Today we are going to do a little 'reality check', based upon the story of Corrie ten Boom.
When Holland fell, the radio had said 'don't worry, everything is okay' and then twelve hours later, there was no more national radio, bombs were falling, and news spread that the Germans were coming. Within days, the soldiers were in the streets. This began curfews, food shortages, rationing cards, and needing to have your papers on your person at all times. You couldn't shop without them.
It wasn't so bad at first.
Then they had to line up and give to the government their radios, their connection to the outside world. Corrie's family had a small portable one, which they gave, but the large concert-style one they hid in a hiding place. They listened to it very low, once in a while, to learn what was going on in the world.
Fortunately, Corrie spoke both Dutch and German. During World War One her brother, a minister, would sermon to the people about how the war was going to change the world as they knew it, and they needed to repent and turn to Jesus now!
Parishioners go to church to 'feel good'. They don't like to hear such things. So Willem left that parish and started to run a nursing home for the aged and the sick. The people may not have wanted to listen to what Willem had to say, but certainly, he was ahead of his time. The seeds of World War Two were planted in the Peace Concessions of Germany at the end of World War One. Their people were starving!
It took three years of slow, steady changes, first of Jews needing to wear the yellow stars, to outright persecution.
Here is the reality check: most people obeyed the new Government, and since it was someone else instead of them being persecuted, they shut up and didn't stop it. This unique combination of fear and self-preservation is prominent in times of upheaval...taken to the extreme, people become animals, and are driven by hunger and thirst to do whatever it takes to survive.
Corrie's family was well-known in the community as watch makers. And they were just as well-known for their charity. Her mother used to make soup for the bereaved, for the sick, and minister to their earthly needs. So, when the Jews needed help, Corrie's natural instinct was to help them. Her Bible training her family had given her all her life, made her and her family KNOW that persecution of anyone was wrong. It was evil. And they had to stand up for it. Willem had been active in the Underground for a long time. Even at the nursing home, they were taking care of the young, able men who were at risk for being rounded up and sent to work camps. They made them into female nurses and maids to protect them. Many of the Underground workers had to cross-dress for their safety. And also, all of them took on the last name of Smit--so even if one confessed they wouldn't be able to disclose the true identity of the fellow Underground resistance army to the War.
Gradually, gradually, Corrie's family got in deep. There was a warning sign in the window to let people know it was okay to come in for 'watches' (the Underground). There was a secret phone. And also there was an elaborate warning system to buzz that a raid was imminent, as well as timed practices to get all the 'visitors' into the Hiding Space in time. Their best time was seventy seconds, consistently, and with stalling techniques at the doors it could save lives. And it did.
One day before the raid, the Jews were singing, and the neighbors knocked on the door. They asked Corrie's family if they could have the Jews sing a little quieter because they could hear it through the walls...
This was the ten Boom family's 'reality check': what they had thought was going on in secret, everybody knew, the whole town knew, and fortunately they were not talking.
Which brings us to the next point--although fear and survival make people act in certain ways, many of them sympathize with and silently support the cause of the ones who are doing what is right and taking the risk. Their hearts are open enough to know right from wrong, and to permit what it right to take place.
There are several characters like this in the book. The red-haired police chief named Rolf. The prisoner nurse's aide at Ravensbruk. The officer at the Dutch prison Corrie, Betsie and Father were taken to initially. The prison doctor who got Nollie released for health reasons when Corrie, who was free at the time, went to him to ask. The different prison doctor who got Corrie into solitary confinement for her illness, instead of five women to one cell. The list goes on and on.
At the end of the story, Corrie was released from Ravensbruck. She had bad edema of her legs and had to wait for it to go down. But the timing was exactly as the dying Betsie had said! Very soon. Corrie got back her watch, her mother's ring, and her money (Dutch) that had been taken from her at the beginning of her imprisonment. They gave her beautiful clothes, bread, and two meal vouchers. It was a long and confusing train ride home because of the railroad damage from the bombs. But she got home to a hospital, and nurses told her she was suffering from malnutrition, to be careful what she ate, and helped her to a real bath, the first in months! Total imprisonment was from the end of February until the end of December. Betsie had said they would have a ministry and people would listen to Corrie because of where she had been. Betsie was right.
It was a clerical 'error' that got Corrie released from Ravensbruck. One week later all of the women her age were sent to the gas chambers.
Corrie and Betsie used imprisonment in the concentration camp as a way to minister to others about God's love for them. They thought it was 'secret'.
I'm sure somebody somewhere knew. I'm sure if all the prisoners knew, the guards must have known too. And because the fleas were so bad in their one barrack, nobody went inside to put a stop to the ministry.
And I'm sure somebody, somewhere, knew that the people Corrie's age were being sent to the gas chambers soon. And that unknown soul had an open heart, and was behind that 'clerical mistake'. Without them, there would be no movie, no ministry all over the world from Corrie, no book, no anything.
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
Let us Ponder this.
Nurturing, warmth, love and compassion are our natural vibrational frequencies.
Anything less is just some imaginary, temporary, illusion that we are not at Home.
What better way to heal those who have been exposed to the worst Illusion, than flowers and gardening, sunshine and loving support?
That's what Corrie created as we spoke of yesterday.
Today, our war is different. It is a Spiritual war, just like Corrie's was. It always is a Spiritual war. Even in Ross' time.
Most of the people are too frightened to recognize they CAN put a stop to evil that is affecting them.
As David Icke said yesterday, 'now is the time to stand up before even MORE control systems are in place'.
Remember the sympathizers exist.
Listen to your heart.
If it comes to you to be like Corrie, you will know it's the only choice that's right for you, and you will do it.
But someone had to be the one to make the 'clerical error' that spared Corrie's life, too.
So, as long as your Soul Connection to Divine Creator is strong, daily, natural, and healthy, you're going to make it through. It might be like Betsie or Father. It might be like Willem and Nollie. And some might be like Corrie. If that is God's will.
Remember the pattern--infiltration, invasion, removing access to news (or accurate news), rationing (lots of resources are diverted to support the war effort), harsher and harsher controls. People will naturally try to save themselves, most of them, because they don't know the things Corrie and her family did or we know. Realize this is what is, and don't dwell on it. Some will behave that way, but in their hearts, support what is right, and sympathize with the cause. People are people, and most aren't going to take up the battle call in a Spiritual war. They just don't.
There is never going back to what we had. Never. It's always forward. And how that forward is going to look and feel depends on how willing people are to be humble before their Creator, to really examine themselves like Willem was encouraging them to do, even to tear their clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes. That SAVED towns back in the day! Because in a spiritual war, things are not as they seem, and spiritual will be what will help win the war. Not fighting. Not aggression. None of those things will work and we are easily overpowered in the ways of the physical world. So tap into your Spiritual strengths--not Ouija boards and stuff. Real Spiritual strength in your soul to be LOVE 24/7, 265, to everyone you meet, even those who are mentally sick like Betsie clearly saw and prayed for her tormentors who were broken indeed!
Take each day as it comes. Smile. Be thankful for what you have. There are no guarantees.
Ross is smiling big and nodding in agreement. He says, 'I couldn't have said it better myself.'
clap! clap!
Aloha and Mahalos,
Namaste,
Peace,
Ross and Carla
The Couple
