Our struggle with God is often rooted in the fact that we’re seeking a change in circumstance, while He’s after a change of heart.
Archive for the ‘Thought for the Day / Quotes’ Category
Thought for the Day – Conflict of Interest
Posted in Thought for the Day / Quotes, tagged change in circumstance, change of heart, struggle with God on July 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Thought for the Day – Birthing an Ishmael
Posted in Commentaries, Thought for the Day / Quotes, tagged convenience, Drive-thru Generation, impatience, Ishmael, waiting on the Lord on June 17, 2015| Leave a Comment »
I have often referred to the emerging generation as the “Drive-thru Generation”, in recognition of their steady refusal to endure anything that isn’t quick and easy. But in many ways, we older folks are no different. Just because we can remember a time when we had to warm-up leftovers on the stove, or to find a pay phone, doesn’t mean that we’d be willing to do that today. In fact, we are the ones who are principally responsible for cultivating this expectation of convenience within the lives of our children. As human beings, we tend to want what we want, and we want it now. And to be honest, we’re perfectly willing to sacrifice nutritional value to get it.
Unfortunately, this paradigm often spills over into our spiritual lives as well. We can say that we are committed to following God’s principles, or maybe even the leading of His Spirit, but we regularly find ourselves unwilling to submit to His process or timetable. Like the prodigal son, we can legitimately claim to be an heir, but we are unwilling to wait for our inheritance. In Charismatic circles, we often try to masquerade this impatience as “faith”, by boldly declaring our desired outcome as being attained; but like a baseball player trying to hit an off-speed pitch, we’re way out in front and swinging too hard. We like to think of it as calling on the promises of God (as though we need to hold God’s feet to the fire in order to get Him to live up to His word), but the reality is that for everything there is a season, and we’re not in control of how a season unfolds. When “name it & claim it” doesn’t work, we may decide to take matters into our own hands, but in such instances we run the very real risk of giving birth to an Ishmael (i.e. something illegitimate, distracting, troublesome, heartbreaking, chaotic…). Like Abraham and Sarah, we can try to rationalize that we just want to see God’s promises fulfilled, but our real struggle is rooted in the fact that we’re just not willing to wait on the Lord.
If Jesus, the perfect Son of God, was not willing to do “anything” until He saw His Father do it first, how can we expect to proceed differently?
(Note: See Genesis 16 & 17 for an account of Ishmael).
15 Thoughts for the Graduates of 2015
Posted in Commentaries, Lists, Thought for the Day / Quotes, tagged be yourself, being a critic, Class of 2015, dreams, graduate, graduation, happy, keeping score, life lessons, misery loves company, path of least resistance, seasons, self pity on May 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »
There is an old saying that goes something like, “I wish I knew back then what I know now”. And as I look back to my own graduation, here are some of those things I wish I had understood.
- Life is not a ride, it’s a journey. A ride is simply being carried along to wherever the vehicle happens to be going, while a journey has an ultimate destination, which requires some navigation and effort to complete. Unless we purpose in our heart to be someone, or to do something, we are likely to live life like a pinball; propelled by gravity and bouncing from one obstacle to another. Anything worthwhile in life will require some investment on our part. Those who are unwilling to make such an investment will generally be pushed along by the winds of circumstance to some uncertain end.
- Not everyone who agrees with you is for you, and not everyone who disagrees with you is against you. In this era of political correctness openly disagreeing with someone is often viewed as being “intolerant” of their beliefs. But there are times when caring for a person dictates that we confront and contradict them. Conversely, there are those who are perfectly willing to allow you to drive headlong into disaster, as long as it serves their own selfish agenda.
- Misery not only loves company, it wants to settle down and have children too. I’ve noticed that miserable people not only seek out other miserable people to bond with, but that they’ll often unconsciously sabotage anything that has the potential to pull them from their misery. There are few emotions that are as debilitating and self-sustaining as self-pity. Generally, the only way to remain free of such feelings is through a dogged determination not to live that way. As long as we are willing to blame other people, and circumstances, for our condition, we will remain powerless to change it.
- What other people believe about you isn’t as important as what you believe about yourself. Only the things which we genuinely believe have the ability to impact how we live. Therefore, the only words (positive or negative) that have the power to move us are those which we accept as truth. If a man concludes that he is a failure, no amount of praise or encouragement can bring him to victory; and if a man concludes that he is an over-comer, no amount of criticism can hold him back. While we are generally powerless to keep others from speaking about us, we possess the ultimate responsibility for what we are willing to accept as truth.
- Planting apple seeds won’t get you an orange tree. Just as dependable as the law of gravity is the concept that we will reap (i.e. harvest) what we sow (i.e. plant). Though this phrase is immediately recognizable to most people, there are few who actually live as though it were true. Our human nature will often cause us to be unforgiving with other people, while expecting generosity in return; to be deceptive about our motivations, while expecting others to deal with us honestly; and to be selfish about our desires, while expecting others to be considerate of us. We must always remain conscious of the fact that the cup we use to dispense blessing is the cup that we will eventually drink our blessings from.
- For everything there is a season and it’s important not to despise the season that you’re in. If you live long enough you notice that there is a sort of pattern that life follows and that things come and go in seasons. While we have a natural tendency to like some seasons better than others, I’ve found that every season comes with both challenges and blessings. If we focus on the challenges of the season we’re in, we’ll often miss the blessings, and spend our time pining away for the season to change. Conversely, if we focus on the blessings of each season, it makes the challenges easier to endure, and brings a sense of variety to the journey.
- It’s doubtful that anyone is really “out to get you”. Generally, a person has to be of significant consequence before someone is willing to invest the time and energy it takes to conspire against them. I would suggest that we are more often damaged because people aren’t considerate of our position than we are because people have made a conscious effort to hurt us. Though this knowledge doesn’t necessarily dampen the pain, it should aid in our endeavor to forgive.
- When you keep your own score, you always feel as though you’re losing. The problem with keeping score is that we naturally tend to under-appreciate our blessings, and to have an exaggerated sense of our hardships. Because of that, people who keep score in life generally feel as though they’re never quite being given their due. Ultimately, it’s better to just give our best in any given situation and to let someone else keep the scorecard.
- The path of least resistance is rarely a road worth taking. Often what causes something to be valuable is that it cannot be easily attained. It follows then that the most valuable things in life normally require some perseverance to apprehend. While everyone may sincerely want these kinds of things for their life (e.g. a healthy body, a strong marriage, a successful career…), few are willing to endure the process it takes to secure them. Unfortunately, we live in a culture that increasingly values convenience above quality, and in which many of our children have grown up with an expectation of the instant gratification of their desires. Many a parent has worked hard to ensure that their kids get a great education, so that these children won’t have to struggle like they did. But this ignores the fact that it is in the midst of the struggle that we tend to develop our character and work ethic; and that without this development we are generally ill equipped to handle adversity. I’ve found that you can teach someone with character and work ethic just about anything, but without those qualities, an education becomes of little value. I’ve also come to believe that giving my children everything that I didn’t have when I grew up will likely handicap them for life.
- There are few jobs easier than being a critic and few that are more taxing than being a builder. I’m ashamed to admit that there have been times in my life when I’ve been like the guy who sits in the back of the classroom, ridiculing the person who’s teaching the class. Playing the role of critic, while someone sincerely tries to have a positive influence on the people around them. While I might try to rationalize that their efforts were less than perfect, or maybe even in vain, life has taught me how little that criticism helps anyone. It takes a tremendous amount of effort and patience to bring unity where there has only been division, or to stir a group to battle, when they’ve only known defeat, or to restore a sense of hope to a place of desolation… The builder must make a concerted effort to create, while the critic can bring destruction with little effort. As a witness to, and a participant in, both of these processes, I’ve committed myself to spending the rest of my days being engaged in the building up and not the tearing down.
- It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. Experience teaches us that the road to victory is generally paved with some amount of defeat; and that how we respond to those defeats will generally determine whether or not we ever come to the place of victory. While victory tends to be the goal of every player, I’ve found that what we remember is how they played the game. It is not necessarily the player with the highest winning percentage that captures our imagination, it is the player who played unselfishly, or with integrity, or who overcame the biggest odds… Even for those who taste great victory, it is always in a moment that quickly passes into a lifetime of other moments. At the moment we pass from this life, it won’t be that moment of glory that matters most; it will be how we lived all the other moments that ultimately defines us.
- It’s hard to be Clint Eastwood if you’re really Mr. Rogers. As I was growing up my conception of what a man was came largely from my father, who was a big fan of men like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. Throughout my adolescence there were other icons (e.g. John Travolta – Saturday Night Fever, Sly Stallone – Rambo, Don Johnson – Miami Vice…) who seemed to collectively shape the culture’s conception of manhood, and who I unconsciously graded myself against. Since I was nothing like these men I assumed that I just wasn’t much of a man, and in subtle ways I let their image affect how I walked, talked, dressed… But as I got older I began to notice that there weren’t many things less attractive than someone trying to be something that they’re not (e.g. a middle aged woman dressed like teenager; a suburban white kid acting as though he grew up in the ghetto; a man with a bad toupee, acting as though it is his natural hair…). I eventually came to peace with the understanding that regardless of the fact that I bear little or no resemblance to the trendy cultural images of manhood, the best thing I could do was to be myself. That catharsis has allowed me to do things like wear the clothes that I feel comfortable in; to act silly in public, just to make my kids laugh; to say “I love you too honey” when I hang up the phone in front of someone; to cry at sad movies…, all without feeling self-conscious. I highly recommend it.
- Love grows over time. We live in a society that seems affixed on the idea of trading in and up, on an almost constant basis (e.g. cellphones, computers, cars, houses…); and that basic philosophy carries into our relationships as well. Most of our cultural allusions toward love seem centered on initial attraction and the titillation of something new; but that is ultimately the shallow end of the relationship pool. It isn’t until you’ve experienced a love that lasts for years that you come to understand the depth and profound fulfillment that accompanies it. This same aesthetic applies to friendships as well (i.e. I wouldn’t trade a few old friends for 500 “friends” on Facebook).
- No person or thing can “make you happy”. People can support us, love us, inspire us, and even enhance the quality of our life. But unless we determine within ourselves to find the joy, the beauty and the hope within our given circumstance, we will never be “happy”. The idea that it is someone else’s role to bring happiness into our life places tremendous pressure on our relationships, often causing them to fail (e.g. they just don’t make me happy anymore…). Similarly, material things do not have the ability to bring satisfaction to our souls. I’ve noticed that people, who can be grateful for what they have today, will generally be that way regardless of what they have. And that people, who crave something more, will normally continue to crave regardless of what they get.
- The best things in life cannot be held in our hands or necessarily even be seen. A young person’s dreams are often rooted in tangible gains, like a mate, income, a career, a family, a home… But as a person attains those kinds of things, values seem to shift from the tangible to the transcendent. At the end of a long life, it is things like friendship, faith, love and hope that are ultimately treasured.
Thought for the Day – The Village Voice
Posted in Commentaries, Parenting / Family, Thought for the Day / Quotes, tagged inspiration, it takes a village, parenting, teachers on May 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »
I have to admit that I’m not particularly fond of the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” My disdain for this phrase is rooted in the fact that it is too often used as a rationalization for disengaged parenting, and by social engineers, who are trying to disguise their political agenda as some sort of genuine concern for the welfare of children. Despite that, I can’t deny that there is also a measure of profound truth within this idiom. As the father of four, I’ve always endeavored to maintain a daily presence in the lives of my children, and to have a separate relationship with each one of them. For the most part, I’ve lived up to that expectation, but I’ve also discovered that there are instances, and seasons, when the kids need something, or someone, else. At times, parents are too close to the situation to be objective; sometimes our fears cause us to push too hard, or maybe not hard enough. Sometimes we’ve done all we know how to do, and we need to introduce a new element into the situation. And sometimes our kids just need to hear it from someone else.
Years ago, our youngest daughter (Bekah) was struggling with reading, and we discovered that she had issues with her eyesight. Upon addressing her vision problems, we knew that she needed help to get her reading level back up to where it belonged. Unfortunately, by this time she was already highly frustrated with our persistent attempts to assist her, and things weren’t progressing well. Thankfully, we found a wonderful lady (Mary) who was willing to work with her, and they very quickly formed a special bond. Though it took a little time, her reading and writing steadily improved, and within a few years she had regained both her confidence and competence. By then, their relationship had become so strong that she continued to go each week, and to work on other subjects as well. Over time this amazing lady became much more than a tutor, and we have come to view her as a special part of our family. In recent years, Bekah has blossomed as a reader, writer, and student. She is currently a Freshman in High School, where she’s maintained her grades on the High Honor Roll (>3.5 GPA) all year, and where she was recently awarded a scholarship for winning an essay contest. At this point, she reads and writes more than our other three kids combined. But more than the improved academic performance, Mary’s loving investment in Bekah as a person has paid untold dividends. Years from now, I’ve no doubt that Bekah will remember this beloved friend and teacher as one of the greatest influences in her life.
Similarly, there have been many other teachers, coaches, youth group leaders, neighbors… who’ve had a profound influence on our kids. When our son Andrew was younger, he played basketball for a coach who absolutely destroyed his confidence. After that experience, he decided that even though he loved the game, he just wasn’t cut out to play. Despite our encouragement to give it another try, he wasn’t willing to do it; and for years he didn’t. But as fate would have it, the new high school basketball coach became his homeroom teacher, and he saw potential in Andrew. It was his encouragement that convinced our son to give it another try, and last Fall, he was a starter on the Freshman team.
More recently, after our son Patrick made the high school’s baseball team, he had the chance to be a part of the school’s Spring musical, “Guys & Dolls”. Initially he felt sure his coaches would never allow him to miss practices, and maybe even games, to participate in the play. But to his great surprise, the coach acknowledged what a great opportunity this was for Patrick, and allowed him to both stay on the team, and to try out for the musical. At the first try out for the play, he only went for a small part, believing that was all he was qualified for. But during the call back, his Choir teacher asked why he hadn’t tried out for one of the leads. Patrick explained that since he sang bass in the choir, and that all of the leading parts were for tenors, he didn’t think he could do them. His teacher then expressed her confidence in his voice, and challenged him to go for the more substantial role of “Nicely, Nicely Johnson.” Inspired by her vote of confidence, Patrick took the challenge, and got the part. After months of hard work, he and the rest of cast gave two spectacular performances this weekend. It is an experience that he will remember for the rest of his life, and it could very well open up new avenues for him in the future. Had his baseball coach been more worried about wins & loses than about Patrick, he might never have gotten the chance to tryout. If his Choir teacher had not recognized his potential, and encouraged him to reach for it, Pat might never have discovered it.
As a parent, I am grateful for these, and the many other wonderful, people who reach out to our children. As much as I want to be there for them, I must acknowledge that they often need things that I can’t necessarily give them. My vote of confidence in Bekah’s ability to read, or Andrew’s ability to play basketball, or Patrick’s ability to sing/perform, wasn’t enough to get them over that mountain. But thankfully, there were people who stepped into those areas and made the difference. Just as people have reached out to our children, we’ve learned to reach out to other children within our community. It is an opportunity to return the blessing that we’ve received. Even though I still cringe when I say it, it really does take a village to raise a child, and to that end, I want to thank all of you who’ve been such a special part of our village.
Thought for the Day – Diversifying Your Portfolio
Posted in Commentaries, Thought for the Day / Quotes, tagged believing vs. faith, fix your eyes on Jesus, investing in eternity, make straight pathways, Prepare the way of the Lord on May 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »
When John the Baptist heralded the coming of the Messiah, he used the words of the Prophet Isaiah, saying, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for Him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth (Luke 3:3-5).” And I believe that this imagery was meant to portray to the Jews (& ultimately to those of us who would one day be grafted into the covenant) what His coming could mean to them. The redeeming work of the cross would soon facilitate the abiding presence of God in their lives, and put an end to their long cycle of seeking Him in times of oppression, and drifting from Him in times of prosperity. With the Spirit of God active in their day to day lives, He could become their source for life, love, security, provision, strength, hope, and justice. By becoming partakers of the divine nature, they would no longer be at the mercy of their fickle human nature. These images speak of the steadiness that naturally flows out of that kind of singular focus. So great was God’s plan to dwell within them, that Jesus told His disciples it was actually better that He would leave them, so that the Spirit could come. And in looking at the first century church, we see those words largely validated.
But as we endeavor to make straight pathways in our own lives, it doesn’t always seem to work out. Sadly, many who identify themselves by the name of Jesus live lives of quiet desperation; often times battling sickness, depravity, insecurity, abandonment, depression, condemnation, fear… Though we can have some mountain top experiences, we often find ourselves in the depths of the valley. Like a person trying to plant a garden, we try to cut a straight row, only to turn and see that it’s anything but.
Experienced gardeners tell me that the best way to till a straight row is to fix your eye on a specific point (on the opposite side of the plot), and to plow directly toward it. This would seem to be the same advice the scripture gives us, as the Hebrew writer tells us, “fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith (Heb. 12:2),” and Paul says, “whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things (Phil 4:8).” Along with scriptures like, “be anxious for nothing (Phil. 4:6)”, “let not your heart be troubled (John 14:27)”, and “Don’t worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself (Matt. 6:34)”, the New Testament is filled with directives about what we need to be focused on, and what we can’t afford to concentrate on. If our God, who is the same yesterday, today and forever, becomes our singular reference point, then our pathways can’t help but straighten out.
Many would cite the manic nature of our spiritual walk as evidence of poor faith, but I think that conclusion requires a little further dissection. Some see the terms “believing” and “faith” as being synonymous, but I would disagree. At its lowest level, believing can be very superficial, and little more than mental assent. We believe a lot of things in the abstract, or in principle, that never really make their way into our practice. For instance, I believe in eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly, but my normal pattern doesn’t necessarily reflect that notion. My tendency to overload my schedule, and to eat on the run, generally takes precedence over that concept. Faith, even at its lowest level, requires more than that. It requires enough belief to make us willing to risk something, and maybe even to act upon it. Because I was raised in church, I always “believed” that there was a God, and that His son Jesus died for my sins. But it wasn’t until my early thirties, when the life I’d built without Him began to collapse, that I actually found the faith to fully invest myself, and my life, in Him. I sense that many others are living this same kind of existence, where they claim to believe, but have little or nothing really invested in it.
The wisdom of the world encourages us to diversify our investments as a hedge against big losses, but the wisdom of God calls us to put all our eggs in one basket. The erratic, and sometimes tortured, path we take is an indication of which philosophy is prevalent in our lives. To the degree that our identity is invested in Him, we should be able to walk free from the oppression of what other people might say or do, and from the identity crisis’s that so frequently beset the natural man. To the degree that our security and hope are invested in Him, we should be able to walk free of anxiety, fear, and depression. The Lord tells us that everything in the seen realm is perishing, so investing ourselves in temporal things sets us up for disappointment and failure. The old axiom says, “you can’t take it with you.” But for those who’ve invested themselves in the eternal kingdom, that’s not really true. Straight pathways may not be the norm, but if we’re willing to adopt a singular reference point, they could become our destiny.
Thought for the Day – Double Edged Sword
Posted in Thought for the Day / Quotes, tagged the truth sets you free, truth, truth relentlessly pursues on May 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The truth only sets you free when you are willing to succumb to it. When you try to evade truth it relentlessly pursues you, even visiting in your dreams if that’s what it takes.
Thought for the Day – All You Need is Love
Posted in Commentaries, Thought for the Day / Quotes, tagged agape, All You Need is Love, boiling down the Bible, brotherly love, definition of love, eros, romantic love, sisterly love on April 16, 2015| 4 Comments »
We live in an era where people want everything boiled down to the bottom line, a 60 second sound bite, or a 140 character tweet. And the further we roll down this road, the more our resilience to endure anything more substantial than that erodes. Just like the “Happy Meal”, bought for a fussy toddler, we know it’s not necessarily a healthy choice, but it’s all we really have time or patience for. Sadly, those of us in the “faith community” are no different in this regard. In fact, the Christian book stores are full of materials that attempt to boil down the depth and breadth of the scripture into a few bite sized morsels that can fit onto a refrigerator magnet, or maybe a colorful bumper-sticker. Unfortunately, our hidden agendas are often exposed in this, as we are more likely to gravitate toward those scriptures that justify our current position than to those that are meant to facilitate our growth and transformation. It seems to me that we cannot really trust ourselves or any other person (who undoubtedly has an agenda of their own) to decide which are the critical principles that we need to derive from God’s word. Indeed, no one other than God Himself can be trusted to boil it down to just a few lines for us. Thankfully, He did that.
When the religious leaders of Jesus’ day asked Him which was the most important commandment, He gave them two that weren’t on their list. He said that it was to love the Lord your God with “all of your heart, all of your mind, all of your soul, and all of your strength” and to love your neighbor “as yourself”. He then made the incredible statement that, “All of the law and prophets hang on these two commandments”. Later, Paul reaffirms this when he tells the Galatians that the “entire law is fulfilled” in keeping this commandment. Just before His death, Jesus amended this, when He told His disciples that He was giving them a “new commandment”, which was to love each other “as I have loved you”. I’m sure that didn’t sound particularly new to them, but in truth it represented a huge leap in the magnitude of what He was calling them to. Paul goes on to boil it down for us in several other spots within the epistles. He says things like, “The only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself as love” and that without love, we gain “nothing” and, in fact, are “nothing”. He also warns us that in the end, the only three things we can carry into eternity are “faith, hope and love”, and that the “greatest of these is love”.
Clearly, the unifying theme of all of these bottom-line statements is love, and as such, it is critical that we understand exactly what that word means to God when He says it. Again, we can be grateful for His sovereignty, as He gives us a very clear and comprehensive definition in 1 Corinthians 13. Though we’ve all heard the words many times, I wonder if we’ve ever really stopped and thought about them. God says that, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” If you read those words slowly, and thoughtfully, they can be pretty intimidating. Is this how the people we claim to love would describe our demeanor toward them. For that matter, would any of us claim that these are characteristic of the “love” we profess to have. To that end, we like to rationalize that the love described in the Bible is really just God’s (agape) love, and that we simply possess some lower form of (Eros) love. We further like to dissect it into categories like brotherly/sisterly love, and romantic love; and then blur the lines even more with statements like, “I love them, but I’m not in love with them anymore”. But in the end, that’s all smoke, mirrors and word games. The God who is love, specifically tells us what love is to Him, and then He commands us to love each other, “as I have loved you”. He makes no provision for some lower form of affection or fascination, which is too often characterized by traits like selfishness, vanity, envy, manipulation, scorekeeping and destructiveness; all of which are so directly counter to His definition that they could not be considered a watered down version of the same.
Considering that the Lord Himself boiled down the whole of the law to the quality of our love, and that He said that the way people will be able to distinguish His children was by the love they have for one another, our understanding of what “love” is makes a huge difference. If we go with the popularly held concept of it, there is almost no form of sin that we cannot rationalize as being rooted in “love” (e.g. “I loved her so much that I couldn’t bear the thought of her being with someone else, so I killed her.”). On the other hand, if we hope to experience and manifest the genuine love that God describes in His word, it will require us to abandon our vain imaginations, succumb to His Spirit, and to allow His heart to spill out of ours. Ultimately, that is why we’re here and should be the natural result of loving the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. If we ever get there, we’ll realize that the Beatles were onto something when they sang, “All You Need is Love”.
Bjcorbin's Blog 
A Response to the Changing Times
Posted in Commentaries, Opinions, Social / Political, Thought for the Day / Quotes, tagged Bonhoeffer, responding to the times on July 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »
As a young person I had little regard for history, but the longer I live, the more I understand the concept that “there is nothing new under the sun”. Even though a circumstance may seem unprecedented within our own experience, it has surely been faced by someone, at some other point in time. This principle became even clearer to me, a few years ago, as I read about the life and times of the German Pastor/Theologian, “Dietrich Bonhoeffer”; who was executed by the Nazis, just days before the end of World War II.
This gruesome ending stood in stark contrast to Bonhoeffer’s earliest days, which seemed almost idyllic. Born into a prosperous Christian family, he was proud of his German heritage, and unashamed of his faith. As a young man, his love of country and his devotion to the church didn’t seem to be in conflict, but the world around him was quietly changing. In the early1930s, he studied in the United States, and when asked about the caustic rhetoric of emerging party leader, “Adolph Hitler”, Dietrich expressed utter confidence that his beloved nation and it’s countrymen would never allow such a man to come to power. Much to his dismay, Hitler was appointed Chancellor just a few years later, and rose to prominence based largely on an improving economy, and the idea that he was restoring Germany to it’s former grandeur. Bonhoeffer’s disillusionment continued as the Third Reich came into power, and the people seemingly turned a blind eye to their abuse of authority.
For the first time in his life, he felt as though his country and his faith were at odds, and that he had to choose a side. But even that proved difficult, as the majority of national church leaders decided to submit to the demands of the Nazi regime. Bonhoeffer quickly found that he’d not only become an outcast within this new society, but that he’d also become an outcast within the church he’d grown up and been ordained in. Against this chaotic backdrop, he contended to walk out his faith in a legitimate way, and decades later, his words, his life, and even his death, continue to inspire fellow pilgrims. As I read his story, I couldn’t help but see the parallels to my own journey.
Like him, I was born into a secure Christian family, within a country that I have always loved. Like him, I grew up with confidence that America would never abandon the core principles upon which it was founded, or completely turn its back on its Judeo-Christian heritage. Like him, I’ve found that my faith is consistently coming into conflict with the emerging society, and that increasingly I cannot endorse what is now being deemed as acceptable. Like him, I have been appalled to watch the response of mainstream religion to this crisis, and am concerned about the growing government involvement in the day to day lives of the people. Like him, I now find myself on the fringe of the culture, and of the religion from whence I came.
At this point, it’s hard to say what lies ahead. Certainly, our situation doesn’t look as bleak, or seem as threatening as Nazi Germany. But things are changing fast, and seem to be picking up momentum. I’m not really sure who “we” (i.e. our collective national character) are anymore, so it’s impossible to know what “we” are capable of. There is no doubt that such things are far beyond my control, so ultimately it comes down to a personal decision; a decision about how to respond to this new reality.
Like Pastor Bonhoeffer, I find myself contending with the spirits that fuel the culture, so as to walk out my faith in authentic way. The compulsion to raise my voice isn’t as strong as my desire to hear the voice of my Father more clearly. My heart is not to rebel against this illegitimate authority, but to submit to the genuine authority of the Lord. His Spirit reminds me that my sense of truth and reality cannot be derived by what is “seen”, but must be rooted in what is “unseen”. Now, more than ever, we must have the mind of Christ, the heart of the Father, and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Here are a few thoughts from Bonhoeffer’s journey:
“Politics are not the task of a Christian.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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