Here I stand..I can do no other

The Paul Simon lyric of the day:

"So you see, I have come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs;
the only truth I know is you."

-- from "Kathy's Song"


***

The events of the past week have led me to ask the the following question: How far is too far? How far are you willing to go, how far are you willing to push the proverbial envelope when it comes to love, your beliefs, your relationship with God?

I recently watched a documentary on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian who was involved in an assasination attempt against Adolph Hitler and was subsequently executed by the Nazis. Bonhoeffer was willing to risk everything he had because he felt that the perversion of the German church by the Nazis was fundamentally wrong; he believed that Christians should not stand idle while their Jewish sisters and brothers were suffering at the hands of an oppressive regime. Bonhoeffer was a brilliant theologian, clearly destined for a prosperous future. He was engaged to be married and was only 39 years old when he was executed. Why, then, did he condemn himself by becoming involved in a resistance against a stronger power? I can only answer that he was a man of such strong conviction that to not risk himself for his faith would be incongruent with his understanding of what is means to be a member of the body of Christ.

I have witnessed friends take, in my humble opinion, foolish risks for the sake of romance. It is a common social paradigm that love often causes one to take a flying leap off the Cliff of Common Sense into the sea of Passion, wherein lies the currents of spontaneity and impetuous behavior. We often laugh at such foolish lovers, but perhaps our laughter is misguided. For the lovesick fool, there is no risk too great and anyone who has ever been such a lovesick fool can admit honesty that when love is involved, you can never go too far.

In the not-too-recent past, I have sacrificed and risked much for the sake of romance; for love, I know that I am capable of taking risks. However, my greatest fear is that I will not honor my convictions surrounding my faith. I fear that if/when my convictions are tested, I will bend with the status quo rather than staying true to myself. How far am I willing to go when it comes to proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God? How far am I willing to go to defend and support my sisters and brothers? Is it possible to go too far when it comes to the church? I fear that I will be like the Protestant church leaders who were silent during the Holocaust, I fear that I will be like the white church leaders in the South who were sympathetic to the Civil Rights cause but remained ever taciturn. I am a passionate supporter of GLBT rights and a fully inclusive church, yet am afraid that my own-self interest will silence my conviction.

These are questions which haunt my subconscious...I pray that in the face of adversity, I will not falter but rather stay strong. I pray that I will never forget that when love, hope, peace, and Grace are involved, you can never go too far. Sometimes much has to be risked, even lost, for much to be gained.