In her book Suffering, the late German theologian Dorothee Sölle writes: “…Christianity actually has an ‘affirmative’ core; just as people who dare to bring a child into this world are acting ‘affirmatively.’”
I’ve come to believe (and say as often as I get a chance) that just swinging one’s legs out of bed is a sign of hope. So is making a future commitment in your day planner: You are working under the assumption that all parties, including you, will still be in the land of the living to make the date! Sölle, who was profoundly shaped by the horrors of the Nazi regime and her country’s participation in it, says that even the act of having a child, one who is destined to dive, is an act of protest, hope and affirmation of the power of life. God is, as she points out, a lover of life. Therefore, those of us who follow in God’s name can’t help but be so, too.
This message is excerpted from the Bible study “No hard feelings?” by Anna Madsen in the November 2019 Gather magazine.
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