Choose God and His Way

I am looking at two books. The one to my right is the Bible. The one I just laid down and to my left is The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor, had been in the United States, studying at Union Theological Seminary, when Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany. Though warned against returning and promised asylum in the United States, he returned to Germany anyway. His intuition and keen mind told him that the church was in for persecution, and he wanted to be a force for good and strength in the German church.

Eventually he was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. At first, he was permitted his books and papers. Gradually they were taken from him. Then, to ridicule him, all clothes except prison garb was taken from him. He had nothing but the clothes on his back left. One day he was brought before a couple of camp guards. He was ordered to remove his clothes, and stand before them nude. Bereft of his degrees, family, library, work and stripped of every shred of human dignity, Bonhoeffer stood there. Here was a man who had been acclaimed by Karl Barth as “a theological miracle.” He had led a Nazi resistance movement and had counseled the church to remain strong in its opposition to anti-Semitism and Hitler’s war policy. He had now been discovered to have been involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler – an allegation to which he confessed. Standing naked before his accusers, Bonhoeffer said, “You have taken my books, my church, my family and my clothes. You have taken everything from me it is possible for you to take. But there is one thing you can never take. That is my ability to choose how to treat you. And I choose to love you with the love of Christ.” Their choice was to hang him. Bonhoeffer’s choice was to love them.

Animals have instinct. Humans have choice. That is a large portion of what it means to be “made in the image of God.” Freedom of choice is something that we all possess.

We can return hatred with hatred – or with love.
We can return anger with anger – or with kindness.
We can return slander with slander – or with forgiveness.
We can choose to worship things – or choose to worship the one true and only God.

This was Joshua’s point when he gave his final charge to the Hebrews: “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).

Be sure your choices are those to honor the living God and, to the best of your ability, obey His will.

Choose God and His way.