We’ve had a tough life imposed on us recently. Sometimes, however, life becomes hard by choice as when people decide to serve the Lord. Today we remember the tough life of Japanese Christian Toyohiko Kagawa (1888-1960).

Kagawa was the son of a Samurai and his concubine. His parents died when he was young so he was sent to a school where he met two American missionaries. He became a Christian and studied at a Presbyterian college.  A famous story is told about him. On Christmas Eve, 1909, Kagawa, then a seminarian, packed his few belongings into a cart and pushed them to a tiny house in the slums of Kobe. He wanted to live with the poor so he could understand them better.

The heart of his ministry was care for the poor. He was jailed several times for his advocacy of the labor movement. A pacifist, in 1940 he made an apology to China for Japan’s occupation of the country and was arrested. When released from prison, he came to the U.S. to attempt to head off the coming conflict with Japan. He returned to Japan after the war and championed women’s suffrage.

Kagawa might be criticized today for being a minister involved in politics instead of sticking to spiritual matters. Like many Christians, Kagawa did not separate life in Christ from life in this world. He wrote: “It is not enough to have ideals. We must translate them into action. We must clear our own little corner of creation.”

May God help us clear our corner of creation.

Read Amos 5:24  and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne