Freedom in Solitary Confinement

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(Edited)

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Solitude

Imprisoned and tortured for more than 14 years in Romania from 1948 to 1964. As a Jew, his relatives had all perished in the holocaust. Only he and his wife Sabina remained. After talking with a German carpenter in 1936 had decided to accept the teachings of the Gospel. And for that belief, Richard Wurmbrand would spend 13 years in a slave labor communist prison and three years in solitary confinement underground.

He was released in 1965 after being ransomed by a group of Norwegian Christians, who paid the Romanian government $10,000. He went on to live a very fruitful life. Two years before his departure he left us this book "Alone with God pdf" in 1988.

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The book

He begins,

This is a book arising from a completely idle life, a life in
solitary confinement in a Communist jail in Bucharest. I
spent three of my fourteen years of prison alone in a cell,
thirty feet below ground, with fifty pounds of chains on
my feet and manacles on my hands, without ever seeing
the sun, moon, stars, rain, or flowers, without paper or
pencil, book or newspaper, let alone the Bible.

So how could he keep his sanity, let alone his faith, in this environment? He accepted that he was alone with God and composed 350 sermons based on his suffering and confinement.

He had nothing to write those sermons down, but he committed them to memory in short rhymes and repeated them again and again. They were like psalms for him and when he got out of prison he managed to retain 348 of those messages and wrote them down immediately.

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Noiseless Message

Here is one of those messages:

People live during the day on words.
I speak silences during the night.
We have been put in subterranean cells,
thirty feet below the surface, where no noise is heard.
Our captors did not know that ascetics have always sought out
solitude, silence, eventlessness, a life in which nothing
disturbs the spirit, as ideal circumstances for their development.

Solitary confinement was different from other parts of the prison. The guards wore cushioned shoes as to not make noise. When prisoners were taken off to be tortured they were not tortured in solitary but they were taken away to far away place that could not be heard in solitary.

There was no noise. But there were some steel pipes that ran through the prison walls. The solitary confinement inmates would tap out Morse code to communicate. The guards knew the prisoners were doing this but they did not interfere the "telephone".

The guards just listened in on the conversation. The number one topic was how and when thy would be freed. They were like frogs living in a well talking about the ocean.

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Inside these prison walls and inside this fortress of solitude came some of the most brilliant Hebrew sermons about life, imprisonment and Christ. These sermons would have never existed except for the intense solitude of solitary. Among these sermons the most moving was

Should I ask you for freedom? If so, why?

He says,

Which commandment could I keep better in
freedom than in a prison cell? Why should I move
around? The lily stays in the same place and exhales its
perfume.

In my solitary cell I am undisturbed. I can work on
my character to develop the virtues of thousands.
I will not pray to be freed.

I lovingly called You "Father". This
is all. No other prayer is needed, and no request.
I will not ask to be freed. Amen.

If that is the conclusion of a man in solitary confinement for three years then he is truly a man who has lived. He doesn't have to ask to be free for he already is free.

The life he continued to live after his imprisonment was also free. He lived for what he believed in. The next 40 years of his life was not spent in bitterness and resentment but in love and living. Maybe it is said best in his obituary. Like 2021, many great men came to be alone with God in 2001.

Richard Wurmbrand's obituary - 2001

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All Pictures by Mineopoly

Life is too short not to live. I'm not sure if I could stand being completely alone in the silence for so long and keep my cool. I am sad that in this year 2021 already three friends went away.

Two were lost to heartless disease and one to senseless violence. The world seems to be a cold and merciless prison cell of solitary confinement.

Only when we look up and see we are not alone are we truly free.


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37 comments
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I don't know the kind of life I'll live in solitude. I know I like being alone sometimes but being completely alone would be war with my sanity.

Richard was lucky he found God before entering solitude. So he wasn't completely alone. He had a companion and a worthy one at that.
I'll go look up his book. I'll love to read and experience life in solitude the way he saw it.

Thank you for the added knowledge


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Thanks for taking time to think about this man and his faith. The link I added is a link to his book you can read for free.


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This Richard Wurmbrand book is definitely worth reading, thanks for sharing with us.


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The man left behind a legacy of short lectures and stories. I wouldn't say it was fun to read, but I spent the whole month of October 2001 reading his books after I heard about his death and the world trade center terror. I remember very clearly his lectures and the extent of his spiritual struggle alone. If you get a chance to look at his book let me know what you think. !LUV


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If you get a chance to look at his book let me know what you think.

I will definitely do, thanks for the luv

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"to want is to suffer"

these were the words playing in the back of my head while reading this. An inspirational post and one we can all learn something useful from. I am challenged in a way, to rethink the things that truly matter.


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Simply Innovative. Take me away!


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OK @driplord,

You are busted. I'm taking you away.

Now it's your turn to come up with 350 in solitary confinement.

Here is something to eat while you are in the hole.
!PIZZA


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Hahahaha😷 Mad!!!
But i don't understand what you mean by It's my turn to come up with 350 in solitary confinement. Can you break it down for me please?


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This man was in solitary for 3 years. In his head he wrote 350 sermons. If you want to be in solitary for 3 years then I hope to hear your 350 lectures and see your book.


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"life is too short not to live" that caught my attention. People don't really realize this. Within they have planned out what would happen in ten years and may die before that time.

One should live life to the fullest, you never can tell what could happen next.


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I'm glad you can realize this when you are still young @wongi,

A good place to test this theory is when driving. If your reaction when getting cut off is to teach that guy a lesson you still haven't learned to live yet. But if you can take a deep breath and remember you are just one little speck of dust in the universe then you can enjoy the ride even if we don't like what happens next.

!LUV


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Thank you sharing this. I was still on bed while reading this, after I got to Richard Wurmbrand's story, I couldn't sit again. I started walking around. I'm like "what a faith, what a conviction".

My faith is even further strengthened because of this.

I have downloaded the PDF and even bookmarked the news about Richard on Guardians' site.


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I hope you are greatly strengthened through the reading @mmykel,

Read one sermon at one sitting. Take some time time to think about it and then try to guess how he memorized it. You will find a story in each message. Through this story he was keeping the message in his heart. There is always some spiritual insight I received from the messages. Through sharing our faith and convictions we grow and we also encourage others.

! LUV


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I will certainly take my time read the sermons. Sure! conviction grow when we share our faith, and others are encouraged as well.


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Incredible that he manage to keep 348 of the verses he created, but still, one wonders, did he remember the last 2 at some point of his life... What would those two be... who knows.

This kind of solitude is what makes faith such an important factor of our lifes, it makes it have a speacial meaning, God bless Richard and Sabrina. A big hug for you for bring this lovely post to our attention :)

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Wow @justiano,

You were the only one that brought up this point. If you read through a couple sermons in the pdf you will see a story that flows behind the key points. This is the memory device he used. As soon as he was released he asked for paper and pen (he had no blog like us). He wrote everything down without sleeping. We of course have the edited versions but I'm thankful for these mind bending theological sermons. If they came from anyone else I would have trouble swallowing the message.

But where are the two he couldn't retain?... Well, Richard must know by now^^ I can only guess at what they were or why they were blocked from his memory.

!LUV


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Most likely, is some random not so spiritual ones XD

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Very thought-provoking and inspirational. Thank you for sharing this incredible story of a man, about whom I had not heard of before this. I will definitely follow the link to his book and give it a read as I love autobiographical works of people who have truly lived, even if they have been through times of utmost despair, and often because of that.

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Thanks for reading this introduction to the memories of a man in solitary. Whenever I hear the expression, "Get real", I think of Richard Wurmbrand. Go through a quick image search of his name and you will see a little more.

Yes the pdf here is a great place to start @samsmith1971. It is like a twentieth century psalm of complaints, doubts, bitterness despair and faith. His wife Sabrina also wrote a book about their life and the arrest and her time in prison. !LUV


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