During this week’s staff meeting, Regina led us on a prayer exercise adapted from Robert Linthicum’s article, “Learning to love your city, part 2.” In this exercise, you look at a map (in our case, a Google map of the neighborhood around the office), ask God to reveal a site that is particularly precious to him, walk to the site, observe, read from the Bible, and pray. As I looked over the map of midtown east, I felt inexplicably drawn to the Japan Society (on 47th between 1st and 2nd), which I didn’t even know existed. I’ve never really been particularly interested in Japan or Japanese culture, and to be honest, I don’t even really like Japanese food that much (sometimes I can be pretty ethnocentric about my Chinese heritage). I went anyway, curious to see why the Lord had shown that to me.
When I arrived, I noticed a poster advertising their 6-month film series, with one film each month illustrating each of 6 planes of Buddhist existence, sometimes referred to as the “Six Paths” (Rokudō 六道). Half of the titles were in Japanese, but when I saw the last three (“Fires on the Plane,” “Hell,” and “Sword of Doom”), I just started crying because I felt so weighed by feelings of darkness, hopelessness, and spiritual oppression for the people of Japan. Japan summer projects, I’m praying for you guys!
It turns out that the day I went was the very last night of the film series, so I went back later that night to see the film, but they were sold out of tickets. I ended up chatting with the receptionist for a bit and picking up some brochures for upcoming events and a Japanese culture map of the city. Turns out there’s a cluster of Japanese restaurants and businesses right by our office!
I’m convinced that it wasn’t a coincidence that God led me there on that day, and clearly the point wasn’t the film itself, but perhaps a greater compassion and heart of prayer for the Japanese in NYC and abroad. Who knows? I’m looking forward to where God will take me next on this journey.
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