The Voyage Back Into the Wilderness

In June 1939, Dietrich Bonhoeffer stood on the deck of a ship bound for New York. Friends in America had arranged everything — a teaching position at Union Theological Seminary, safety from the Nazi regime that was tightening its grip on Germany, and a platform to influence the world from comfort. It was a reasonable offer. A good offer. No one would have blamed him for staying.

He lasted twenty-six days.

The temptation was real. Like bread offered to a starving man, America promised Bonhoeffer provision, security, and prestige — three things the wilderness of Nazi Germany could never guarantee. But something deeper than comfort anchored him. He wrote to Reinhold Niebuhr: "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."

Bonhoeffer boarded a ship back to Berlin, back into the wilderness, back toward suffering he could see coming. He chose faithfulness over safety, calling over comfort, obedience over self-preservation.

When Jesus faced the devil in the Judean desert, every temptation offered a shortcut — bread without waiting, power without the cross, rescue without trust. Jesus refused them all because He knew who He was and whom He served. Bonhoeffer learned the same lesson. The wilderness is not where God abandons us. It is where He proves that His Word alone is enough to sustain us.