A Beautiful Life and Death

I finally finished reading "Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy" the biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas. I should have been finished with it over a month ago, but I came across the subheading "Bonhoeffer's Last Day" and I couldn't muster the courage to read it. After over 400 pages of reading about this amazing man I wasn't ready for it to end. I felt there was still more to learn from his life! But I guess with all those that God chooses to give their life for Him there is just as much to learn from his death.

Bonhoeffer was executed at the command of Hitler himself. Just a couple of weeks before Germany was defeated by the Allies a batch of secret documents regarding Bonhoeffer and other conspirators was discovered. Hitler ordered the execution of those men even knowing that the end of his reign was near. Bonhoeffer went to the gallows with a peace that can only come from someone who has been justified by Christ. His behavior was remarked on and remembered by all who witnessed his last day.

Here was a man who completely trusted God through the most evil days this world has ever seen. He sacrificed his comfortable life, and his comfortable job, and his comfortable social status to act on behalf of the downtrodden and persecuted. He didn't care what happened to him as long as he could confidently say he was following the will of God.

He completely trusted God in his death as well, he knew that he had done what he needed to do, and that his Savior would be waiting to welcome him home. He looked at death as the beginning of life! He was such a peaceful and faithful man in both life and death. At the end of the book I couldn't wait to buy "The Cost of Discipleship" and read his own thoughts on living the Christian life.

I wish I could say that I would be so brave and faithful in the face of such terrible circumstances.

One Great Quote

"If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world."
— C.S. Lewis