Bonhoeffer, Part 7
by Michael Doyle

Time stands still with its lit fuse,
We wonder why life makes us choose.
We do our best to stop the evil in men,
To give or take life feels a lesser sin.

What would one give to save one's nation?
It seems a trivial cost to lose one's reputation.
A cordial drink shared in a dimly lit room,
The news is shared, though it feels like doom.

When the last chance depends on a  quiet prayer,
And all that's left is for the God that's there.
To lend humanity a miracle desperately needed,
Will our vain whispers go to the grave unheeded?

What is left when it appears we see God fail?
Are the few saints left doomed to go to Hell?
The pages of the Bible may be marred with mud,
But our salvation depends only on Christ's blood.

At night, we pray for the respite of God's rescue,
His salvation is needed by all, Christian and Jew.
When the unholy comes in fury to destroy us all,
All that is left is to fall on our knees and call.

We call on Jesus even unto the moment of our death,
As with our final exhale, we humbly give our last breath.
We come to the point where we accept our appointed purpose,
With true humility, we live for the ends of God's service.

There is no avoiding whatever God calls on us to do.
And so we accept whatever cost to remain forever true.
This then is the meaning of our life's long journey,
That we should live as God pleases to meet our destiny.

A holy pastor tends his flock as if it were his family.
Breaking the bread that is the body of Christ's memory,
As it is his charge to do, as he shares communion,
Knowing the wine drunk brings us into holy reunion.

Good men and women share the spirit of the holy ghost,
Sharing together in the last moments of the blessed host.
Step by step, Bonhoeffer walked toward the gallows,
Fearful though he was, he lived bolder than the shadows.

From his life, let us receive the gift born,
That blessed are those who live, die, and mourn.
Blessed are they who have lived pure in their heart,
For they have lived the will of God even as they depart.

Hate, racism, and genocide remain this world's reality.
We Christians owe it to God to live ever more faithfully.
If it is to be done, it is up to all of us bound together,
We must, through the love of God, make this world better.

Silence, in the face of evil, is evil itself unspoken.
We must stand for God's love in every way unbroken.
In every step taken, we spread God's words of love,
And in so doing, serve our lives as if led from above.

(c) February 27, 2026   Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved