Saturday, September 08, 2012

Safety is the opposite of peace

From the biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared, it is itself the great venture and can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to want to protect oneself. Peace means giving oneself completely to God’s commandment, wanting no security, but in faith and obedience laying the destiny of the nations in the hand of Almighty God, not trying to direct it for selfish purposes. Battles are won, not with weapons, but with God. They are won when the way leads to the cross. - Metaxas, Eric, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (Kindle Locations 4827-4831)

Sobering words for these times that we find ourselves in. Many of us trade the way of the cross for the false "security" offered by the world.

I am about 1/3 of the way through the bio and really Bonhoeffer was a fascinating man. A young man who came from a life of privilege and seemed destined for a life of high minded theology and academia had his secure world and comfortable future interrupted by a madman and his pagan ideology of death. We all must be prepared for a day when the comfort of our lives is shattered and the way of the cross is the only way forward.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love Bonhoeffer. It's hard to find anything that he said/wrote that isn't worth reading. "When Christ call a man, he bids him come and die." Definitely a challenge to the status quo.