September 01, 2010

If I Could Meet a Dead Guy....

It would be this dead guy........

Today we in the church know far too little about the unique blessing of enduring and bearing--to bear, not to cast off, to bear, but neither to collapse, to bear as Christ bore the cross, to endure beneth it, and there, underneath, to find Christ. When God imposes a burden, those who are patient bend their heads and believe it is good to be humbled thus--to endure beneath this burden. But to endure beneath it! To remain firm, to remain strong as well--that is what the word means, not anemic, giving in, shrinking back, enamored of suffering--but rather to gain strength under the burden as under God's grace, to preserve God's peace with unshakable constancy. God's peace is found among the patient.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Treasures of Suffering p. 43

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