And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

• Matthew 28:20b

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

• Matthew 11:28

“Once I stood with my back against the wall with my hands spread out, as if to try to push away the walls that were closing in on me. I was dead scared. I cried out, ‘Lord, I’m not strong enough to endure this. I don’t have the faith!’
“Suddenly I noticed an ant, which I had watched roaming the floor of the cell for days. I had just mopped the floor with a wet rag, and the moment the ant felt the water on the stones, he ran straight to his tiny hole in the wall.
“Then it was as if the Lord said to me, What about that ant? He didn’t stop to look at the wet rag or his weak feet-he went straight to his hiding place. Corrie, don’t look at your faith; it is weak, like the tiny feet of that ant. Don’t dwell on the treatment you might receive from these cruel people. I am your hiding place, and you can come running to Me just like that ant disappeared into the hole in the wall.
“That brought real peace into my heart. I was 53 years old, and I had always known about Jesus, but there in solitary confinement, I began to really understand and experience for myself that His light is stronger than the deepest darkness.”

• Corrie ten Boom, God is my Hiding Place

“God is my hiding place where I can run, hide and find strength.”

• Corrie ten Boom, Highlighted Quote

Boilerplate

In this new mini-series, I will be looking at a devotion that is said to be written by Corrie ten Boom.  Really, this devotion is like several that I had read.  They come from the writings of that person.  Thus, the prayers at the end may be the editor’s addition to what Corrie ten Boom actually wrote.

Each of these posts will include the suggested verses to read, a quote from the writing that came from a Corrie ten Boom book (five in all according to the copyright page, but no chapter in the book is given the specific book of origin).  I will also include the highlighted quote, similar to an internet quotation, and I will end with the quoted prayer for that devotion.

Discussion

Tante Corrie had been placed in solitary confinement because she had been diagnosed with pleurisy.  The doctor told her that the pleurisy would become tuberculosis, and they did not want her to give the disease to everyone else.  With her talking of bombings and having a solitary confinement, this is probably a story from prison before she was relocated to the concentration camp.

When she first realized how alone she was, she tried praying.  When she had to hear something, she began to sing the hymns that she knew.  The guard banged on the door and threatened her with being placed in the “dark room.”  All she knew about the “dark room” was that you had to stand in water.  At least in this room, the floor was dry, and she could sit down if she wished to do so.

When I was in a training exercise, designed to teach us how to survive in a prison camp, I was placed in a pit where you stood with water above the waste, and then we had to get on our knees, so that the water was just beneath the chin.  While the water was cool, the pit might have been used as a latrine.  I wonder if that was why there was water in the “dark room.”

But I am in a self-imposed solitary confinement.  I can leave the house any time I wish, but I wish to stay home.

I cannot spend all day on the computer.  I saw a news item on a new disorder, “tech neck.”  Some days I have no issue with it.  Other days, I wake up with it and hours at the computer make it worse.  So, I have gaps in writing.  I could go out, and I choose to do so, on occasion.  But other than church and church activities, I usually have no intention of conversing with other people.  It just happens as a natural process when you get out of the house.

For Corrie ten Boom, the solitary confinement was forced upon her.  If you are interested in the idea of pleurisy becoming tuberculosis, I could not find any connection.  The medical profession nearly one hundred years ago may have felt there was a connection. Pleurisy is an inflammation of the lining around the lungs.  Viral pleurisy usually clears up on its own, and this was the case for Tante Corrie. Untreated, bacterial pleurisy can become worse, cause trouble with the immune system, and if caused by other lung issues, might lead to serious illness and even death.

It is important to have other people that you can talk to.  Someone that is real, that you can touch.

But when we are alone, we are never fully alone.  When we are alone, we might be vulnerable to evil attacks, but in thwarting those attacks, being by ourselves can be a conduit to getting closer to God through prayer and Bible Study.

I think there needs to be some sort of balance there. But even if alone for a long time, God is always there.  For Tante Corrie, she was in solitary confinement for four months.

We cannot do such things with our own power.  But with God, all things are possible.

Closing Prayer

“Father, sometimes it feels as if I’m living in a prison-alone and forgotten. But You are with me and will never leave me or forsake me. This is more than a hopeful thought. It is truth. When it feels like I have no place to go, nowhere that seems safe, I can turn to You and hide in Your love. You are my hiding place. You paid the ultimate price to prove Your love for me.”

• Corrie ten Boom, God is my Hiding Place (prayer for Day 14, You Are Not Alone)

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.