Rebel

My kids like to tease me about something I said recently, "I wasn't allowed to rebel when I was growing up". It really cracks them up. I guess you can't really consider their behavior rebellion if I allow it. Travis and I were talking last night about how if you give your kids freedom there is nothing to rebel against, and then the times when they do push where you are uncomfortable often fade quickly away. I grew up with two type A, domineering, my way or the highway type parents. My dad was easier than my mom as far as letting me do things versus keeping me locked up in the house all day, but since I seldom lived with him due to an overwhelming sense of guilt that I was responsible for my mom, and the awkwardness of being a step-child, it was rough.
All of that to say that I think at 38 I have finally entered my rebellious phase.
Rebellion is good sometimes - think of Martin Luther nailing his thesis to the church door, Corrie ten Boom rebelling to spare the lives of numerous Jews, or anyone else who took a risk to change the world. If I am going to be lumped with anyone, let me be lumped with them, rebels that they are!

Book Review: The Hiding Place

This is one of my all-time favorite books, The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom (with John and Elizabeth Sherrill). I have read it a couple of times already, but when my girls told me they had to read it for their literature class, I was so excited that I would finally get to share this book with them. To my delight, one evening, early into the book, they were both tired and asked if I would read it aloud with them - and so began another tear-filled journey with my hero, Corrie ten Boom.
Corrie was the daughter of a Dutch watchmaker, and became an unlikely kingpin of the Resistance when Hitler's army moved into her country, managing an underground network of her countrymen offering sanctuary to many displaced Jews. When Corrie and her sister Betsie are taken to the concentration camps for their clandestine work, the real work has only just begun.
Corrie's sister Betsie tells Corrie that they must tell those who are hurting that there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still. Corrie spent the rest of her life telling others just this thing. She tramped the world (another book Tramp for the Lord tells of these days) telling others of the love and forgiveness of God, sharing the hope that she found in the bleakest of circumstances.
I was so overjoyed that my girls loved this book like I did. I was overwhelmed with emotion, and although I was so familiar with the story found that it touched me again, deeply. I remember when I read it for the first time, ten years ago. It is as profound to me now as it is then. It reminds me to look for God in the simplest things, and in the worst of times, with the faith and love of a child. After Jesus, the very first person I want to meet in heaven would be my dear friend, Corrie ten Boom.