"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God"
About this Quote
It reads like a refusal to let uncertainty have the last word. “Unknown future” is the phrase that names the modern condition: plans collapse, institutions wobble, your life can turn on one phone call. Ten Boom answers that instability with a deliberately asymmetrical pairing: the future stays “unknown,” but God is “known.” The line isn’t arguing that the future will be good; it’s arguing that fear is a bad decision-maker when you have an anchor you’ve already tested.
The intent is pastoral, but the subtext is tougher than it first sounds. “Never be afraid” isn’t a cute motivational poster; it’s a command forged in conditions where fear was rational. Ten Boom, a Dutch Christian who helped Jews escape Nazi persecution and survived Ravensbruck, speaks as someone who watched the future become a weapon. Trust, here, isn’t optimism. It’s a form of moral steadiness: you keep choosing courage and responsibility even when outcomes are opaque.
Calling her a “celebrity” misses the cultural role she actually played. Ten Boom became a postwar witness whose storytelling turned private faith into public memory. That’s why the sentence works: it compresses theology into a portable mantra, built on tight rhythm and simple opposites. Unknown/known. Future/God. Afraid/trust. It’s the rhetoric of survival packaged for everyday life, inviting readers to relocate control from prediction to fidelity. In an era addicted to forecasting, it offers a countercultural permission slip: you don’t need certainty to move forward, only a relationship sturdy enough to carry you.
The intent is pastoral, but the subtext is tougher than it first sounds. “Never be afraid” isn’t a cute motivational poster; it’s a command forged in conditions where fear was rational. Ten Boom, a Dutch Christian who helped Jews escape Nazi persecution and survived Ravensbruck, speaks as someone who watched the future become a weapon. Trust, here, isn’t optimism. It’s a form of moral steadiness: you keep choosing courage and responsibility even when outcomes are opaque.
Calling her a “celebrity” misses the cultural role she actually played. Ten Boom became a postwar witness whose storytelling turned private faith into public memory. That’s why the sentence works: it compresses theology into a portable mantra, built on tight rhythm and simple opposites. Unknown/known. Future/God. Afraid/trust. It’s the rhetoric of survival packaged for everyday life, inviting readers to relocate control from prediction to fidelity. In an era addicted to forecasting, it offers a countercultural permission slip: you don’t need certainty to move forward, only a relationship sturdy enough to carry you.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
|---|---|
| Source | Later attribution: You're Born an Original--Don't Die a Copy (John Mason, 2011) modern compilationISBN: 9780800720254 · ID: PH6-lIfdJmMC
Evidence:
... Corrie Ten Boom often said , " Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God . " 27 Follow Howard Chandler's advice . He said , " Every _Mason_DieOriginal_KK_bb.indd 27 8/15/11 1:55 PM. |
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