Puddles of sunset:

View of the entrance to the main camp of Auschwitz

In September of 1942, a young doctor, together with his new bride, his mother, father, and brother, were arrested in Vienna and taken to a concentration camp in Bohemia. It was events that occurred there and at three other camps that led the young doctor -- prisoner 119,104 -- to realize the significance of meaningfulness in life

Victor Emil Frankl, the Jewish psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust at the hands of the Nazis, in the infamous Auschwitz death camp, wrote a book (“Man’s Search For Meaning”) about his experiences.  He stated that some of those in Auschwitz were surviving better after a year than some did after only a few days. He said those who didn’t sink into despair and eventually death, were those who drew their viewpoint from what he described as a “second dimension experience.”

Few, if any of us, will ever undergo such a terrible occurrence; I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like to try and survive those dreadful times. I have seen Steven Spielberg’s emotionally disturbing movie “Schindlers List” several times and even that intense iconographic experience evaporates into a mist when compared with the reality. Without doubt, the worst examples of human brutality have emerged from the “Death Camps”

All the prisoners in the camp shared the same “first dimension experience” - the very real horrors they were brutally subjected to every day. But it is the so-called  “second dimension experience”  that some drew upon, that had, according to Victor Frankl, four elements - seeing meaning, seeing beauty, maintaining humor, and thinking of the future.

One example that Frankl quotes was of the prisoner who excitedly ran into the barracks one day, gathered all his fellow prisoners together to go outside and see something special. He was actually celebrating the beauty of a blazing sunset reflected in the puddles from the previous night's rain.

If we can learn anything from this man’s reaction to impossibly inhuman surroundings, it’s this…. While we often cannot choose our surroundings-- frequently they are forced upon us by others-- we can choose our responses to them. The environment that we are in, no matter how harsh or abrasive, does not have to be the deciding factor in the kind of person we are, or how we respond to the situation.    

How did Joseph survive those soul-destroying years in an Egyptian prison?

How did Moses endure 40 years in the desert wilderness?

Why did Joshua and Caleb survive the desert wanderings, while all others of their generation ended their days buried in some nameless grave?

How did King David respond to the “wasted” years on the run from King Saul?

What of those carted off to captivity in Babylon by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, what hope drove their will to survive? 

The Apostle Paul wrote these words from a damp, vermin ridden Roman prison cell… “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, Rejoice!” Philippians 4:4

He then revealed his “survival secret”… “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, my brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are right, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:6-8

This is Frankl’s “second dimension experience” as penned by Paul…while he was suffering at the hands of another notorious empire.

Paul adds another piece of sagacious advice… “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13   

No matter our circumstances, we can, if we so choose, know “the peace that passes all understanding.”  How we survive is all about what we allow our thoughts to dwell upon… If we dwell on what’s beautiful, if we dwell on what God is doing, or how we can lift up and minister to other people, we can see the “puddles of sunset”.