In 1999, actor Ethan Hawke starred in a movie called “Snow Falling on Cedars.” The movie developed from an award-winning best-selling novel. Hawke plays Ishmael Chambers, a local reporter in San Piedro, who is doing a story on a recent murder case that has rocked this quiet community in California. The year is 1945 and the suspect is the husband of Hatsu, Ishmael’s former girlfriend/lover.
As Ishmael sits in the balcony of the courtroom day after day with his eyes fixed on Hatsu, he begins to drift back to his childhood memories of courting her. He remembers the details of when they first met, their time together on the beach looking for shells and sitting together in the hollow trunk of a large tree in a nearby forest. Ishmael often reminisces about their moments in the tree as teenagers when their physical desires ran wild and the relationship was consummated.
In 1942, a year after the bombing in Pearl Harbor, Americans were distrustful of their Japanese neighbors. The U.S. government, then under President Franklin Roosevelt, authorized the Executive Order 9066, which sent over 120,000 Japanese Americans on the West coast of California to “War Relocation Camps” These exclusion zones or military areas were guarded by U.S. Military.
As a result of racial tension and hostility between Americans and the Japanese communities, the relationship between Ishmael and Hatsu is forced to end abruptly as her and her family evacuate San Piedro.
Eventually, Hatsu’s father arranges her marriage to a Japanese man and they begin a family together. Ishmael is off serving in the War (WWII) when he finds out about Hatsu’s sudden marriage. This sends Ishmael into a period of isolation and grief.
The film is rich with imagery and emotional chords are struck in your heart as you discover this man’s deep love and affection for this woman. He’s obviously not “over “ her and greatly desires to be with her.
Long story short, what seems at first as a murder case becomes a story of accidental death. As Ishmael begins to investigate the details of the case, he discovers the man’s innocence.
He is torn emotionally, knowing that if he presents the evidence to the judge it would dismiss the case and free Hatsu’s husband. He wrestles with withholding the information.
In the end, love compels him to do what he does. His deep love and passion for this woman leads him to share his information, thus revealing the man’s innocence and the case is dismissed.
Ishmael does something very extraordinary here. He sacrifices his happiness for the sake of another’s. He loves Hatsu so much that he gives her up. In the closing scene of the movie, after Hatsu discovers Ishmael’s deed, she hugs him affectionately and she says softy, “You always have had a tender heart.”

What does love do? I think it drives us. It compels us to do great things. It makes us look up. It makes us hope, and it propels us to do extraordinary things!

The Apostle Paul talks about a love that compelled him to endure a lot of rough stuff in his life. He describes the source of his passion when he says, “Because of [Christ] I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ…” (Phil. 3:8)

Think about someone you love right now. Maybe it’s a person you know you can’t live without. Your love for this person is so deep that perhaps it has motivated your drive to succeed in your sport all your life.
What or Who is the driving force behind why you do what you do?

Some of the greatest athletic performances in history have come out of a passion and love for something or someone. If you love Jesus Christ, compete out of a love for your Savior! Give your performance to Him Who loves you unconditionally!