Saturday, January 16, 2010

Continuing Thinking About God and Suffering

I was just thinking of a poem written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer when he was in a Nazi prison camp in WWII. It is called "Christians and Pagans."

"Men go to God when they are sore bestead,
Pray to him for succour, for his peace, for bread,
For mercy for them sick, sinning, or dead;
All men do so, Christian and unbelieving.

"Men go to God when he is sore bestead,
Find him poor and scorned, without shelter or bread,
Whelmed under weight of the wicked, the weak, the dead;
Christians stand by God in his hour of grieving.

"God goes to every man when sore bestead,
Feeds body and spirit with his bread;
For Christians, pagans alike he hangs dead,
And both alike forgiving."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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