part two

The challenge continues in this sermon that Dietrich Bonhoeffer prepared regarding the goodness of God:

When we sit down this evening to a full table and say grace and thank God for his goodness, we shall not be able to avoid a strange feeling of uneasiness. It will seem incomprehensible to us that we should be the ones to receive such gifts and we will be overwhelmed by such thoughts and will think that we have not in any way deserved these gifts more than our hungry brothers in our town. What if, precisely at the moment when we are thanking God for his goodness towards us, there is a ring at the door, as so often happens these days, and we find someone standing there who also wants to thank God for some small gift, but to whom such a gift has been denied and who is starving with his children and who will go to bed in bitterness? What becomes of our grace in such moments? While we really feel like saying that God is merciful to us and angry with him, or that the fact that we still have something to eat proves that we have won a special favour in God's sight, that God feeds his favourite children and lets the unworthy go hungry? May the merciful God protect us from the temptation of such gratitude. May he lead us to a true understanding of his goodness. Don't we see that the gifts of his goodness become a curse for us if we have such thoughts about them and act in such a way; if we look at ourselves, instead of growing humble in our richness as we consider the unexplained mystery of God and the need which surrounds us, and if we thank God only for his goodness to us instead of becoming conscious of the immeasurable responsibility which is laid upon us by this goodness? If we want to understand God's goodness in his gifts, then we must think of them as in trust for our brothers. Let no one say: God has blessed me with money and possessions, and then live as if he and his God were alone in the world. For the times will come when he realises that he has been worshipping the idols of his good fortune and his selfishness. Possessions are not God's blessing and goodness, but the opportunities of service which he entrusts to us.

amazing that this sermon was written in 1931 and yet holds a truth that may be more relevant today than ever. these words change the game for me. i am so rich in stuff - what is my attitude towards all that i possess?