be different when the party is over. The more I thought about it, the sadder I felt. What a hollow celebration—having fun that will only fade away because she doesn’t understand the reason and source of Christmas.

Recently I’ve heard that Japanese youth today regard Christmas as a season for couples. Perhaps it’s a lead-in to Valentine’s Day, when women give men milk or dark chocolate, and White Day one month later, when men return the gifts with white. Whatever the reason, an American friend was surprised by a young man’s response to her cheery farewell. “Have a merry Christmas,” she’d said. “Oh no,” he replied, “I’m single.”

So here it is three weeks before Christmas. I’m preparing for church activities, of course, and they are many. But I’m thinking it’s time to revamp my schedule so I can be outside the church more this month. Otherwise, culture will continue to define Christmas. And quite frankly, culture—both in Japan and in America—has got it all wrong.