Kindling

Yesterday my Kindle arrived. I charged it up and starting getting acquainted with it. You can use it while it's charging, so I didn't have to wait hours before using it. I had also bought a cover, which arrived several days before the Kindle. The Kindle has a user's manual installed, plus two dictionaries: the Oxford Dictionary of English and the New Oxford American Dictionary.

I bought a book and it downloaded. It is Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, by Eric Metaxas. My dad read that for the book club he and my mom go to. He kept talking about what a good book it was, and I was going to borrow it when he finished, but next thing I knew he loaned it to a friend of his who happened to drop in. So I bought it on Kindle.

I read the first few pages of it last night, but really got into it during my lunch hour today. I'm still in Bonhoeffer's childhood and youth. He had two or three older brothers in World War I. So far, one has died. I think maybe another one did too, but I'm not that far yet.

I'm interested to see how he moved from what seemed like pacifistic views prior to World War II to being involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler during the war. I feel that I've moved from a tendency to pacifism, but that I can't justify my change in terms of Christian growth. I was going to say I can't explain the change, but I sort of can. The Readers Digest version of the reason is: 9/11. But are my increase in patriotism and decrease in pacifism in opposition to my Christianity? Possibly, yet there they are. So I'm interested to try to understand how Bonhoeffer worked through some similar issues.