September 03, 2026

Still Discovering

I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith.

Bonhoeffer wrote this to his friend Eberhard Bethge from Tegel prison in July 1944, a year before his execution, looking back on how his early, more pious idea of faith had given way to something rooted in ordinary life. Locked away from pulpits, classrooms, and even simple freedoms, he still described himself as discovering something new about faith, as if prison itself were another classroom. He refused to treat his circumstances as a pause from learning, choosing instead to stay curious about what his days, however narrow, still had to teach him. That posture offers a model for wonder that doesn't wait for ideal conditions before paying attention.