This week, I've been listening to The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. It's this month's free download at christianaudio.com, get it here.
If you have never heard of Corrie Ten Boom or don't really know anything about her, she lived during the Holocaust in Holland. She and her family hid Jews in their home so that they would not be arrested by the Nazis. I don't really know much beyond that, that is why I'm listening to the book.
Something struck me as I was listening yesterday.
It was at the beginning of the book, in 1936, World War II hadn't even started yet and Hitler was just starting to begin taking over other countries.
Corrie and her family were having a party with a lot of their friends, and the topic of Germany came up. She wondered what was going to happen, how far Hitler was going to go. Everyone assured her that whatever happened it would not affect them. Essentially they said, that's a problem for the big countries, not us, let them deal with it.
Then her brother shows up with a Jewish man who's beard had been burned off by a couple of German boys. After this happened the man had fled Germany and was hiding in Holland.
His beard was completely burnt off and the skin of his face was badly burned.
Still the people at the party refused to admit that something terrible was growing in Germany. They said that Germany is a civilized country and surely the police will do something to bring those boys to justice.
I heard this and I just thought "How blind were you?!?" How could they not see what was coming, what was happening right under their noses?
And then I thought-- what are we missing? What are we so used to that we don't even notice that it is wrong? What are we waiting and trusting in the government to take care of that we really should be doing ourselves?
Hitler invaded several small countries before he invaded Poland in 1939. Each time, England and the other major European countries would say, "Ok, but don't go any further. If you invade anything else, than we will stop you. We're warning you...."
And each time, he didn't listen. Looking back on it now we see how crazy that is. Clearly, he was a crazy dictator who wanted to control all of Europe. How did they not see that?
In the 1990s, we all looked on as thousands of innocent people were slaughtered in Rwanda. The genocide was deemed a civil war and by the time the UN stepped in to stop in, 800,000 people were dead.
The same things are happening today, but we care more about the prince of a COUNTRY THAT WE ARE NOT PART OF getting married then of young boys being kidnapped and forced to kill their own families and then fight someone else's war.
Why?
And believers, we are even worse!!
Why do we wait until the rest of the world notices something to get on board?
We should be the leaders in caring for the poor and the helpless. That's what Jesus did.
So why are we the last ones to get involved.
Why did Angelina Jolie adopt her kids before we began to notice the orphans in the world that need our love?
What are we expecting the government to do that we should be doing ourselves?
What if instead of arguing about health care and welfare reform, we actually got out there and got involved in people's lives and were a part of the solution instead of just bickering all day long?
I don't want my grandchildren to look back on my generation and think, "How could they not have seen _____? How could they have been so blind?"
Let's love our world like Jesus did. Let's strive to pour out our lives for others the way that Christ did.
If you have never heard of Corrie Ten Boom or don't really know anything about her, she lived during the Holocaust in Holland. She and her family hid Jews in their home so that they would not be arrested by the Nazis. I don't really know much beyond that, that is why I'm listening to the book.
Something struck me as I was listening yesterday.
It was at the beginning of the book, in 1936, World War II hadn't even started yet and Hitler was just starting to begin taking over other countries.
Corrie and her family were having a party with a lot of their friends, and the topic of Germany came up. She wondered what was going to happen, how far Hitler was going to go. Everyone assured her that whatever happened it would not affect them. Essentially they said, that's a problem for the big countries, not us, let them deal with it.
Then her brother shows up with a Jewish man who's beard had been burned off by a couple of German boys. After this happened the man had fled Germany and was hiding in Holland.
His beard was completely burnt off and the skin of his face was badly burned.
Still the people at the party refused to admit that something terrible was growing in Germany. They said that Germany is a civilized country and surely the police will do something to bring those boys to justice.
I heard this and I just thought "How blind were you?!?" How could they not see what was coming, what was happening right under their noses?
And then I thought-- what are we missing? What are we so used to that we don't even notice that it is wrong? What are we waiting and trusting in the government to take care of that we really should be doing ourselves?
Hitler invaded several small countries before he invaded Poland in 1939. Each time, England and the other major European countries would say, "Ok, but don't go any further. If you invade anything else, than we will stop you. We're warning you...."
And each time, he didn't listen. Looking back on it now we see how crazy that is. Clearly, he was a crazy dictator who wanted to control all of Europe. How did they not see that?
In the 1990s, we all looked on as thousands of innocent people were slaughtered in Rwanda. The genocide was deemed a civil war and by the time the UN stepped in to stop in, 800,000 people were dead.
The same things are happening today, but we care more about the prince of a COUNTRY THAT WE ARE NOT PART OF getting married then of young boys being kidnapped and forced to kill their own families and then fight someone else's war.
Why?
And believers, we are even worse!!
Why do we wait until the rest of the world notices something to get on board?
We should be the leaders in caring for the poor and the helpless. That's what Jesus did.
So why are we the last ones to get involved.
Why did Angelina Jolie adopt her kids before we began to notice the orphans in the world that need our love?
What are we expecting the government to do that we should be doing ourselves?
What if instead of arguing about health care and welfare reform, we actually got out there and got involved in people's lives and were a part of the solution instead of just bickering all day long?
I don't want my grandchildren to look back on my generation and think, "How could they not have seen _____? How could they have been so blind?"
Let's love our world like Jesus did. Let's strive to pour out our lives for others the way that Christ did.
Great Post!
ReplyDeleteBrent
Amen! By the way, "The Hiding Place" is one of my favorite books. But I also learned a lot from another of her books called "In My Father's House," which is the story of their lives prior to the Holocaust. It made me realize that they had spent their whole lives serving God, obeying Him in everything He asked. Helping Jews was just one more thing He had asked them to do. Very interesting. I know you will be blessed by both books.
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