Dietrich Bonhoeffer click pic for more
01-24-13 Jesus, Please Keep the Hard Things
Many are the thoughts concerning Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but the majority agrees, he was a man of courage. History confirms he stared Hitler in the face never flinching, even as the hangman’s noose was placed about his neck at Flossenburg on April 9, 1945.
I tire when I read Bonhoeffer critics who hide behind Jesus when a deacon frowns while they’re delivering their saccharin sermon. Bonhoeffer prayed:
“You have granted me many blessings; let me also accept what is hard from your hand.” Prayers from Prison.
You may criticize or praise a person’s theology, but the acid test is, “How does he bear the particular cross Christ has thrust upon him?”
I, along with most, have little trouble thanking God for His goodness to me. Not many restless nights on this page. When the page of my life reveals “what is hard from His hand,” I find a totally different response. It is statistically safe for me to assume the same about you. We are brothers.
As I write these lines at 71 years I am thankful that I have no pills to take, that I can outrun or outfight most 69 year olds, and that my wife of 48 years loves me, and I her. Yet, inwardly I am fighting off a scream of “Why me, Lord,” concerning other things.
As most, I am saying, Lord, give me more blessings, and keep the hand of hard things to yourself.
Copyright © 2013 Larry Lilly
Permission granted to like, FWD. Quote
Many are the thoughts concerning Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but the majority agrees, he was a man of courage. History confirms he stared Hitler in the face never flinching, even as the hangman’s noose was placed about his neck at Flossenburg on April 9, 1945.
I tire when I read Bonhoeffer critics who hide behind Jesus when a deacon frowns while they’re delivering their saccharin sermon. Bonhoeffer prayed:
“You have granted me many blessings; let me also accept what is hard from your hand.” Prayers from Prison.
You may criticize or praise a person’s theology, but the acid test is, “How does he bear the particular cross Christ has thrust upon him?”
I, along with most, have little trouble thanking God for His goodness to me. Not many restless nights on this page. When the page of my life reveals “what is hard from His hand,” I find a totally different response. It is statistically safe for me to assume the same about you. We are brothers.
As I write these lines at 71 years I am thankful that I have no pills to take, that I can outrun or outfight most 69 year olds, and that my wife of 48 years loves me, and I her. Yet, inwardly I am fighting off a scream of “Why me, Lord,” concerning other things.
As most, I am saying, Lord, give me more blessings, and keep the hand of hard things to yourself.
Copyright © 2013 Larry Lilly
Permission granted to like, FWD. Quote
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