Choose to Be Free

Edith’s Story

Edith grew up in a Jewish home in Hungary shortly before World War II. She was a talented athlete, and excelled as a ballerina and gymnast. She dreamed of someday competing in the Olympics, but her trainer refused to work with her because she was Jewish. Anti-Semitism had swept over Eastern Europe as quickly as Hitler’s advancing armies.

But soon, the discrimination became even more personal. At the age of 16 Edith and her parents, along with one of her two older sisters, was sent by Nazi soldiers to Auschwitz, the infamous German concentration camp. Immediately upon arrival, the men were separated from the women. Edith never saw her father again, and later learned he had been killed in a gas chamber.

The women stood together in another line. Edith and her sister stood at the end, their mother between them. Dr. Josef Mengele, known as The Angel of Death, asked Edith about her mother, “Is this your mother or is this your sister?” When she told him the woman was her mother, Mengele pointed for her to join a line on the left, while the two sisters were sent to a line on the right. The line on the left was for those who would head to the gas chambers. The line on the right was for those fortunate enough to survive . . . that day.

When Edith found out her mother had been killed, she wanted to die. But she was inspired by her mother’s words when they had first arrived at the concentration camp: “We don’t know where we’re going, we don’t know what’s going to happen, just remember no one can take away from you what you put here in your own mind.” Of these words, Edith says, “It was the first time I saw that we have a choice: to pay attention to what we’ve lost or to pay attention to what we still have.”

Edith’s Choice

“You can’t change what happened. You can’t change what you did or what was done to you. But you can choose how you live now. . . . You can choose to be free.” Edith made that daily, conscious choice for the rest of her brutal Nazi incarceration. And she survived. Today, at age 94, she is a licensed clinical therapist, international bestselling author and public speaker who inspires others with her compelling story.

Your Story

Few of us will ever experience suffering as dire as Dr. Eger’s in our lifetime, but sometimes we feel the same emotions of despair, hopelessness, grief, anger and loss when life deals us a hard blow: The ominous medical report. A devastating natural disaster. Conflict. Abuse. The death of a loved one. A debilitating injury. That car accident. A deadly virus outbreak. Each of us has been touched by pain’s broad, heavy fingers in the past year. Its fingerprints run through every chapter of our life story.

But as Dr. Eger demonstrates, all who suffer are not victims. What’s the secret to triumphing through adversity without becoming a victim?

The Bible Way Through Pain

The Bible gives us two keys: 1. Daily heart renewal and 2. An eternal perspective. The Apostle Paul wrote, “. . . Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient [temporary], but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)

When our hearts and minds are renewed each day through reading and meditating on Scripture, we will be like houses built on a rock in a wind storm. The winds of life may huff and puff, but they will never destroy us because of our solid foundation. Add to this a perspective which sees eternal rewards beyond temporary hardships, and you have a winning formula to power through the year ahead.

Your Choice

No one can take away from you what you choose to put in your mind. You may choose to live as a helpless victim trapped by your past, or you can choose to live in freedom and victory. I pray you will choose to be free today, and in the year ahead.

Article by Cam Edwards