My Hiding Place.

Thank God for the downs in life so that I can truly enjoy and experience the ups to the max.

Thank God for allowing me to spend so much quality time with the people I love.

Thank God for allowing me to get a good sleep every night.

Thank God for letting me see how precious His creations are.

Thank God for His little mercies in life.

"You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance." (Psalm 32:7)

I've always been amazed at people who are able to see the good and only the good in others. I admit I'm not one of them - I'm more likely to dwell on the bad. Re-reading "The Hiding Place" for the third time now, and I think it's an absolutely beautiful book, about God's love and people who practice His love even in the worst-case scenarios. What I love about Christian Lit. is that while it doesn't cover up the sins and deeds of men, it instead emphasizes on the use of God's love to overcome evil. It's not a pursue for revenge, neither is it a quest to kill off one's enemies. They don't pay evil for evil, but evil for good.

That's obviously a stupid way to do, the world says. The world emphasizes and teaches so much about an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Why should we go the extra mile to be nice to someone who has hurt us? Does it even make sense to sacrifice a part of us in order to help someone out (someone whom we think are not worthy in our eyes?).

But all the pent-up anger, the accumulated hatred in us - are they not the very things that are weighing us down? If we hated one person less, if we bore one less grudge against another, wouldn't it make ourselves so much happier? Every hate, every grudge is an extra unnecessary weight. This world is so unhappy and disgruntled because we have too much hate and anger in us.

People say Christianity is a religion for the weak. But are they able to love like how Christ loves? i.e.  able to pray for their enemies/persecutors, love their enemies/persecutors? They think they don't need God and just come to the conclusion that religion is for the weak. How wrong are they! During the Holocaust, Corrie ten Boom and her family was arrested for hiding Jews and they suffered so much in the concentration camps. But yet, amidst their persecutions, they prayed for the very people who hurt them, who insulted them, who starved them. They loved those people not only with words but also with their hearts. And I think that's really beautiful. I don't think I'm able to do that, I'm not that strong. And I don't think there are many people out there who could ever do that. Does that sound easy to you? I feel so ashamed at my incapacity to love fully, even those who love me.

I love the Bible because it doesn't hide the sins of Man, it doesn't cover up those who killed, or those who committed adultery. Because everyone knows that no one is perfect, ever since sin entered this world. And because of that, God's love for us is so much greater because it's something none of us deserves in the least bit. He condemns the sin but not the sinner. The Bible is all about God's Love, it's a love letter from God to us. And I love it that it teaches us values that are sharp contrasts from the world's warped ones - "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you" (Luke 6:27), "For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted" (Luke 14:11). How about that for a controversy! 

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Excerpt from "The Hiding Place":

     'Though Betsie was now spared heavy outdoor labour, she still had to stand the twice-daily roll call. As December temperatures fell, they became true endurance tests and many did not survive. One dark morning when ice was forming a halo around each street lamp, a feeble-minded girl two rows ahead of us suddenly soiled herself. A guard rushed at her, swinging her thick leather crop while the girl shrieked in pain and terror. It was always more terrible when one of these innocent ones was beaten. Still, the Aufseherin continued to whip her. It was the guard we nicknamed "The Snake" because of the shiny dress she wore. I could see it now beneath her long wool cape, glittering in the light of the lamp as she raised her arm. I was grateful when the screaming girl at last lay still on the cinder street.

     "Betsie," I whispered when The Snake was far enough away. "what can we do for these people? Afterward, I mean. Can't we make a home for them and care for them and love them?"

     "Corrie, I pray every day that we will be allowed to do this! To show them that love is greater!"

     And it wasn't until I was gathering twigs later in the morning that I realized that I had been thinking of the feeble-minded, and Betsie of their persecutors. '