Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today, and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?"
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
A couple of weeks ago Dave came home from a meeting and asked me and our house guest, his old friend who is also a psychologist, if we knew anything about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I Said, "Yeah, we both know everything you might want to know about Bonhoeffer, so shoot!"
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a great German theologian who was imprisoned and executed by the Nazis during World War II. He was very outspoken about his struggles with his perceived inadequacies with his faith, despite the fact that he was sacrificing his life for others.
Writers like Bonhoeffer and Henri Nouwen help me come to gripes with my own inadequacies. I've had a very hard day. Who am I this evening? Among other things, I'm an older woman and the matriarch of a large family. When my children suffer, middle aged though they be, I suffer. I wish I could fix things and people but I cannot. Knowing that makes me feel weak, when, yesterday, I felt strong.
Bonhoeffer says at the end of the above prayer:
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, thou knowest, oh God, I am thine.
He helps me say, at the end of this long day, to the God whom, on most days, I find quite mysterious:
Whoever I am, I am yours.
***
Am I one person today, and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?"
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
A couple of weeks ago Dave came home from a meeting and asked me and our house guest, his old friend who is also a psychologist, if we knew anything about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I Said, "Yeah, we both know everything you might want to know about Bonhoeffer, so shoot!"
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a great German theologian who was imprisoned and executed by the Nazis during World War II. He was very outspoken about his struggles with his perceived inadequacies with his faith, despite the fact that he was sacrificing his life for others.
Writers like Bonhoeffer and Henri Nouwen help me come to gripes with my own inadequacies. I've had a very hard day. Who am I this evening? Among other things, I'm an older woman and the matriarch of a large family. When my children suffer, middle aged though they be, I suffer. I wish I could fix things and people but I cannot. Knowing that makes me feel weak, when, yesterday, I felt strong.
Bonhoeffer says at the end of the above prayer:
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, thou knowest, oh God, I am thine.
He helps me say, at the end of this long day, to the God whom, on most days, I find quite mysterious:
Whoever I am, I am yours.
***
