Pushing Back the Darkness, by Laura Aranda

Lately I downloaded my public library’s app so I can borrow free audiobooks and e-books. Scanning the unfamiliar fiction titles with their bright colors and dramatic images, I felt a big, dull sense of meh. Some Guy’s Daughter. Journey to Wherever. I didn’t feel like bothering to research who is and is not worth my time. 

HERE is a book worth our time! I’ll give away the message, but not the plot: human trafficking is a real problem in the United States. This book is important not just for the fictional story it tells, but because it will change the reader. 

Laura Aranda shares her message through colorful characters and an enjoyable and suspenseful plot. First, she is reminding us that the tragedy of human trafficking isn’t a statistic or a fact from a website. It’s story after story after story. It’s happening around us, and people need help. 

She also reminds us that the spiritual battle between good and evil isn’t fictional – it’s real. It’s not for fun or entertainment. Souls are at stake. 

This reality won’t go away when you read the last page and close the book. Your vision will be changed. I didn’t want to absorb what I was learning, but I am thankful that someone took the time to illuminate this need through a gripping story. 

These themes are heavy, and even haunting, but I would add - in all the right ways. I hope you will buy this book and help grow its influence. If you buy a paper copy, don’t leave it on the shelf. Lend it out, or pass it on. Spread the word about this cause.

The more we know, the more likely we are to recognize human trafficking should we see it, and we will be more prepared to help. That is the very least that we can do, and I trust that many who read this book will want to do even more. 

Corrie Ten Boom - A Heartbroken Worldchanger

I know you’re out there, you singles who are rolling your eyes at all the Valentine’s Day sweetness. It’s a bit much, isn’t it? 

Well, here's something for you. I had a bit of a revelation lately when I began to re-read Corrie Ten Boom’s story, The Hiding Place. Corrie has been my hero since I was a teenager, but at my age I have a deeper appreciation for her awesomeness. Here’s the short version.

She was born into a Dutch family in 1892.

She lived a blessed, but fairly mundane life. She became the first female licensed watchmaker in Holland, and worked for many years in her father’s shop. Many years she was also caregiving for elderly family members.

Her nieces tried to get her to wear shorter skirts and brighter colors, but she liked long skirts and dark colors. (This is hilarious to me.)

She fell in love with a guy, but then one day he showed up without warning on her doorstep with a fiancée. Seriously, who does that?

In 1940, she was 48 years old, living the routine. Then, the Nazis invaded her country, and mundane life was interrupted. Her family opened their doors to their many Jewish neighbors who were facing arrest, and in doing so, they stepped into a world of high-suspense espionage.

One week, an architect subtly built a brick wall into Corrie's bedroom, creating a hiding place for the Jews in case their underground operation was found out.

Unfortunately, it was. After helping to save many lives, the Ten Boom family was betrayed and many were arrested. In 1944, Corrie and her sister were sent to Scheveningen Prison, and later transferred to the Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany.  

Her sister Betsie died in prison, and Corrie was released on a clerical error.

She spent the next decades of her life travelling the world, telling her story, and sharing the love of God. She died in 1983 at the age of 91, after spending several years silenced and disabled by strokes.

She is remembered as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. She was an ordinary woman with rock-solid faith that saved, blessed, and influenced countless lives all over the globe. To this day, when you read her words or listen to her voice, you can feel the power of God.

She kept the faith through unimaginable suffering. She took every opportunity to give to the people in need around her. She left an example for anyone and everyone to follow.  

Her life is proof that being unmarried doesn’t diminish your value in the world by one iota. It doesn’t mean mundane, or unimportant. It certainly doesn’t mean you won’t have a crucial role in the lives of others. Singleness doesn’t sentence you to anything less than a totally amazing, world-changing, awesome life.

Maybe she didn't feel it in those days her heart was broken and rejected, but Corrie's singleness was preserving her ability to become the ministering force that she was meant to be. Regardless of how she felt about it, we can see that she wasn't being held back. She wasn't missing out. Her singleness freed her to do her purpose. Her singleness may have never felt like a gift to her, but it does to millions of other people who were blessed by it. 

Hang in there, my friends!

A Conversation with Jesus

Do you ever wonder what it was like to talk to Jesus one-on-one? In John 4 we have details of His conversation with a Samaritan woman. He asked her for a drink, and her response was to put up the guard of the cultural barrier between them. “Jews have no dealings with me.” Most likely she said this while looking at the ground between them.

He said, “If you knew who you were talking to, you’d ask me for a drink, and I would have offered you living water.”

She was skeptical. She asked, “Are you greater than my ancestor Jacob who built this well?”

He said, “Whoever drinks from this well will get thirsty again. I can give you everlasting life.”

He asked for her husband, knowing she didn’t have one, deliberately treating her with a dignity some would say she didn’t deserve. That led to discussing her marriage status. She lived with a man who wasn’t her husband, and she had had five husbands before that.

Jesus acknowledged the entirety of her past, but He didn’t berate her for it.

He saw the grief of a broken heart.

He saw her wounded spirit.

He saw self-esteem in shambles.

He told her, “If you knew who I was, and what I could give you, you would ask me for water.”

He talked to her in monumental terms of the ancient promises and world-changing prophesies about to be fulfilled.

She resonated with those words because she believed the Messiah was coming to reveal these things. She was perceptive enough to know that Jesus was important, but she couldn’t fathom that the Messiah was already close enough to touch.

Can you imagine her shock when He said, “That’s me.”

HE was the Messiah.

He didn’t elaborate on the gravity of her sins.

He simply offered her everlasting life.

In few words, He offered freedom from emotional bondage

He offered healing for her brokenness.

He offered fulfilment for her all her needs.

He made her a promise.

He gave her hope.

The next thing we know, this outcast sinner woman was running around town telling everyone, “Come see a man who told me all the things I ever did.”

Was she excited to tell everyone about her heartbreak? Her brokenness? Her sin?

No. She was excited because someone offered her unconditional love and eternal life. After just one conversation with Jesus, she was no longer ashamed of who she was. She wanted everyone to know about this gift of hope. 

As a follower of Jesus, I want to be able to interact with people like He did. I want a heart of compassion that will overstep the same boundaries and offer the same hope.

I can only speculate, but I would like to think that this lady in return gave her life as an offering to Jesus. I’m sure she was devastated at His crucifixion, and elated at His resurrection. I hope she was in the upper room for the first outpouring of the Spirit. Or maybe she was in the crowd when they asked Peter, “What should we do to be saved?” Either way, she had a story unlike any other. Her life changed on an ordinary day, in an ordinary place, after just one conversation with Jesus.