some thoughts

I discovered later, and am still discovering right up to this very moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life’s duties, problems, successes, failures. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously not our own suffering but those of God in the world. That, I think, is faith.

(Letter to Eberhard Bethge, 1944)

How often have we Christians succumbed to fear of failure, fear of man, cowardliness–and baptised our sins in the name of ‘being separate from the world’? ‘The world is that concrete realm of responsibility given us by and in Christ.’ Perhaps, once again, we must learn that reformation (whether in the church, or in the world) can only happen from within. Perhaps it is only in the midst of the mundane, the daily–the common, that we can become holy unto the Lord. We may never become not-of unless we’re deeply in; we may never catch an eye as being not-of unless we stand beside and amongst those who are deeply of. It is in darkness that light shines most blindingly.

I believe, Lord. Help thou mine unbelief.