“Can’t Do Today?” Blog #177
What is the hardest thing I have to accomplish today?
Will my mind let me overcome set-backs I have In front of me?
How do I get through today when I scream inside, “I can’t”?
“Often it’s not what’s ahead of me that scares me, it’s what’s inside keeps me stuck.” The
other day I had the opportunity to listen to a fascinating true account of a young girl age
13 and her horrific escape from North Korea, not that long ago. This girl has written her true
memoir in her book called “In Order to Live”, by Yeonmi Park.
When Yeonmi was a small child her mother told her something she must never forget, “the
most dangerous thing in your body Yeonmi, is your tongue”. Why did her mother tell her
this? They lived in North Korea where no one says I love you to another person. The only
person revered above all else is the leader of their country.
In North Korea, electricity, delicious food and fun are seldom heard of. It was very common
to see malnourished bodies of poor North Korean’s laying in the street dying and feasted
on by rats. Yeonmi Park and her family were not strangers to cruel reality. Where they
lived was near the border of China but one of the coldest parts of North Korea. Her town
went for months without running water. This made winters particularly more brutal. When
Yeonmi’s father became ill, she knew she and her mother were to be sold into the “sex
slave business”. Because Yeonmi was a virgin she brought the most money. She was sold
for 275.00 and her mother was sold for 60.00. Then they were both sent to China. Just
when one thinks she could not have it any worse, you turn the page. Page after page, one
finds the pain and inhumane suffering beyond belief. Somehow Yeonmi finds her way with
each disastrous day, to plan again. Both Yeonmi and her mother think this journey to
China will still be better than where they had come from.
Yet suddenly, Yeonmi has to witness her own mothers rape by a Chinese broker right in
front of her eyes. Eventually they find each other in China after being separated and both
Yeonmi and her mother travel through the Gobi Desert to Mongolia to seek asylum with the
South Korean diplomats. This is where the story becomes nothing short of a thriller.
Again and again, as one reads each page the thought occurs, “Can’t do today?” It’s as if
you hear Yeonmi state she cannot take it anymore but her drive to “keep going” is the
miracle of the human spirit ignited by Jesus Christ. This keeps each page turning. The
sheer inner will of this thirteen year old girl gives any one person an example of courage,
determination and drive that takes her through her darkest hour and keeps her from giving
up. In Yeonmi one sees the resolve to survive no matter what. The will to overcome
adversity, regardless. There was the harsh reality that even though she and her mother
had made it over the border with brokers that guaranteed their freedom, they learned that
life would not be easy because the brokers who helped them were part of a chain of
human traffickers, who made money from selling North Korean women as brides to cruel
and physically abusive Chinese husbands with mental health problems!
Because Yeonmi Parks was only thirteen years old when she defected from North Korea,
she has been described as one of the most famous North Korean defectors in the entire
world”.
Eventually Yeonmi and her mother found their way into a Christian shelter headed up by
Chinese and South Korean Missionaries. She moved to South Korea and then to the United
States of America. She now resides in New York City. Yeonmi Park has become a Christian.
She states the following, “I attribute South Korea’s economic success to its adoption of
Christianity. I don’t know what the connection is, but South Korea became very blessed
when they embraced Christianity”. Wikipedia.
Can I do all today with Jesus Christ leading me on?
NOW LISTEN TO SONG FOR TODAY - CLICK PLAY BUTTON IN VIDEO BELOW