Friday, August 31, 2012

Corrie Ten Boom


So, I recently wrote a paper on Corrie Ten Boom, a Holocaust who was imprisoned for living out the gospel to God's chosen people. This is what I wrote for my "Personal Application" section of the paper:
            God is so good, but sometimes we forget that. I forget that whenever something happens that goes against what I thought was God’s plan. As I studied the life of Corrie ten Boom, I was reminded of something no Christian should forget: God’s thoughts are not my thoughts, neither are His ways my ways. His thoughts are so far beyond my understanding, and His ways so much greater than anything I could accomplish.
            So, how is it that I can for a second question the will and work of my God? Yet, that is what I do whenever I look around me and think, This cannot be right. Nothing good can come from this.
            If anyone ever had a right to complain about their circumstances, it was Corrie ten Boom (besides, of course, our Savior, and maybe Paul, the Apostle). She watched the man she loved marry another woman, while she lived the life of a spinster. She watched her mother suffer through paralysis before dying slowly. She was torn from her home for helping God’s people who were being persecuted by a hate-filled world system.
            Then, she was put in one of the most horrific living situations imaginable, and there watched her beloved sister waste away before her very eyes. Her father and her brother both died as a result of ill-treatment. And her life was never the same. But her response was to do exactly what God had called her to do: to love, to forgive, to rejoice.
            How often I am upset because I don’t get the job I want, or I can’t afford a car. I am dissatisfied with the timing of my education, or the living situation I found myself in. But I know, like Corrie and her family, I am doing what God has called me to do. I am living a life of service to Him. And sometimes I think that means I am entitled to something… better. But the truth is, in this world, we will face persecution. That is a promise. But with it comes another promise: the Holy Spirit.
            Corrie ten Boom was right. God never asks us to do anything without giving us the power to accomplish it. And He gives it to us just when we need it. Not early. Not late. At the perfect time. He is faithful, and that is what allows us to be faithful.
                Her life is a great reminder of how we are to live. No matter what life brings our way, we need to live in surrender to the Lord of life.

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