Von guten Mächten wunderbar geborgen (DE)
By loving forces wonderfully sheltered (EN)
This is one of the most demanded songs for funeral, wedding and new year worship service. And the song text is written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945), a German anti-Nazi theologian. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later, he was transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp. He was hanged on 9 April 1945 shortly before the collapse of Nazi regime.
Other than this famous text, I was also moved by his other texts. What makes his text so powerful is that his life and his words are aligned. Here I share with you some of his quotations from my little book.
About time:
Since time is the most precious, because it is the most irreversible good that we have at our disposal, the thought of lost time unsettles us every time we look back. Time would be lost if we had not lived as human beings, made experiences, learned, created, enjoyed and suffered. Lost time is unfulfilled, empty time. It is true that the knowledge and experiences gained, of which one becomes aware afterwards, are only abstractions from the actual, lived life itself. But just as being able to forget is a grace, so memory, the repeating of lessons received, is part of responsible living. -D.B.
About standing point:
It is the virtue and the character of the strong that they can ask the crucial questions and take a clear stand on them. The weak always have to choose between alternatives that are not theirs. -D.B.
About relationship:
But there is almost no feeling more satisfying than to feel that you can be somebody for other people. It’s not the number that matters, but the intensity. After all, human relationships are simply the most important thing in life; even the modern-high-achiever can’t change that. -D.B.
About responsibility:
It may be that the final day will be tomorrow, then we will readily lay down our hands on the work for a better future, but not before.
About faith:
I believe, that God can and will bring good out of anything, even from the worst.
He needs people for that, who let all things serve them for the best.
I believe that in every adversity, God wants to give us as much resilience as we need.
But he does not give it in advance, so that we do not rely on ourselves, but on Him alone.
In such faith, all fear of the future should be overcome.
I believe that even our mistakes and errors are not in vain,
and that is not a difficult task for God to deal with them than with our supposed good deeds..
I believe that God is not a timeless fate,
but that He waits for and responds to sincere prayer and responsible actions.
The English translation of the song “By Loving Force”
By loving forces silently surrounded,
I feel quite soothed, secure, and filled with grace.
So I would like to live these days together,
and go with you into another year.
Still matters of the past are pressing our hearts
and evil days are weighing down on us.
Oh Lord, to our souls, so scared and sore,
give rescue, as it’s that you made us for.
And when you pass to us the bitter chalice
of suffering, filled to the brim and more,
we take it, full of thanks and trembling not,
from this, your caring and beloved hand.
But if you want to please us, over and again,
with our shining sun and wondrous world,
let us muse on what is past, and then we shall,
with our lives, in all belong to you.
Warm and bright be our candles’ flame today,
since into gloom you brought a gleaming light,
and lead again us, if you will, together!
We know it: you are beaming in the night.
When silence now will snow around us ev’rywhere,
so let us hear the all-embracing sound
of greater things than we can see and wider,
your world, and all your children’s soaring hail.
By loving forces wonderfully sheltered,
we are awaiting fearlessly what comes.
God is with us at dusk and in the morning
and most assuredly on ev’ry day.
© Hilmar H. Werner, 2010