39 And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.
40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed,
42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
This summer I'm going on a journey to the Reformation lands. It's a dream come true in being able to visit where Luther, Calvin, Zwingli lived and brought about the monumental changes that led to the Reformation.
It will give to me an opportunity to see some places that only exist in my imagination, or on the internet.
One of the places I wished I could visit, but probably won't is a place called Haarlem, Holland. Here, back in the 1930's lived the ten Boom family. Along one of Haalem's streets sits a home that is really two houses. Corrie ten Boom lived there for decades. It was three stories high, two rooms deep, but just one room wide... this is Europe.
Corrie's father was a watchmaker and the small shop faced the street. In the late 1930's the tension in Holland increased. Nazi Germany soon moved to conquer all of the lowlands and then into France. The Jewish people were being arrested and property was being confiscated, and the Jews deported to the East - there were rumors of prison camps. The ten Boom family made a decision - to hide those who were threatened with arrest. The house with it's weird configuration became the perfect "hiding place". Over time, many Jews were hidden behind a false wall in Corrie's bedroom. Eventually they were discovered and the family was arrested and deported east. Corrie and her sister ended up in a place called Ravensbruck, an extermination camp. Her father was sent to Scheveningen where he died almost immediately.
Betsie died in Ravensbruck, and Corrie was suppose to, but through a clerical error she was released, just one week before women in her age group were exterminated. Later Corrie would proclaim: "God does not have problems, only plans."
After she was released she went back to Holland determined to set up rehabilitation for those who survived the concentration camps and came back jobless and penniless. She ended up speaking all over the world as a public speaker about the holocaust and sharing the gospel. At the end of her life she moved to California where she died at the age of 91.
Corrie's message after the war was that Christ Jesus came to save us from our sins. God "so loved" the world that he sent his son to save them from their sins. His forgiveness, mercy, grace and goodness gave her the ability to trust in Him - regardless of the circumstances. When she and Betsie were confined to a barracks, it was Betsie who challenged her to believe and trust, no matter what. When they got fleas, Betsie told Corrie it was God's grace that sent the fleas - because it hindered the guards from coming into the barracks and allowed them to be free of assaults and be able to hold bible studies and prayer times. Who of us would say, "Thank God for Fleas"?
Towards the end of her life, when some friends provided her a beautiful home in California, a visitor said to her, "Corrie, hasn't God been good to give you this beautiful place?" She replied in a firm faith filled way, "God was good when I was in Ravensbruck, too."
How can we learn to trust God when everything seems to be falling apart around us? Trust involves "letting go" of our need to control...which if we really think about, controlling life is impossible to do. Someone once told me, "Worry is assuming responsibility for things God didn't give you." True
Let's come full circle. Jesus knelt in the garden and "let go"...trusting his Father above his own desires. Trust is one those things that is presented to all of us almost every day of our lives, and it's up to us whether we will say "Lord, I trust you" or live in the fear, worry, and sometimes anger of wanting my own will to be done.
Peace
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