Accepting Hardship as a Pathway to Peace, continued

Recently, my curiosity was peaked when I learned that there was a connection between the author of the often quoted, cross-stitched, and hung on the wall, Serenity Prayer, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Last week I shared some of the lessons Bonhoeffer is teaching me by example so many years after his death. Today I share a few more.

The Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time. Enjoying one moment at a time. Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace. Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that You will make all things right If I surrender to Your will. So that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen 
Reinhold Niebuhr

It seems to me that the words of the serenity prayer could be used as an excuse to be passive and concentrate on personal happiness. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a friend of the author of the prayer, did not live passively or for his own comfort. 

He did not choose to accept the advance of the Third Reich across Europe as I would have, a thing "he could not change". Instead he chose to believe that one young German pastor could make a difference against the Nazi machine sweeping Europe. He made the courageous decision to leave his safe seminary post in New York, and return to his native Germany to do what he could. 

Conscience led this Christian pastor to stand against the rush toward Nazism among his colleagues, make tough ethical choices, and accept the consequences. He opposed the weakness of the German protestant church. He broke away totally when the church adopted policies that excluded Jews from becoming members, even if they had been baptized, and helped found the Confessing Church which stood against Nazism. As he witnessed the suffering of the German people, Jews throughout Europe, and among the allied nations, Bonhoeffer's pacifist views receded further. He became a double agent and participated in a plot to assassinate Hitler. The plot failed and he was imprisoned for his efforts.

I wonder how Bonhoeffer felt during the first hours after his arrest. Did he indulge in a few hard earned moments of self pity? He had abandoned safety in order to fight evil. But at that hour, Hitler was still alive and well, wrecking havoc. 

 

He had acted according to his conscience, but in ways that were contrary to his earlier beliefs, and his efforts had failed. During those hours it must have seemed like evil would triumph. Did he struggle to do as the prayer suggests, "Trusting that You will make all things right If I surrender to Your will" Did he doubt the goodness of God? It must have seemed like all of his sacrifice was for naught. Did he regret choosing to suffer alongside his people? Remarkably, what he said indicates the opposite, that he thought he should have done even more.

“First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.” Bonhoeffer

A fellow prisoner, British officer Payne Best recalled Bonhoeffer during those dark days in prison while he was awaiting execution.

"Bonhoeffer was different, just quite calm and normal, seemingly
perfectly at his ease... his soul really shone in the dark desperation
of our prison. He was one of the very few men I have ever met to whom God was real and ever close to him"

Best also said, "Bonhoeffer always seemed to diffuse an atmosphere of happiness, of joy in every small event of life, and deep gratitude for the mere fact that he was alive."

Apparently Bonhoeffer's awareness that God was "real and close to him" was enough to give him the strength to be "reasonably happy in this life" even in a Nazi prison after being sentenced to death.

He was executed in April 1945 just 3 weeks before the Nazis surrendered.

I have never faced anything so evil or overpowering as the Nazi machine. My circumstances are infinitely easier Bonhoeffer's, yet I think I can learn from his example. I can learn to shine even in times of dark desperation, because God is real and close. I can maintain joy in every small event in life even though the battle goes on.

May you be surrounded by the real and close God today,

Beth

Accepting Hardship as a Pathway to Peace

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world As it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that You will make all things right If I surrender to Your Will; So that I may be reasonably happy in this life And supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen 
Reinhold Niebuhr

A few months ago I mentioned the serenity prayer. Recently I discovered a connection between its author and a hero of mine.

The author of the prayer, was a theologian named Reinhold Niebuhr. In his seminary classes, during the first years of the American great depression, he taught a brilliant young student from Germany. That student, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, returned to Germany in 1931. Before long, darkness gathered. Hitler rose to power, moved against the Jews, began to control the Christian church in Germany, and prepared to sweep over Europe. 


In 1938, war was imminent and Bonhoeffer, still only 32  years old, faced a good possibility of being conscripted into the German army. Refusal would have meant death. He escaped in time, accepting a teaching post at his old seminary in New York.

I can imagine jet-lagged Bonhoeffer's sleepless nights as he began to settle into life in New York. Mental battles must have raged within him. He had chosen to sit out the war in the quiet safety of a seminary professor's office and avoided the dangers of battling the great evil strangling his beloved home country. 

But, in Niebuhr's words, was this a situation that required serene acceptance or courageous action? 


Most people would have whispered a grateful prayer and settled into the seminary professor's office. After all, how could one young Christian pastor change the course of cataclysmic evil sweeping the world?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not most people though. After just three weeks in New York he returned to Germany, "accepting hardship as a pathway to peace".

He wrote to Niebuhr: "I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people... Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security." 

What courage it must have taken leave New York and stand with the German people as they faced that terrible alternative!

My daily battles are so small and insignificant in comparison to the ones faced by Bonhoeffer. Yet even my little life sometimes presents me with a choice between safe retreat and the courage to choose hardship as a pathway to peace. 

Only Jesus could give Bonhoeffer that courage. Only Jesus could give us that courage.

More next time...