Resources Mentioned in Episode: 

I want to tell you about a woman who changed my life.

Her name was Corrie Ten Boom. And since I read her story for the first time in The Hiding Place, my life has never been the same.

She was a fifty-year-old watchmaker in Holland when the German occupation began. Ordinary in almost every way. Small income. Simple life. No influence and no power

And yet, she and her family saved the lives of over 800 Jews during World War II.

When I knew all she and her family had sacrificed for absolute strangers, I wanted to know: "How do you build a family like that? How do you become the kind of person who, when the moment comes, risks everything to do what is right?”

The answer, I've come to believe, is that Corrie wasn't trying to be a hero. She was just trying to be faithful. She loved God. She governed her heart and her mind. She learned to live by principle. She served the people right in front of her.

And it multiplied into something that, eventually, the whole world felt.

On this week's episode, I walk through Corrie's life. I demonstrate how she lived every single one of the 7 Laws of Life Mission, quietly and faithfully, long before the war ever came to her door.

Here's a little of what you'll hear:

This story is one of my favorites.

Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Audrey Rindlisbacher, author of The Mission Driven Life, founder of The Mission Driven Mom, and we get to do something really fun today, which I thought certainly we had done before, but I looked through the podcast, and we have not done it. We're going to do a mission-driven story of Corrie Ten Boom, a woman who absolutely changed my life.

Reading The Hiding Place for the first time really was a total game changer for me. It shifted my mindset. It changed the way I thought about myself and my family and my life, changed my goal sets. It was really profound, and today, we're just going to touch on the life of Corrie Ten Boom as she lives those Seven Laws of Life Mission.

We haven't done this for a little bit, so I'm super excited to get started. All right. Here's how I want to start, with a story that's really profound about her.

A Story of Bravery: Corrie Ten Boom and the Jewish Family
Near the beginning of the German occupation of Holland during World War II, Corrie Ten Boom, a 50-year-old spinster, was visiting Jewish friends. In the middle of their discussion, the children called from upstairs for their father to put them to bed. He quickly excused himself, and Corrie could hear their romping play and laughter. As she listened, reflecting on the deep love that was present in their home, a realization suddenly struck her with intense force.

This family was in grave danger. More and more frequently, Jews were going missing from their homes and jobs, but now she awoke to the fact that this family, her dear friends, could be next. At any moment, the Gestapo could knock on this door, raid the house, and separate the family forever. With this awareness came an overwhelming sadness and an anxious desire to help.

As she waited in their living room, she wondered what she could possibly do. Her life was simple, her income was small, and her resources were few. She felt she had little to give, yet she was willing to do what she could. In that moment of great bravery and generosity, she said a silent prayer and offered up all she had. "Lord, I offer myself for your people in any way, any place, any time."

This family saved the lives of over 800 Jews during World War II voluntarily, when most of the people around them did not. They found out about the resistance, they joined, and they risked their lives and eventually gave their lives to save the lives of strangers. And what I wanted to know when I first read The Hiding Place was, how do you build a family like that? How do you build a life like that? How do you build a character like that, to be the person who would be different than all the people around you?

I can't judge anybody that was there because I've never been through anything like that, and I genuinely don't know what I would do. But I wanted to be like the Ten Booms. I wanted to be the family, the individual, the mother, the woman that would welcome people into my home at the risk of my own life. And they eventually did. Many of the family members did give their lives for complete strangers.

So I want to go through the life of Corrie Ten Boom and just touch on the Seven Laws of Life Mission and walk you through that path that the greats have followed to become the men and women who did change the world.

Corrie wasn't out to change the world. Corrie was just trying to be the best woman she could be. She was trying to listen to her conscience and live by principle and follow God and His mandates and serve her fellow brothers and sisters on earth. And yet in that pursuit, their family became world famous and has changed the lives of millions of people, including me.

So let's touch on these Seven Laws of Life Mission today through the lens of the life of Corrie Ten Boom and talk about some of her stories. And I'll give you some resources when we're done for how you can continue to learn more, because she's incredible.

She was born in Amsterdam, Holland, on April 15th, 1892. And I want to just go through and tell you some stories from each of these times in her life about how she lived each of these laws.

So Law One, of course, is to love God by establishing your divine center. And she definitely was someone who, from childhood forward, established her divine center in God.

She said, "Love for the Jews was spoon-fed to me from my very youngest years." Daily prayer for the Jews began when Willem Ten Boom, her great-grandfather, started having daily prayers in their home for the Jews in 1844, and continued for three generations. For 100 years, until 1944 when they were arrested and put in concentration camps, they prayed every day.

Not surprisingly, Corrie stated, "As a result, deep respect and love for the Jews became part of our home life." They knew that praying wasn't enough, though, and as Corrie herself later taught, "We never know how God will answer our prayers, but we can expect that He will get us involved in His plan for the answer. If we are true intercessors, we must be ready to take part in God's work on behalf of the people for whom we pray."

So from the time that she was little, she was taught that prayer was vital, that she needed to read scripture daily, say prayers daily, and to be willing to do whatever God asked her to do. Her father, Casper, came downstairs every morning at 8:10 and gathered his family around him all the way through her twenties, her thirties, her forties, her fifties, because she never married and always lived at home. And they read scripture and prayed together every single morning.

I want to tell you a couple of stories from Corrie's growing up years, experiences that she had that helped her better learn to love God.

One day when she was disobedient in school and was sent to the headmaster's office, instead of going there, she ducked into a closet and waited hours for school to end. She was certain that she would be dismissed from the school and had no idea what she should do. She believed it would disgrace her father, as he had helped to found the school. When she heard the bell ring, she made for home as quickly as her legs would take her.

Once there, she poured out her heart to her sister, Nollie. She told her everything. Then Nollie suggested that Corrie pray and ask for forgiveness. This was already a clear indication that at a young age, these girls had been taught key spiritual truths well and knew the importance of heeding them.

Since forgiveness had been asked, Nollie had another idea that might help. She remembered her father's scripture reading and excitedly asked Corrie, "Do you remember that boring Psalm that Papa read at the table, where every sixth or seventh verse were the same words?" She quoted Psalms 107: "Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distress." She said, "Why couldn't we do the same?" And so they did. The young schoolgirls, taking their father's words and example to heart and crying unto the Lord, fell asleep comforted. The next day, to her joy and great relief, Corrie met the headmaster, who only gave her a slight reprimand and sent her back to class.

So when they were in trouble as young schoolgirls, they used spiritual principles and tapped into God's grace to help them overcome this problem that they had in school. So amazing.

When she was a bit older and she fell in love for the first time, this was an experience where she also had to learn to put God's will first in her life.

During her high school years, a visit to her older brother in college led to a chance meeting with a friend of his named Karel. She was immediately captivated. Happily, Karel showed interest in return, and though they saw each other rarely, each time they met, the relationship deepened. After spending the day together at her brother's wedding, Corrie felt there was hope for a future with Karel. Months later, they connected again, walking and talking day after day, until, "Suddenly we were speaking not about what Karel was going to do, but about what we were going to do." Corrie knew then that Karel was the one for her.

When the family returned home, they tried to gently help Corrie see that Karel came from a wealthy family and, although he may talk romantically with Corrie, he would marry within his social standing. Refusing to believe it, Corrie hoped on, even after Karel stopped returning her letters. Finally, the fatal day arrived when Karel brought his fiancee to meet the family. Devastated by the news, Corrie tried to keep her composure and be polite until she could escape to her room. There, she wept and wept until hours later when her father came to talk to her.

He extended an invitation to Corrie: turn to God, let His will be done. "God loves Karel, and if you ask Him, He will give you His love for this man, a love nothing can prevent, nothing destroy." Corrie knew that if she was willing, if she truly loved God and knew His way was the best way, she would turn to Him and let His will be done. "My task just then was to give up my feeling for Karel without giving up the joy and wonder that had grown with it."

She mustered all her strength, and with all her heart she whispered an enormous prayer: "Lord, I give you the way I feel about Karel. Give me your way of seeing Karel instead." God answered her prayer. The next time she saw Karel, Corrie realized that the pain was gone. Love was still there, and she could honestly wish for his future happiness. She also felt peace in what she believed to be God's path for her, to never marry or have children of her own. She was able to be willing and put God at the center of her life, come to know Him, and live and love His laws because she centered her life on God.

Now, Law Two is striving for self-mastery by loving yourself. A big part of self-mastery, a big part of loving ourselves, is self-discovery. So I'm going to tell you a couple of stories in Corrie's life from when she's younger and a little bit older, and she discovered some important things about herself.

As a young girl, Corrie felt intense empathy for the poor and homeless that walked the streets near her home. With the encouragement of her parents, she prayed for them, and she tried to find ways to help them. Once, when Corrie saw a homeless but drunken, mentally ill tramp being teased and taunted by a group of children, Corrie stood up to them with such power that they quickly scattered. The tramp approached her and kissed her on the cheek. Far from scaring her, it endeared this man to her even more. "And a deep concern for the feeble-minded was fostered in me," she said.

Little did she know that the seeds were being planted and traits developed that would enable Corrie to accomplish one of several missions she would eventually feel called to do, working with and teaching the mentally handicapped. Years later, when she was running her own program for the mentally handicapped, her father showed great reverence and respect for her work. He once told her, "Corrie, what you do among these people is of little importance in the eyes of men. But I'm sure in God's eyes it is the most valuable work in the world."

Another way in which we learn to love ourselves better is we discipline our heart and mind. When Corrie was alone in her room grieving over losing the love of her life, her father gave her priceless counsel on how to face her trial: turn to God, forgive, and keep loving. He was right, and Corrie aligned her life with those truths and disciplined her heart and mind in order to better love herself.

One other instance I want to tell you about is when Corrie gained more self-discovery and learned something more important about herself.

This took place years later when Corrie and Betsie, still unmarried and living at home, had assumed adult roles in the family. Betsie helped in the watch shop, and Corrie managed the household. Although they both enjoyed their work, when Betsie became ill and her illness lingered on for several months, it became necessary for Corrie to take over many of her duties in the shop.

To their delight, they accidentally discovered that Betsie loved beautifying and caring for their home so much that she was sneaking out of her bed to clean, paint, and organize. In the meantime, Corrie couldn't get enough of managing customers, balancing the books, and learning watch repair. Their father was delighted with their discovery and encouraged them to make the change permanent, much to everyone's added happiness and fulfillment. And one of the things that came from this that's really remarkable is that in 1922, when she was 30 years old, Corrie became the first licensed female watchmaker in Holland. She loved it and did it for the rest of her life, until after the war when she assumed other duties.

Now, Law Three is to love truth, and this means that we live according to principles and align our lives with them. I want to tell you one instance where Corrie came to understand the nature of true principles and aligned her life with them.

When she was a little girl, she and her best friend were troublemakers. She said, "I was no angel. Mischief was my middle name, and Dot, my cousin, was my best friend and a willing partner. If I didn't dream up a prank, she would." Then one of their pranks taught Corrie the importance of obedience to principles.

One day, as they walked to school, Dot showed Corrie a dime she had found which was broken in half. This was a lot of money to them. They could buy 10 pieces of candy, a rare treat for poor girls. Without saying a word to each other, they proceeded together to the sweet shop on the way to school. They ordered their candy, and then Dot picked it up as Corrie arranged the dime on the counter, making it look like a whole piece of money. Then they bolted for the door.

As they rounded the corner just outside the shop, they could hear the owner shouting at them. They ran even harder, never looking back. But Corrie learned her lesson. She later said, "We felt so guilty, and for weeks avoided going by the candy store. The candy didn't taste very good either." She committed herself to living a life of honesty after this experience. She had learned the importance of that true principle.

Law Four is loving humanity by becoming a servant leader. Here's a really remarkable story about when Corrie used everything that she had learned, her self-education, her understanding of other people, her love for them, her self-discipline. All these ways in which she had lived the Laws of Life Mission came to bear in this particular instance when she was truly a servant leader.

During World War II, Nollie, the only married Ten Boom daughter, lived with her husband and children in a home across town. In an effort to do what she knew to be right, she had risked her own and her family's lives by taking in several Jews. Eventually, her home was raided, the Jews were discovered, and she and the Jews were promptly arrested and imprisoned. After 10 days in the Haarlem jail, she was transferred to a federal prison.

Through underground channels, information made its way back to Corrie that the doctor in the federal prison was humane and occasionally made arrangements for release of prisoners based on medical conditions. Corrie was determined to do what she could to try and ensure her sister's discharge from prison, so she went to visit the doctor. She thought, "But what could I say? How could I get into the good graces of this man?"

As she pondered the difficult position she found herself in, Corrie remembered a principle she had recently learned from Dale Carnegie in her reading of How to Win Friends and Influence People. Carnegie had recommended that when you're trying to get to know someone, you should find out about their hobbies. She looked around the room and noticed three beautiful Doberman Pinschers in the lobby of the doctor's office.

With her many years of experience in meeting new people, the German her father had so skillfully taught her, and this latest knowledge gleaned from a good book, Corrie made her introduction to the doctor impressive, sincere, and memorable. She said, "How smart of you, Doctor." "Smart?" "Yes, to bring these lovely dogs with you. They must be good company when you have to be away from your family." The doctor's face brightened. "You like dogs then?" They launched into a 10-minute discussion where Corrie racked her brain for everything she had ever heard or learned about dogs.

This began an interaction that made a deep impression on the doctor. He could tell that Corrie genuinely cared about him, which caused him to care about her and her loved ones. Although he was taking a big risk, eventually he intervened on behalf of Nollie and had her released from prison for medical reasons.

These are the fruits of living Law Four, of loving humanity and becoming a servant leader. Corrie could have come to the doctor in tears and pleaded her case. She could have focused entirely on her own fears and troubles, but she knew better than that. She was a servant leader. This was manifest in her ability to see the doctor's troubles and extend true empathy before she told him her own. She thought about his circumstances, serving his government in a foreign country, far away from family and home. She thought about what was interesting and important to him. She spoke to him in his native tongue, which put him at ease and made the conversation easy for him to carry on. She knew how to do things on his terms, to show genuine interest in him before she asked for anything in return. The reward was immense: the life of her beloved sister, Nollie.

Another instance of loving humanity is to be a lifelong learner, to continue to expand our understanding of ourselves, of the world around us, and of the people that we interact with. Corrie was definitely a lifelong learner.

After graduating from high school, Corrie knew that her lifelong learning was just beginning. She said, "I began to want to be somebody outside the protection of the Beje," her home. "The first thing I did was launch into an intensive study of many subjects." She didn't have the money to go on to college, but she knew her education shouldn't end. That had been modeled for her.

Once, when she found herself sick in bed for five months, she used the time to further her education by studying her brother's college texts in religious history. This enabled her to discuss these ideas with him and her father, which she loved. She also attended missionary retreats every summer and was inspired through them to start a study group in her area. At one point, she also took time to study art and music on her own and visit all the museums of the famous Dutch masters. Later, when a Christian school opened in her area, Corrie eagerly signed up for seven classes and diligently studied.

She expressed the long-term effect of her family's commitment to self-education when she said, "We all wanted to know more about other lands, different languages, and people from contrasting cultures. This interest was stimulated by visitors from many countries and by reading good books."

One of the things that happened in the Ten Boom home was constant exposure to people of all different beliefs, worldviews, and world religions. Father held a book club for people of all different faiths. They prayed for the Jews daily. They read periodicals, magazines, and articles in multiple languages from multiple places around the world on multiple subjects, and then talked about those ideas with people that came to their home. And they loved all people. They did not care where they came from, what their beliefs were, whether they were poor or rich. They loved them all the same. What a beautiful example her parents set for loving humanity.

Now, Law Five is to hear the call. And one of the first things that you have to do is know what God is calling you to do.

Having accepted the fact that she would never marry, Corrie took classes, worked hard on her self-education, and cared for her mother for several years. She also worked in the watch shop full time. At about the time she took over the watch shop, she felt that she wanted more purpose in her life. She prayed, "Dear Lord, can you use me in some way?"

God heard her desire and sent the answer. One day, while attending a meeting of the Christian Union of the Lady Friends of the Young Girl, Corrie was tapped on the shoulder by an older woman. "That's work for you, Corrie Ten Boom." "No time," Corrie answered, thinking of the house, the shop, the Bible studies in schools. "Talk it over with the Lord," the woman said. And that was exactly what Corrie did when she went to bed that evening.

The next day, she told Betsie about the meeting and how the Lord had laid it upon her heart to do something about girls in their early teen years. Betsie loved the idea and was immediately on board. They put their heads together and began to make plans. She said, "We had no money, no experience, but we started." And that is what Law Five is all about: hearing the call.

And then, of course, Law Six: to courageously execute. They did start their girls' clubs. Corrie also started a group for the mentally handicapped. She had been doing Bible studies. She was continuing her lifelong learning. She was working in the family watch shop. There were many obstacles with these girls' clubs.

When they started out and began their girls' club, they started at a park because they had nowhere else to meet. They would talk and play and then share a spiritual message with the youth, but it quickly became obvious that this was not a good permanent solution. They had no privacy, poor weather disrupted their meetings, and they struggled to keep the girls' attention. They had no money for a meeting room and didn't want to charge the girls any money, as some would be excluded from participating due to poverty. They asked around town about a possible location with no solutions forthcoming.

What could they do? It would have been easy to stop there. She had heard the call. They had given it a go. She could just say, "Sorry, too bad, we can't do this." With no building to meet in, it looked as if the girls' club could go no further. Yet they persisted. They kept meeting. They kept asking, and they didn't give up.

Miraculously, a benefactor who owned a home in town said he was willing to rent to them for an extremely small fee because he was impressed with the high moral purpose they were pursuing. With multiple rooms to use, the club could grow more quickly. Excitedly, they moved forward. They asked the girls what classes they would enjoy and used the smaller rooms of the building for these classes and the larger center room for everyone to meet together. Some girls wanted more athletic activities, so they rented a gym one night a week and worked out together.

Corrie said of this time, "God bless the work. Yes, we made mistakes, but in spite of our blunders, the clubs grew in numbers and in strength." They continued to courageously execute. They went forward despite obstacles, despite people trying to stop them. They formed their own cooperative, which they called the Club of Friends. And in fact, their girls' clubs grew to be an international organization. It crossed borders. They had several thousand girls involved in other countries as well. It was a really remarkable work.

And then World War II hit. And like I began this podcast, Corrie devoted herself to the Jewish people any place, any time, doing anything that God would call on her to do. And so they lived Law Seven: doing it again and again.

They started harboring Jews. They eventually saved the lives of over 800 people. And by February of 1944, they were betrayed. The home was invaded, and they were arrested. By the next month, their father was put in prison, and he died there. By June of that year, Corrie and Betsie were placed in a concentration camp. And in September of that year, they were moved to Ravensbruck, a very famous, large concentration camp.

There are many beautiful stories of the miracles that took place when they were in these concentration camps and the way that they were able to spread the word of God and read scripture together. There is this beautiful episode where Betsie tells Corrie to thank God for the fleas and to thank God in all things. Corrie doesn't want to, and she finally learns later on why that was so important. And then by the end of that year, Betsie died in the concentration camp, and Corrie was miraculously released on a clerical error.

She went home. She tried to engage in the work again, because the war didn't end until mid-1945. She found that she couldn't do the work, and she knew for sure that God had been helping her to do the work before. She then started going around and speaking and sharing a message of forgiveness. As the war ended, she could see that people needed to learn to forgive and to rebuild their lives.

Betsie had a beautiful vision in prison about a home that they would acquire to help victims of the war, and that miracle did come to pass. Corrie started this home for war victims, and then she began traveling the world. She was invited to speak over and over again. She had her own journey of forgiveness, and she shared that message with others. In 1953, she published her first book, Amazing Love, and then in 1971 the famous book that spread across the globe, The Hiding Place, with millions of copies sold. In 1988, their home, the Beje, was turned into a museum, and Corrie eventually immigrated to California, where she died in her nineties. A truly mission-driven life.

A woman devoted to God, to His natural laws and principles, to a life of mission, of hearing calls and answering them, of devoting her life to making the world a better place. And she didn't try to change the world. She just changed herself. She governed her heart and her mind. She found principles and lived according to them. She became a true servant leader and served those around her, those that she could serve. And eventually, their path, their mission, their work has changed millions of lives.

So if you want to learn more, I would recommend my book, The Mission Driven Life. Go grab a copy of that. We still have the audio available for free on the website at themissiondrivenmom.com. It is going to come down soon, so take advantage of that if you haven't already gone and grabbed your audio copy. It will teach you those Seven Laws of Life Mission and take you through a lot more stories of Corrie and her whole family living these laws and so many miraculous stories. My book focuses on their lives before World War II.

And then read The Hiding Place for the story of what happened to them leading up to those last couple of years before World War II and all of their experiences during the war and beyond. Corrie Ten Boom is an amazing example, someone who has changed my life. Many nights I go to bed, and when I climb into bed, I think of her side by side with Betsie on those wooden rafters in the concentration camp with nothing, having given her life over to God and thereby bringing so many souls to Him. It's just incredible the life that she lived, and I try to be grateful for my blessings and remember how much others have sacrificed to make the world a better place on my behalf.

I hope that her story has been inspiring to you. I hope that you'll pick up those two books and go learn more at themissiondrivenmom.com. They will give you Corrie's whole story as well as the whole Ten Boom family. And you can learn better how you can begin to walk that path of life mission yourself and plug into those Seven Laws and be transformed by them and follow in the footsteps of her and many other great men and women. Be an ordinary person, just like I am, who is empowered to do extraordinary things through these beautiful laws. Thank you so much for joining me today, and I will see you next time.