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The inability of education, self-actualization, rules, freedom, motivation and incentive to make us the sort of people we need to be becomes obvious when we look at examples of the types of lives that we need to live.
Two such examples are the lives of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and William Wilberforce – both chronicled by biographer Eric Metaxas.
Bonhoeffer was a German theologian and pastor during World War II who also was part of three conspiracies to assassinate Adolf Hitler. When Hitler attempted to lead the church, Bonhoeffer protested that the only Head of the Church is Christ. He was also part of several groups who smuggled Jews out of Germany. All this eventually landed Bonhoeffer in jail and subsequently at the hands of the Nazi executioner.
Wilberforce lived his life with what he called his two great aims: abolition of slave trade in Britain and the reformation of manners, or virtue.
By the end of Wilberforce’s life, God had granted him success in both of these aims, with slavery abolished throughout England and the ushering in of the Victorian Age – an era that truly reflected his- and God’s – character.
The question is: How do we live lives like these?
Wilberforce found his culture on the edge of a moral abyss. And by his enduring efforts, instead of the culture toppling over into the abyss, it spiraled upward into an age of reform.
On the other hand, Bonhoeffer’s enduring efforts seemingly ended in failure. He failed to stop Hitler. The Holocaust continued despite his hard work.
Bonhoeffer also saw his culture on the edge of a moral abyss, but his simply toppled over and collapsed.
Which of these two men was a failure?
Neither.
Here’s the thing: similar to these two eras, we now find our culture on the edge of a moral abyss.
What will we do? How will we impact our culture? What will become of our culture?
Regardless of the answers to these questions, we need to be the same sort of people as Bonhoeffer and Wilberforce.