Do we believe it?

Christians sometimes speak about ‘dying well.’ That was a phrase that Puritan theologians and pastors (rooted in 16^th & 17^th century England… many left for America in 1660-62) used.

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Easter Sunday. The German theologian-pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-45)wrote that:

How we deal with dying is more important to us than how we conquer death.

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “I Want to Live These Days with You: A Year of Daily Devotions” 

Bonhoeffer points out that we are thinking about the wrong thing: Socrates talked about overcoming dying, but Christ overcame death. Then he writes this (Bonhoeffer is dynamite!)

Based not on the art of dying, but on the resurrection of Christ, a new, cleansing wind can blow into the present world…. If a few people really believed this and let it affect the way they move in their earthly activity, a lot of things would change. To live on the basis of the resurrection – that is what Easter means.

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “I Want to Live These Days with You: A Year of Daily Devotions” 

Do we believe it?
Do we live on the basis of of the resurrection?
do we practice resurrection?