Corrie Ten Boom-still changing lives…

Have you ever been through something really hard? Maybe something was done to you and you really didn‘t understand why, but maybe it caused you a lot of pain and hurt? When this happens we often ask questions like, “Why is this happening to me?“ Or, “Why would God allow this?”

I went through something really hard almost 2 years ago. I felt like my heart shattered into a million pieces and I had to make some really hard choices… choices I knew would change the trajectory of my life in big ways. While I was going through this hard stuff, I wanted to be sure I was doing the next right thing, making all the right choices…I read all the books on the subject, did all the Bible studies, I was seeking all the wise biblical counseling. And guess what? If I am 100% honest ~ it really didn’t help.

I remember one afternoon I was sitting on my couch just sharing my heart with God. I was weary and still burdened over what was happening. And in that moment, I heard in a still, small voice… “Be still and know that I am God.”

So, that day I decided to rest in Gods love. I felt I needed to focus and listen to just Him and His word. When I did, He showed me exactly what I needed. I heard God speak to me in His beautiful whisper… straight to my heart! See, I happened to come across a used book in a book sale. It was the story of Corrie Ten Boom, The Hiding Place, and it was a signed copy. I had heard a little bit about her, but I was curious why this treasure had landed in my lap. I read it, and it change my entire perspective about what I was going through.

Corrie Ten Boom was a dutch watchmakers daughter living in Holland. She was the youngest of 4 children. Corrie’s mother had died when Corrie was a young adult. Corrie and her sister, Betsie, never married. They stayed home helping their father in his watch shop that was located in the bottom of their home and caring for their family home.

Corrie did fall in love once, but the young man, Karel, had decided to marry another woman. That broke Corrie‘s heart and the night she learned about it she ran to her room crying while her father came to speak with her. He said, “Corrie, do you know what hurts so very much? It’s love. Love is the strongest force in the world, and when it is blocked that means pain. There are two things we can do when this happens. We can kill the love so that its stops hurting. But then of course part of us dies too. Or, Corrie, we can ask God to open up another route for that love to travel. God loves Karel--even more than you do--and if you ask Him, He will give you His love for this man, a love nothing can prevent, nothing destroy. Whenever we cannot love in the old, human way, Corrie, God can give us his perfect way."

Little did she know that this advice her father shared with her would help her through a much harder time in her life. A time where humans would do horrible things to other humans… where it seems there was no love at all.

When Corrie was around 48 years old World War II happened. Corrie and her family wanted to help anyone trying to escape the Nazi’s, especially the Jewish people, who are God’s chosen people. Corrie, her father, and her sister decided to help hide Jews in their homes to help them escape. They had a secret hidden room in their home where they could hide Jews if authorities came. It is estimated that Corrie and her family helped save over 800 Jewish lives.

In the end, Corrie and her family were caught and sent to prison. Her father died in prison while in solitary confinement and later Corrie and her sister were sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp.

While Corrie and her sister Betsie were prisoners there, they lived and worked in terrible conditions.

Corrie was able to sneak a Bible into camp. Every night she and the other prisoners would read from it. Corrie’s sister, Betsie, had compassion on the guards. Even though they would beat her… she would say, “Don’t look at my wound, look only at Jesus.“ “Don’t hate them”… She said, “Corrie, if people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love! We must find the way, you and I, no matter how long it takes.”

Betsie had a dream of helping everyone after the war ended. Guards and prisoners. She wanted to use the concentration camps that were being used for killing people and make them a place for healing.

Just before Betsie died in that concentration camp, Corrie was able to speak with her. She leaned down to try and make out Betsie’s words. Betsie said, ” We must tell people what we have learned here. We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still. They will listen to us, Corrie, because we have been here...There is so much work to do.“

Betsie taught others to love and forgive, even when we don’t understand.

Corrie was accidentally released from the concentration camp due to a clerical error several days after Betsie had died.

When she got out, with help of others, she was able to start a rehabilitation center for all involved in the war. Then Corrie went on to spend the rest of her life sharing her story and telling everyone about the love and forgiveness Jesus has for them. Once when Corrie was speaking at an event she came face to face with one of the guards from the concentration camp.

“It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, a former S.S. man who had Stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there – the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie's pain-blanched face. “He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. ‘How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein.’ He said. ‘To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!’ His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him. I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I prayed, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me. And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.“

When God tells us to love, He gives His love for you to love. When He calls us to forgive, He gives His forgiveness for you to give. It never depends on us or on what we can do … it’s what God can do through each of us.

Just as Corrie had learned that lesson long ago from her father, when the man she loved married another. God gave her His love and forgiveness, and she is still changing lives teaching us how God gives us everything we need to love others, just as He loves… it is His love.

Can you imagine going through what the Ten Boom family did when they were trying to help people, to save people? Corrie, nor her family, asked or wanted the Nazi’s to take over their country, they didn’t want this regime to hurt people for reasons they did. Corrie’s family didn’t deserve to die in prison or concentration camps. Their circumstances were not fair!

But through it all, they trusted God… He was their hiding place. He gave them everything they needed to do the job He had called them to do. And He will do the same for us.

It’s amazing how one testimony can change your perspective. I learned more from that book about love and forgiveness, then I did trying to do all the “right” things.

It’s God’s love that will work through me. It’s His forgiveness and it will be His strength, when I am weak.

If you get a chance, go take a listen to the song, You are my Hiding Place. While this song wasn’t written for or about Corrie Ten Boom, the sheet music is sitting on the piano at the Ten Boon home/museum if you go and visit. It is full of God’s truth for us to be reminded of when we go through hard times.

You are my hiding place

You are my hiding place.

You always fill my heart with songs of deliverance.

Whenever I am afraid I will trust in you!

I will trust in you!

Let the weak say, “I am strong in the strength of the Lord.”

I will trust in you.

~Micheal Ledner

Psalm 32:7 “You are my hiding place; you will protect me form trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.”

Psalm 56:3 “When I am afraid I will trust in You.”

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 “Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Psalm 91:1 “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”

2 Peter 1:3 “God's power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, through our knowing the One who called us to his own glory and goodness.”

Oh how He loves you!

Blooming Challenge: Trust in God that He will always give you everything you need! And the most amazing part… it is Him!

Quotes taken from “The Hiding Place” by Corrie Ten Boom

(I highlighted them and hid them away in my heart.)