Bonhoeffer's Return Ticket

In June 1939, Dietrich Bonhoeffer stood on a New York City sidewalk with a one-way ticket back to Germany in his pocket. Friends at Union Theological Seminary had arranged his escape from the Nazi regime. He had a teaching position, a safe apartment, and every reason to stay. Behind him lay comfort and long life. Before him lay almost certain suffering.

He lasted twenty-six days in America.

In a letter to Reinhold Niebuhr, Bonhoeffer wrote words that still burn with conviction: "I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people."

Bonhoeffer boarded the last scheduled steamer back to Berlin. He chose the path that led through Flossenburg concentration camp and ultimately to the gallows in April 1945. Yet by every measure that matters to the Kingdom, he chose life.

Moses stood before Israel with the same unblinking clarity: "I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life." The choice God offers is never between comfort and hardship. It is between faithfulness and self-preservation — between a life poured out in obedience to the Almighty and a life clutched so tightly it slips through our fingers. Bonhoeffer understood what Moses proclaimed: the only real death is the one we choose when we turn away from God.