Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a good example of thankfulness allowing us to become better nor bitter. Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor imprisoned by the Nazi’s during World War II and eventually executed for refusing to be quiet about what was happening in Germany. He had every reason to be bitter about what life had handed him.
Yet an English officer who was imprisoned with Bonhoeffer and survived had this to say,”Bonhoefer always seemed to me to spread an atmosphere of happiness and joy over the least incident, and profound gratitude for the mere fact that he was alive... He was one of the very few persons I have ever met for whom God was real and always near...”
The day before Bonhoeffer was executed, he conducted a service of worship and was just ending his prayers when the guards came for him. Bonhoeffer’s last reported words to his congregation were “This is the end; but for me it is the beginning of life.”
Bonhoeffer knew what today’s Psalmist proclaims “ The LORD of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold.”
~ author unknown
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