TJ Hirst

My daughter and I just finished reading The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, which is the June Book Selection for the Bodacious Bloggity Book Club at Marathon Bird. Today EH and I each share our impressions for the discussion.

Every step in life opens into a future of uncertainty. Some of the experiences brighten us with pleasure, others hurl horrific happenings toward us and some seem to have no consequence beyond that day. The future of Corrie ten Boom’s world, like all of ours, was unknown. Yet, in her youth and early adulthood the daily faith of her family prepared her to meet the destructive forces of World War II when they reached her country and her own family with compassion and courage.

One of my favorite examples is of her wise father’s response to Corrie’s questions about sex. They were riding the train. He set his heavy bag in front of her and asked her to carry it off the train. When she said she couldn’t, he taught her this parallel truth. He said,

It would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It’s the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you.

Corrie’s father is not only giving an appropriate answer to his child but teaching her a pattern of faith. He is saying, “trust me with your unknown questions and fears,” just as she later applies that pattern to faith in God during her loneliest and most disheartening moments.

Now that my own daughter is “older and stronger” to bear some of the weight of these historical events, I invited her to share this book club discussion with me. She said:

The Hiding Place, the story of Corrie ten Boom, is a remarkable one. Through her many struggles of hiding Jews in her family home, she learns from her sister how to have faith in God. After being sent to Ravensbruck and being shown where they were to sleep, a smelly, straw-covered platform covered in fleas, occupied by seven other women, almost the first thing they did was pray. Not in sorrow, asking to get out of their situation, but thanks. Thanks for everything, including the fleas.

As Corrie remarked to her sister, “Betsie, there’s no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.”

Her reply was profound. “‘Give thanks in all circumstances,’” she quoted. “It doesn’t say, ‘in pleasant circumstances.’ Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.” When, during their daily Bible studies with the other women in the barracks, they realize that their area is rarely patrolled, Betsie finds out that it is because of all the fleas that the guards avoid the place.

Other miracles abound as Corrie’s faith grows. The vitamin oil that she snuck in for her sister continued to produce oil, even after Betsie had passed it around to so many others. When they received vitamins from a friend who worked in the hospital in the camp, the oil stopped coming out.

I read the story of Anne Frank in school, and even though I knew it had actually happened, it didn’t seem as real to me. Then I read this book, and it seemed real. It took me a little while to figure out why. Her faith, so similar to my own, allowed me to compare my life to Corrie’s.

I learned from Corrie’s story, like my daughter, by comparing it to my own life. Despite the crimes committed against her, her sister and many others, she continued to identify and strive to correct her personal weaknesses like selfishness. Ironically, her tragic circumstances of the concentration camp magnified her understanding of the biblical account of the apostle Paul’s own “thorn in the flesh.” Through that comparison she learned this truth:

The real sin I had been committing was not that of inching toward the center of the platoon because I was cold. The real sin lay in thinking that any power to help and transform came from me. Of course it was not my wholeness, but Christ’s that made the difference.

Corrie’s faith prepared her. Her adversity transformed her. That purifying process took place not in an idyllic setting but one of the most cruel. Most of our lives are not idyllic nor horrid but the reality of them presses upon us the same opportunities to meet them with faith to live and love.

Try-It With-Me Tuesday, an interactive weekly time and place to foster connections that challenge and encourage the process to become a well-rounded person.

Today is the day to report progress and results for the June Reading Challenge and the other Try It With Me Tuesday Challenges for the month. They included:

Read food labels this month to be more aware of servings size and nutritional value.

Write down everything you eat for one week.

Eat at least 5 fruits and vegetables per day for one week.

Did you try them with me? If so, leave a comment below about the one(s) you tried and tell me how it changed your eating habits. If you would like to write a post on your own website about what you did, you can include your link in the comments or send it to me, and I will publish it for you.

Read food labels this month to be more aware of serving size and nutritional value.

This part of the challenge educated me. I was in denial about how much and what I actually eat. My awareness prompted me to seek out new foods and foods I used to eat but gave up to accommodate family eating plans. Keeping an eye on nutrition facts also changed what I ate when eating out. During the week that I was on vacation I discovered smaller a la carte items like wraps with veggies to replace “the meal” or “basket” options on the menu. Ironically, reading toward better eating showed me that the foods I need most are those that are not pre-packaged with easy labels but whole foods that don’t come in a box.

Write down everything I eat for one week.

Keeping a food journal for one week and then recording my servings of fruits and vegetables the following week steered me toward proper serving sizes and amounts. Recording held me accountable to myself. I also identified the patterns of why I eat. For instance, the weekend days of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday needed a whole note page to themselves, rather than just the half pages for Monday-Thursday.

I must be a social eater. Peer influence, especially in a family, to change what you eat is tough. However, my children decided to modify our butter usage and change to Smart Balance. And I let everyone know that I am eating for me, now, and not for them. Consequently the important change I have made is to eat when I am hungry.

Eat at least 5 fruits and vegetables per day for one week.

I needed this “requirement” on myself to eat better foods, not just cut out junk foods, as the last challenge of the month. It was the one that most changed what I eat. It was easier because my children used the worksheets I printed from Dole’s website and tried this challenge with me.

We drastically changed what we ate, especially by choosing fruits and vegetables for our snacks over crackers or packaged snacks.

Thanks to a comment from my friend Alison about V8 Fusion, I started drinking V8 juice again, which I love, but stopped buying because no one drank it but me. My current afternoon snack is now a serving of V8 juice, which is an easy way to get 2 servings of vegetables.

Well, my goals this month have been mostly to receive a healthy education and motivation to eat better than ever. In the past I have reduced my food intake but never started with a shift in lifestyle thinking. That’s what I needed after fifteen years of shopping and cooking for the needs of a family. This has been about changing my meal-planning and shopping and cooking habits as much as anything. Fortunately, I do feel the support of my children and my husband and that’s going to make the biggest difference for me in long-term success.

Join in by trying the challenges with me, commenting, linking, or suggesting a challenge. If you want to write a post on your blog about what happened when you took the challenge, I will publish your link. Just link to my website in your post and send me your link. Feel free to use the TIWMT image in your post.

I’ve been considering our circles of socialization in life and how our circumstances influence our thought and belief system and our influence on others.

Minnesota Public Radio’s Midmorning with Kerri Miller interviewed Howard Fineman: Senior Washington correspondent and columnist for Newsweek and author of “The Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates That Define and Inspire Our Country.”

While I have not yet read his book, in the broadcast, “Divided, and United, By Debate” he talked about the importance of debating issues. Essentially, he says that as a nation we have been “born and bred to argue” about fundamental things that we may craft and participate in the political system of our government.

In my view that participation in talking and listening to one another is a means to “figure out” what’s working and what’s not, what we believe and what we don’t, and what is right and what is wrong, not only in politics or government but any aspect of our culture and modern lifestyle. However, as I try to live, talk, write and listen to create a conversation about ideas, I continue to bump into a barrier in all my circles that I haven’t been able to put into words.

Here are Fineman’s words:

There is a whole bubbling conversation taking part in a million different directions every day. My concern is not that the lack of sophistication is there—although that’s a problem sometimes—it’s that there’s a tendency for people stay in their own bubble, that whatever is reassuring to them, they’re constantly in it and they’re not getting out and listening to other people.

It is more comfortable to be in a bubble of people who are like-minded because we can relate to what they are dong and thinking. I have discovered this comfort zone in any community I’ve ever entered whether it be in a leadership capacity, a class at the gym, a neighborhood, church or even in the blogosphere. It feels awkward when we see a group of people around us that seem to fit together and we are on the outside of that. However, the more important point is that when we are in a bubble, it is difficult to see who and what are on the outside of it.

Fineman’s solution is to get out and listen to other people. While he admits that “most people would say that the hardest thing for any human being to do is to listen,” I would say that in my experience it is even more challenging to take the first step, to get out.

Can I really remove myself long enough from my own circumstances, concerns, insecurities and beliefs to get out of the bubble and see and hear those around me who have different circumstances, concerns, insecurities and beliefs?

On the broad scope of debating he suggests accepting the “fundamental humanity of the other people who are speaking.” On a more personal note, I suggest listening occurs more effectively when we let go of our own defensiveness.

Ultimately, the small ways I move outside my own thoughts, perspectives and conversations to listen to others enlightens my belief system to expand and strengthen it. Unfortunately, I realize I still only occasionally really listen outside my own bubbles and feel hampered in popping those bubbles altogether.

I zoomed in to take a picture of my children in front this stone monument in a sacred place. Between my children’s heads I read these words, “Build A House Unto Me.” The moment impressed upon me my charge as a mother.

My 9-year-old daughter’s story of the fish—or something—that got away:

I was fishing on my grandparent’s pond, off the dock. I swung my fishing pull into the pond. I was pulling it back in very slowly. Suddenly I felt a very strong tug, and it kept going all over the place. I was going to let go of my rod. My sister tried to help me, but she couldn’t. It was too strong. My grandma came to help me, too. It felt really heavy, and we saw a creature swimming at the end under the water. When finally we pulled it in, the hook and the bait had been taken off!