Begun in Faith
I have taken the phrase "begun in faith" from a favorite quote:
We still cannot imagine that today God doesn't want anything new for us, but simply to prove us in the old way. That is too petty, too monotonous, too undemanding for us. And we simply cannot be constant with the fact that God's cause is not always the successful one, that we really could be "unsuccessful": and yet be on the right road. But this is where we find out whether we have begun in faith or in a burst of enthusiasm.
The quote itself makes me want to argue with it. If something isn't working, it is our responsibility to change it. When we are unsuccessful in accomplishing God's will, we must evaluate what we did wrong, how we can be better next time.
But then I remember the power of this quote is in its context. This is the end of a letter Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in 1938 to leaders of the Confessing Church in Germany. The Confessing Church had broken away from the German Christian Church after it adopted the Aryan Paragraph. Instead of banning the Confessing Church, so named because it confessed the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Nazi government attacked by creating endless regulations for pastors and lay leaders to follow. For two years, these congregations had been intimidated and many pastors had been imprisoned.
At the beginning of his letter, Bonhoeffer accuses the leaders of "a way of thinking which is positively dangerous. We think that we are acting particularly responsibly if every other week we take another look at the question whether the way on which we have set out is the right one." This is my temptation. If what I do doesn't work, I feel the responsibility to change it. With the advantage of history, it is obvious that standing firm against the Nazi government was absolutely God's course for these Christians. And it was absolutely unsuccessful. And it was absolutely the right road. I chose "begun in faith" as a reminder over the next three years that I can really be unsuccessful and be on the right road. That in the middle of frustration it may be that God does not want anything new from me. That He simply desires me to be patient and faithful, as He is so often patient and faithful with me.
We still cannot imagine that today God doesn't want anything new for us, but simply to prove us in the old way. That is too petty, too monotonous, too undemanding for us. And we simply cannot be constant with the fact that God's cause is not always the successful one, that we really could be "unsuccessful": and yet be on the right road. But this is where we find out whether we have begun in faith or in a burst of enthusiasm.
The quote itself makes me want to argue with it. If something isn't working, it is our responsibility to change it. When we are unsuccessful in accomplishing God's will, we must evaluate what we did wrong, how we can be better next time.
But then I remember the power of this quote is in its context. This is the end of a letter Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in 1938 to leaders of the Confessing Church in Germany. The Confessing Church had broken away from the German Christian Church after it adopted the Aryan Paragraph. Instead of banning the Confessing Church, so named because it confessed the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Nazi government attacked by creating endless regulations for pastors and lay leaders to follow. For two years, these congregations had been intimidated and many pastors had been imprisoned.
At the beginning of his letter, Bonhoeffer accuses the leaders of "a way of thinking which is positively dangerous. We think that we are acting particularly responsibly if every other week we take another look at the question whether the way on which we have set out is the right one." This is my temptation. If what I do doesn't work, I feel the responsibility to change it. With the advantage of history, it is obvious that standing firm against the Nazi government was absolutely God's course for these Christians. And it was absolutely unsuccessful. And it was absolutely the right road. I chose "begun in faith" as a reminder over the next three years that I can really be unsuccessful and be on the right road. That in the middle of frustration it may be that God does not want anything new from me. That He simply desires me to be patient and faithful, as He is so often patient and faithful with me.
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