My Hiding Place

Psalm 32:7

Recently I have been reading The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. This book, if you are not familiar, is the autobiography of one of the most amazing, faithful, women I have ever read about. It is no wonder after my reading and crying and praising God for His acts of mercy toward His people that He has brought this verse to life for me. Corrie ten Boom and her family hid Jews during World War II. They endured hardship and imprisonment. Many of her family members also paid the ultimate price for their love of God and His people.

I have thought about for the last few days how we as the body of Christ are called to do that today. I do not mean hiding people in our homes, although if our world was to ever go through something as horrific as the holocaust again, I believe we would be. But, how can we be a "hiding place" today? God is our ultimate hiding place. We can trust Him with anything, talk to Him about anything, confess anything, and confide in Him about anything. But, I believe He has called us to be His hands and feet as well.

One of the areas I believe the body of Christ struggles with, myself included, is being a place of safety for each other. We are called to protect each other, not hurt each other. Jesus prayed earnestly in His last prayer on Earth that we would be "one" (See John 17:20-22). Unfortunately, time and time again we see lives destroyed, marriages fall apart, abuse, depression, you name it, going on in the Body and no one even knows about it until it is too late.

Why could they not turn to someone in the church for counsel, help, prayer? When I was struggling so severely with depression, doubt, and hopelessness to the point where I was suicidal, why did I not feel that I could turn to someone in my own church? Part of the answer is because I believed the lie of Satan that no one would understand. I was the only person in the Church in the history of the world to feel this way, therefore no one would understand. Lies, lies, lies. They are the native tongue of our enemy.

However, sometimes we are not a hiding place for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes people have good reason for not talking about their problems with other Christians. You see, they might have tried that in the past and were betrayed. I never want to do that to another human being because I know what it feels like to talk about your innermost needs and feelings only to have the person you thought was safe tell someone else.

We have probably all let something slip from time to time that we knew we were not supposed to tell, but can we just not do it anymore? Can we be safe people for our brothers and sisters to turn to in their times of need? No, their physical lives do not necessarily depend on it as they did in Corrie's case, but it does hurt to be betrayed.

There are real needs in the people sitting in the pews next to you. Commit to God to be a "hiding place" for someone else if He ever needs you to be. We may not change history, but we might help change someone's life.