I had the luxury of a 4 day weekend and what did I do? I got completely depressed by reading The Hiding Place. Started it Friday, finished it Monday. For those who don't know the premise of the book it is basically a woman's (Corrie Ten Boom) journey through World War II. I was joking that I thought it was going to change my life, but in the end it is no joke at all. God has destroyed my incompassionate heart, and by default me in this woman's story. I have come to the conclusion that my brain paints very vivid pictures when I read. I think this is why anything in the genre of fantasy is so boring to me. Reality is so beautiful, thrilling, painful, gripping and a constant reminder that God works in ways that are as mystifying as they are wondrous.
Corrie Ten Boom grew up in Holland. She and her sister lived with their father in a watch shop. Ultimately Corrie became the center of "the underground" (a group that helped hide Jews all over Holland.) She was arrested put in prison, and eventually got transported to a concentration camp.
Throughout the book I constantly found myself putting myself in her place. These people took in the people that no one else would take. They were every moment risking themselves for the sake of strangers. The part that gets me is they could have avoided it all because they weren't Jewish. How many times do I choose not to help because it is easier for me? When she was in solitary confinement I was just imagining the pity party I would be throwing while she was praying. They (Corrie and her sister Betsie) thanked God for the fleas in their bunks, they held worship services for everyone. They lived with the boldness we are called to live with, and God blessed them for it. It turned out the fleas they thanked God for were the reason they never got caught during the worship services. The guards wouldn't come near their dorm because of them. They were granted an amount of privacy that was probably unheard of in concentration camps because of a disgusting bug I would have been cursing. It is one of the best pictures of good and evil in humanity I have ever seen. I was sick for a number of hours, completely disgusted with the depth of wickedness in humans. How can someone kick someone to death and feel no guilt, in fact feel good, like they are doing human kind some sort of service? I get brainwashing. I understand that it is very powerful, but you have to at some point put yourself in a position to be brainwashed. It doesn't just happen one day while your on the way to the store. How did a man so corrupt get into power and manage to coerce a nation into believing that Germans were somehow better than anyone else? How did no one stop him before millions upon millions of people died for no reason? Why does genocide keep happening? It just isn't fair. I hate it.
I will leave you with a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer to think about because I could rant for 10 hours about this...
"It is the nature, and the advantage of strong people that they can bring out the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them. The weak always have to decide between alternatives that are not their own."
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4 comments:
i loved the hiding place too. they lived as "a different order of beings". i found myself underlining everything the father said. they lived such integrated lives. there wasn't really a line between natural & spiritual for them. it has changed my life too.
If I can parent half as well as their father did I am doing really well. He was brilliant when it came to explaining things to kids in ways that left them unquestioning and satisfied.
The thing I loved the most is that I think the Ten Booms felt as if there was no other alternative than to be goodness and grace in the face of such terror. It never occured to them to behave differently. Their whole lives they had been sowing seeds of reaching out to people and meeting their needs. In some ways their lives didn't change a bit when the war came...just the culture that surrounded them. So profound that they maintained the simplicity of Christ's goodness and love from within despite all that was on the outside. I can't wait to have long conversations with the Ten Booms!
what i think i appreciated the most was how real corrie was. it was hard for her to thank God for the fleas. she struggled with pride, with anger, with selfishness. YET she overcame by the grace of God. her life though far beyond my own, seems accessible, because she clearly shares her deficiencies and shows how God alone moved through them.
so wonderful to think that God could move through mine and thus through me!
i loved so much about this book. i will never forget its impact.
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