“The ultimate question for a responsible man to ask is not how he is to extricate himself heroically from the affair, but how the coming generation shall continue to live,” Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor and theologian, was executed in 1945 in a Nazi concentration camp, owing to his compassion and solidarity for the Jewish people and prisoners of war. Bonhoeffer might suggest, to come to know God is through the experiences of life that lead us out of self gratification and toward gratification of humanity as a whole. One could then say, that for some, the spiritual journey has proven to transform not only the individual but also more profoundly their community and future generations. If one were to look for an example of an individual life that exemplifies a profound spiritual journey one might acknowledge Bonhoeffer.
Like Bonhoeffer, I say devote yourself to your spiritual path despite your reservations, your fears and conflicts with others and do so with the knowingness that Earth and her inhabitants will be an enlightened place for it.
Ann Oswald Laird
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