I almost didn't do the 21 Days of Friendship program because I was so convinced that even though I longed for close friendships with other women, I've been burned so many times by them I had decided that it wasn't worth it. After some convincing and prodding by the founder and organizer of the event, I finally agreed about 2 nights before the program was about to begin. Since the start of it, I've found it both good and bad. Good because it's helped me realize that while friendships and connections are vital to emotional and physical health, just like physical fitness, it doesn't come naturally, or easily. For most people at least.
It's been bad because I've always had a hard time making friends, and now, I don't really have any women that I would consider a "close friend". There's no one I can truly confide in. No one I can trust. Hearing about friendships and the reflection exercises I've been doing have been like salt in an open wound. Bringing into painful awareness how alone I really am.
On my way back from MN I was listening to The Hiding Place. I've heard raving reviews about the book from everyone I know that's read it, but never really saw the big deal about it until I started listening to it myself. I listened to sections 1-6 (almost 7 hours of audio) straight before stopping to fill up, stretch my legs, and eat. The story amazed me. The attitude towards other people and the circumstances that Corrie Ten Boom was subjected to blew me away. The faith she showed, as well as the faith of her family, I didn't know existed in real people anymore.
Chapter 3 really moved me. It touched scarily close to home in the situation it described and I started crying while driving on the highway in Iowa. How Corrie dealt with it blew me away though, the faith she showed and trust in God she had inspired me to trust God and surrender my worries and feelings to God as she did.
Early in the book, we find out that Corrie Ten Boom is a 55-year-old single woman. Never been married, living in the same house she grew up in with her, also, spinster sister, and their widower father. Initially, this impression caused great fear that that might be my fate as well, and also sympathy, that a woman was fated to that destiny in life. Ten Boom's attitude was anything but that, though. From what I've gathered, she wasn't plagued with pangs of loneliness and depression, constantly longing for the companionship and intimacy her (other) sister had, as well as cousins, nieces and nephews. After some thought, this particular aspect of her life made me think of a youtube video a friend posted on facebook several weeks ago:
(Now, I know the video is long, but I IMPLORE you, the first chance you get, watch it in it's entirety!)
Corrie Ten Boom wasn't plagued with loneliness because she had the companionship that I'm sure even married couples long for at times in her sister and her father. They were there for each other, loved each other and trusted each other in a way few people today do.
People need friends. People need companionship and intimacy. People need to be able to trust and have people to lean on as they go through things in life. I think there are some women in my church now that I will eventually have that connection with. Until then, I need to have the faith and trust in God that Corrie Ten Boom had her entire life that God knows what He's doing and like it says in Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
(More about The Hiding Place to come, the book truly is fantastic and deserves more than a mention in a single blog post!)
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