I recently listened to The Hiding Place, a biography of Cornelia “Corrie” ten Boom and her family, within the space of only a couple days so captivating was the true story of this family. I happened upon this book while searching for details on story I had been told many years ago. All I could recall about the story was that it involved a faithful family who was suffering in a deplorable and flea infested prison. But through their humility they were saved from despair by offering gratitude for the flea infestation, because it kept the guards away allowing them to pray and study their Bible. Not knowing the original source of the story, I found an excerpt that matched my inquiry and ultimately led to the source. I was happy to find that the book is included with Audible accounts.

The story of the ten Boom family has been the subject of many blogs and religious sermons for many decades, and rightly so. Corrie and especially her older sister Betsie ten Boom appear to have achieved a level of compassion and humility through gratitude, that feels so far beyond where I consider my own that there appears to be mountains of effort in my future if I am also to obtain it. Their story lifts the pursuit of pure gratitude to the forefront of any desire for character development within an individual. In a moment of reflection, I was caught hesitating, thinking something along the lines of “My responsibilities as a provider to my family and commitments to work would prevent me from going all in with a focus on gratitude. What about ambition, strength, or knowledge, surely one of these might be worth greater focus.” Then in that moment the scripture came to mind that answered this question for me.

“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.

Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?”

-Luke 12

Is not gratitude the way to achieve power over the material possessions of this Earth and all that binds us to it? It must be gratitude that empowers us to give more freely. I feel that a sense of pure gratitude will in turn return greater growth than pursuit of any of the other attributes I have mentioned. For the two ten Boom sisters this meant the capacity to extend compassion beyond themselves to even those that persecuted and imprisoned them. The ability to see past the evil to the shreds of humanity that remained in those who committed the deplorable acts in the Nazi concentration camps is perhaps the only power greater than the evil that surrounded them. Surly then the power of gratitude will also lift us above the trials we face daily, from simply having the motivation to get out of bed in the morning to returning kindness and compassion for anger or injustice.

I am grateful to have found this story and for the affect it has had on my attitude towards life.

And [gratitude] shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

And the eyes of them that [have gratitude] shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.

- Isaiah 32:2-3

My motivation for study on the subject of gratitude, was a talk I had the opportunity to give in church on this week of Thanksgiving. The result is included here.