History: forgiving the SS

April was an important month for Adolf Hitler.  His 56th birthday was on the 20th of 1945.  Ten days later, though, on April 30th, he would take his own life in a bunker in Berlin.

We've all heard of the atrocities committed by Hitler and his National Socialist (Nazi) Party, but what if you experienced the atrocities yourself.  Could you...forgive?  A young woman named Corrie Ten Boom faced that very question.

Corrie lived in Holland where she and her family hid Jews in a hidden room in their house.  Corrie believed "You cannot love God without loving the Jewish people."  Eventually, she and her family were caught and sent off to various concentration camps where her closest friend, her sister eventually died.

By the grace of God, Corrie survived and shortly after began speaking about what God taught her through her experience, particularly focusing on healing and forgiveness.  But, then, one fateful day someone was in the audience she did not expect.

The following is from her autobiography, The Hiding Place:

"It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck.  He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time.  And suddenly it was all there-the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie's pain-blanched face.

He came up to me as the church was emptying beaming and bowing.  "How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein," he said.  "To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!"

His hand was thrust out to shake mine.  And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendall the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

"Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them.  Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more?  Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.

"I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand.  I could not.  I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity.  And so again I breathed a silent prayer.  Jesus, I cannot forgive him.  Give me Your forgiveness.

"As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened.  From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

"And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His.  When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself."

It's time for some competition!!!

Hi guys!

Have you ever wanted to group up and test your brain skills against an opponent?  If so, come by LW next week Thursday for the Academic Challenge 3-2-1 Competition.

Questions Unlimited hosts the event throughout the country with a date range so that groups can compete any time during that range.  All we have to do is log in together and the challenge begins!

We'll have you put your knowledge together to answer a series of questions in a 90 minute time slot.  Then, after Questions Unlimited closes the competition they will rank all the scores and we'll be able to see  how you did against competing middle school students across the country.

We'd love to have you join us, so come to Lutheran West next Thursday, April 6th at 3:30 to put your brain to the test!

Zip Lining with the Honors Academy

The high school Senney Honors Academy usually holds one or more retreats a year.  This past fall we held one just before the beginning of the school year.  It was a great way to hang out, get to know our new members, and face a challenge.

We went to the Common Grounds ropes course and zip line course.  Check out a fun video I made of our adventure!


SHA Common Grounds from Lutheran West TV on Vimeo.

A Burning House, a Suicide, and St. Patrick

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Ok, this is the last St. Patrick thing!  I just find his life so interesting!

You may have noticed that the Bible stories you learned as a kid were the sanitized versions.  The story of Noah and the Ark for example was not just cute animals on a boat and Samson wasn't just about a really strong guy.

The same is true of St. Patrick.  When Patrick was a slave in Ireland, his owner was not some cute, funny guy like the one portrayed in the Veggie Tales video from last week.  So, after Patrick escaped and then returned to Ireland many years later, his former owner did not run to embrace Patrick or the Jesus Patrick shared.  Instead...he locked himself inside his house and burned it down.  He feared that Patrick had returned to get revenge and chose instead to take his own life.  Not the greatest start to Patrick's mission work in Ireland, eh?


Life with Jesus is not sanitized.  Sometimes the people we are trying love turn around and hurt themselves, or us.  But Patrick didn't give up because it got hard.  He believed that the people of Ireland needed Jesus, that their life without Him would leave them incomplete and unsatisfied and unsaved.  Like Paul says, "Christ's love compels us" to be lights in the world.

But for there to be a need for light, there must be darkness.  I want to join those pushing back the darkness, like Patrick did.  I can only hope you might join us too.

Why St. Patrick Matters to Me

A number of years ago, I struggled with lots of nervousness and anxiety.  I would feel nervous even when there wasn't any reason to feel that way.  Eventually, I discovered that had what is called an anxiety disorder.  This is where your body send the signals usually designed to be sent when you have a real reason to fear, aka there's a bear over there-run!!!  So here I was experiencing that feeling at random times of my day without any apparent reason.

As you can guess it was a struggle.  At my church, I asked one of the pastors to pray for me.  He did and then encouraged me to pray "the prayer of St. Patrick."  Now, I've never been a fan of reciting prayers.  I prefer instead to just talk to God normally.  But, I was desperate so I looked it up and here is part of it:

Christ shield me today

Against wounding

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ on my right, Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in the eye that sees me,

Christ in the ear that hears me.

I learned that supposedly Patrick, when he was traveling through hostile parts of Ireland where his life was often in danger because he was sharing Jesus, would pray this prayer.  

I have found the words of this prayer to be a serious comfort for anxiety in particular as it helps me realize that God is not "out there somewhere" but actually is inside and all around me, all the time.  

Below is a video of a recent worship song that makes use of some of the prayer's words:

History and Faith: Who Was Saint Patrick?

Check out this fun, but true tale of who Saint Patrick was.  Man, this guy changed the world.

Real Life: How to date and not lose yourself

My analogy wasn’t exactly right last time.  I said that “There’s one basket, though, that is more important than any of these and has helped me weather every storm.  It’s the one that is tied onto my wrist and never drops.”

It’s not really on my wrist.  It’s not just another basket in my hands.  I realize that I am IN this basket. 

Your soul, your inmost being, the you of yous, like your body, can get tired when stuff hits it.  Relationships are full of hurts.  Even good ones!  When two people are trying to get along and share life together, you will indeed hurt each other (For good relationships they learn to use the process of hurt, forgiveness, and reconciliation draw them closer).

Obviously, break ups hurt, but even when a dating relationship is going well, you are two people with differences and those differences will sometimes hurt each other. 

That is tiring to the soul. 

Sometimes you can feel worn out, like you have no more left to give.  Or you may really think the person you are dating is worth it, but you don’t know how to get past an issue that the two of you are facing.  You are tired.

So when those egg baskets fall and break, you may fall too.  What will hold you up?  Where will your tired soul go?

David, in a song he wrote, has the answer for me.  “My soul finds rest in God alone.” 

If your soul is rested in God…

…you still have something to live for if you get dumped.

…you can forgive your boyfriend’s stupid comment.

…you can keep loving your girlfriend when she’s in a bad mood.

…you can still be ‘ok’, even if you and your boyfriend are having issues.

…you don’t have to be so crazy jealous of everything your girlfriend does without you.

…you can know that you are still loved and important even if you don’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend.

…you can survive betrayal and have the strength to find love again someday.

None of these things are easy and they will hurt.  But the song (from Psalm 62) goes on to say, “Pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge.”  Let your soul rest inside God’s basket and you’ll feel much safer trying to carry the other ones.