Last night I stayed up late, until eleven, finishing the book The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. I read it once as a teenager, when I was in Campus Life. I found it highly inspirational. But also, due to the times, I had to stop in the middle because I couldn't bear to hear about the concentration work camps. It's too close to FEMA and home.
I saw a video today of a woman crying because her son's insulin (he's Type one diabetic, and needs it to live) is now five hundred dollars a box when under the last administration it was only sixty dollars. The insulin itself only costs pennies to make. With a coupon she got it for three hundred and twenty eight dollars, or something like that.
She said to those who voted in this system, WAKE UP! This is only the beginning...
This is Haarlem, Netherlands, where Corrie is from.
Two things came to me, actually three, from the book that I hadn't appreciated the last time I read it.
The first was that to Betsie, no matter where she was, everything was an opportunity to share the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ who was born, died for our sins, and rose again. Corrie noted how the more terrible the physical conditions were, the more rich and bright the Spiritual work became. So many fellow prisoners were hungry for the word. And the impact of Betsie, to help the women calm and quit fighting in their barracks was clearly evident too.
The second was that the workers in the Concentration camps and prisons were prisoners of a different kind. They were forced to work and were far from their families. There was a darkness, a different kind of darkness, of the soul they suffered from. The one officer who interviewed Corrie asked how she could believe in a God in a place like that. And she witnessed to him and offered to pray with him. He accepted.
The last and the most striking was the people that the prisoners hated most, and that the Dutch hated most, were the Dutch who helped the Nazi's: the informants, the inspectors, anyone who 'ratted them out'. It was their betrayal of their fellow countrymen that was hardest to heal. These were given shaved heads, and couldn't find work, or a place to stay, or food to eat.
Corrie, in her infinite wisdom which is the wisdom of the Lord, initially opened her Beje house to a home for the 'feeble minded' (mentally delayed) because their schools were closed. She opened many houses and even an old concentration camp--to heal Dutch and Germans from the traumas they had experienced in the war. But once the schools for the mentally delayed were reopened, and the house was empty, Corrie invited the betrayers to come to her home and stay and eat and heal. Corrie had remembered her betrayer, and seen him after the war. She couldn't forgive him. She asked Jesus to forgive him. The betrayer wanted her to shake his hand, she couldn't. But then she felt a warmth and glowing from her head down to her arm, and her heart was filled with Jesus' love for this soul who was seeking her forgiveness. So she forgave. And then she created the ministry for souls like his.
This bit chute was very impressive for both medical and social insights: unconventional war with Maxine
This other one is good, but I had to cover my eyes in the spiritual surgery part: article which has a video
I helped to support a friend, who is having serious problems with her caregiver mom, over Maxine.
This morning when I first woke up, I sat at the computer but didn't know what to write. The time passed. I showered and blow dried my hair. There was one last birthday surprise--to take Anthony to breakfast where his friends were waiting for him and I would buy for them all.
One friend has had a girlfriend for a year. And she arrived late. We've never met. But she is super thin. And brought her sister. They hardly ate. They ordered one waffle and a side of bacon. To share. And she didn't know how to cut her waffle! Her father always cuts it for her (this is a high school junior and plays soccer on a travel team). There was still half a waffle and a piece of bacon to take home. Clearly, an eating disorder was highly suspected in them both.
Back in Corrie's time, as well as in ours, the real prison is in the mind. Betsie, was truly free, and her mind was never a prison. Corrie, had times where she compared her small sins of hoarding the vitamin bottle for her sick sister to the blatant cruelty of the concentration camp, as 'nothing', but in time, she learned that a sin is a sin, and she gave her trust in the Lord, and was able to get the life back into her barrack ministry in the flea-infested quarters again.
If you are reading this, your mind is most likely more like Betsie's. Which is good.
But how to deal with the asleep, the hypnotized, the mainstream mentality?
The answer is LOVE.
The heart is always open, and is always able to get energy from our heart center. The direct aura-to-aura transmission bypasses the brainwashing. And hopefully, in time, those who are asleep will awaken.
This requires exceptional connection to Source on our part, in order to renew and sustain us.
Please recall that PRESS, you write your impressions down for each letter. Not just the section you read. Writing is important in so many ways. Especially writing by hand.
Now I will get back to my tasks for the day. I haven't worked all week. There is a Zoom meeting in a little while I must attend for work. All in all, it has been a wonderful week, filled with blessings, family, and friends.
Enjoy each day as if it was your last. This is the only way to truly Live in the Present.
Ross
Yesterday Carla did something she doesn't want to share, but I will share it. She went on the Marriott site for home rentals, and looked in Hawaii. She was 'trying on for size' possible places to live for her retirement. She realized many were in one neighborhood, all home rentals, using the same amenities in the gated community--pool, spa, exercise room, private beach. For three hundred dollars a night you could bet the same amenities as the seven hundred dollar a night room.
But then, even though her heart was soaring looking at the mountains and golf courses and beaches she knew well, and was exactly where she'd like to retire--she realized that some of these properties she might purchase in the future might be next to similar 'vacation rentals'. She knew for a fact some people who live in the local beach communities are upset at the noise and partying from such 'vacation rental' homes.
So she made a note to the future.
When she went outside to the car, she noted the many palm trees, and understood perhaps even now she is where she is meant to be for a long time. In different ways.
Our futures are not visible to us. But they are visible to me and our spiritual teams. Draw close to them. Allow them to guide you to your future happiness.
These dreams in the future are vastly more important than happy memories from the past.
They help you grow.
Freedom is only a thought away!
clap! clap!
Aloha and Mahalos,
Namaste,
Peace,
Ross and Carla
the Couple
