Maybe I'm weird but sometimes I lay awake at night contemplating...Bonhoeffer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a person of great fame whose writings are well known - some of this is due to political and some to religious propaganda but some of it is due to the fact that he truly was
used as an instrument of God. We have a couple of his books on our shelves (I think) now even as I write this.
Bonhoeffer was a man who worked for the Lord and the Church in Germany during the conflict known now as WWII. His writings are still being used to affect much good in the world. His last grandiose act, as far as we know, was to be complicit in the cold-blooded murder of four men and attempt to assassinate his head of state during a time of national crisis. We know that many more people died directly because of these actions.
I have been reflecting on John 15 lately, where Jesus states that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches and if we remain in Him, He will remain in us. How do we remain in him? By obeying his commandment. What is his commandment? That we love one another. If we love one another, we will remain in him.
Bonhoeffer's last act: an act of hate? Certainly - unless he repented en route to the gallows - an act of unforgiveness. If we do not forgive how can we expect our heavenly father to forgive us? Sometimes I have hated. Sometimes I feel so angry that if I had a bomb and access to a leader of a Superpower...or someone closer. Sometimes I have committed the crime of hate, which may be the same as murder in my heart.
Repentance: Sometimes I think about Stalin. Josef Stalin, leader of the USSR, was once a seminary student. He renounced his vocational calling(?) and turned to Atheism and politics. He is famous for his politically and religiously inspired or motivated killings and wholesale purges. Ravi Zacarias tells a story about Stalin's last days. He claims that as Stalin was dying, he raised his fist to God. If this was an act of defiance as Ravi suggests than Stalin's expected fate awaits him. If, however, this was a wrestling with God similar to that of Jacob at Peniel then...forgiveness comes with repentance.
Mussolini: a contemporary of Bonhoeffer and Stalin. He grew up an Anarchist (okay), an Atheist and a vocal anti-Christian who persecuted the Church. His politics changed to Fascism and he ushered in the first of the infamous truly fascist regimes. In his last days, it is recorded, that he was actively seeking forgiveness of the Lord through the vehicle of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. He may be forgiven.
Sometimes I lay awake amazed at the capacity of the Lord to forgive people like Stalin and Mussolini. Maybe they themselves did repent and maybe they are saved from the consequences of their sins.
Sometimes I lay awake at night considering Bonhoeffer.
Tonight I can't sleep...