Willing to die? To From the Foxhole Blog
Posted 5/13/10
Britt Jones
Willing to die?
Who of us is willing to die for our faith in the Triune God and/or in the place of others? I mean...really...like as in being deader than the proverbial doornail (whatever that may be...)?
One such remarkable soul was a pastor in Germany during World War II by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He had, for awhile, "escaped" to the US of A, but realizing what was taking place in his homeland, decided to leave the safety of here...and go back there to be with his people...eventually giving his life up in a concentration camp (amazing story for you to read some time). Two of his books...The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together, among other writings...helped form some important parts of the beginnings of my own spiritual journey.
I found these words recently from Life Together:
It is not experience of life but experience of the Cross that makes one a worthy hearer of confessions. The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus.
The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is. Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the godlessness of men. And so it also does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows this.
In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner.
You and I need to not be going it alone. No matter our age or status, we need the company of others...of brothers...whether living were we do...or facing death in a concentration camp.