A Song Written in Chains

In December 1944, Dietrich Bonhoeffer sat in a Nazi prison cell. The German pastor had been arrested for his role in the resistance against Hitler, and he knew his execution was likely coming. He had every reason to despair. Instead, he picked up a pencil and wrote a poem to his family and his fiancée, Maria von Wedemeyer. It began: "By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered, and confidently waiting come what may, we know that God is with us night and morning, and never fails to greet us each new day."

Those words became the hymn "By Gracious Powers," sung in churches around the world to this day. Bonhoeffer was executed at Flossenbürg just four months later, on April 9, 1945.

What strikes me is that Bonhoeffer did not write about the absence of fear. He wrote about the presence of God in the middle of it. His courage was not the kind that pretends everything is fine. It was the kind that looks death squarely in the face and still declares that the Almighty has not abandoned His children.

That is biblical courage. Joshua was told to be strong and courageous not because the Promised Land would be easy, but because the Lord his God would go with him wherever he went.

Courage is not the absence of chains. It is singing while you wear them, because you know Who holds the key.