Let Your Heart Be Broken

I ventured out alone on Monday night to see the movie, The Stoning Of Soraya M, that is showing in only 1 little theatre in Orange County. I know for those of you who know me it won't be a surprise when I tell you I cried all the way home.

A true story, Soraya M. was a mother of four children in a little village in modern day Iran. She was fiesty and had managed to endure through her husband's beatings and scorn, but her inner strength enabled her to never back down from standing up to his evil deceit and unrelenting self centered and serving ways. Her husband found a 14 year old girl in the city that he wanted. He couldn't afford to keep two wives, so he concocted a story of his wife commiting adultery so he could be rid of her. He blackmailed and manipulated the powers that be in the village to get his way. They stoned her.

If you don't know how a stoning takes place, you may want to keep it that way. I've heard different things in Bible studies, but ....... you just wouldn't believe it.

Obviously, I cried. But the thing that got to me was the voice on the way home. "You're 52 and probably can't see this change in your lifetime, but what young people are in your life that could do something about it.?"

Soraya's dear aunt is the woman who tells the story to the journalist who "just happens" to be passing through the village the very next day with a tape recorder. She sneaks him up to her house and tells the journalist the previous day's events. She was the one who helped dress Soraya in her wedding dress and stayed with her while Soraya said good-bye to her little daughters and prepared her for her stoning debut. As a believer, a woman might not be able to stop an honor killing, but she could be a very real presence in her life...a Christ presence.

This all takes me back to the bench I sat on at the University of Jordan 1 year ago. I talked to a very conservative muslim woman about her secret. What secret did she share with me? That at the age of 23, there was a boy in her life beginning to pursue her. He wanted a kiss, but she knew that if she gave in to that kiss, she could be killed....(motioning a knifing across her neck)
I remember the yearning in her eyes as she explained that the men constantly want women in the physical way, yet they are the same men who would judge their daughters some day and even conduct a family honor killing. She didn't say all that to me in a language I could understand, but I understood.

The day we visited The Dead Sea there was an honor killing of a young girl who had had some inpropriety with a boy. Of course, it wasn't anywhere near the resort area we were at, but it is unbelievable to know that while we were splashing around in skin enhancing mud and floating on salt water, that somewhere that same body of water was engulfing a young girl's life at her father and brother's wishes. Do you know how many chains and balls it would take to carry a body to the bottom of the Dead Sea? EVERYTHING and EVERYONE floats on the DEAD SEA.

Oh, what to do? As I sit in my cushy office and cafe latte' beside me, and my husband tucked neatly across the hall in his office...and he's taking me out on a date tonight like he has for the last freakin 24 years!!

I think God wants our hearts to break for the things that break his.