Do you ever worry about what might happen in the future? Or do you find yourself
anxious about things over which you have no control? If so, then a teaching from
author and lecturer Corrie ten Boom may help.
She learned a powerful lesson as a little girl. Having encountered the cold,
lifeless body of a baby, she realized that the reality of death would someday
strike her family, too. Perhaps her father or mother or sister, Betsy, would
soon die. She anxiously worried about these possibilities until her father came
in one night to tuck her into bed. Corrie burst into tears and sobbed, "I need
you. You can't die. You can't!"
Her father sat on the edge of the narrow bed and spoke tenderly to his daughter.
"Corrie," he said gently, "when you and I go to Amsterdam, when do I give you
your ticket?"
She sniffed a few times and considered the question. "Why, just before I get on
the train," she answered.
"Exactly," he continued. Then he gave her assurance that was to last a lifetime.
He told her that a wise God knows when she will need things, too. "Don't run out
ahead of God," he cautioned her. "When the time comes that some of us have to
die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need -- just in
time."
Corrie and her family were sent to concentration camps where she suffered
greatly during World War II. She, indeed, was to experience the deaths of her
parents and sister, as well as numerous friends. She was to endure hardships
which she could never have imagined as a young child. But the words of her
father stayed with her and proved to be true. "You will look into your heart and
find the strength you need -- just in time."
Regardless of the suffering or hardship she encountered, when she looked inside
her heart she found the strength she needed -- just in time.
If you find yourself worried or anxious about an uncertain future...perhaps you
are running ahead. You have not yet been given the ticket for the journey. And
if that thing you fear should ever arrive, it is then you must look inside your
heart.
The strength you need can be found there -- just in time.
Author unknown. If anyone has a proprietary interest in this story please
authenticate and I will be happy to credit, or remove, as the circumstances
dictate.
Thanks to Life Support
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