Living Out 'The Measure Of A Life'

“Memories are the key – not to the past, but to the future.” – Corrie ten Boom

Cornelia “Corrie” ten Boom, was both born and died on April 15 – 1892 and 1983, respectively – and was one of the many thousands of ordinary people who risked their own lives during WWII to save others who were being hunted by the Nazis.

Captured and imprisoned for her actions, she survived the war and then wrote about the experience in The Hiding Place.  It was one of the many books that she wrote after the war, following her own advice to remember things from the past in order to help shape the future – a mandate for all who choose a life of writing and communication. 

Acclaimed, too, for her writing about and work on many other causes, she founded a church to serve those with mental disabilities and became a leading light on behalf of foster children.

Lauded for this work and her writings at her 90th birthday celebration, she reflected on how she could have been killed or died at a much younger age and the urgency she always felt to “do things for others.” 

“The measure of a life, after all,” she said,  “is not its duration, but its donation.” 

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