Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Friday January 11, 2008

As I prepared an article for a magazine on leading through extreme adversity by example I came across the following piece from my collection on POW and Concentration Camps and the often heroic life and death therein. Maximilian Kolby, Dietrich Bonheoffer and others come to mind about heroic death. Alfred Schmidt-Sas is another.

Alfred Schmidt-Sas after being imprisoned in several concentration camps during the Nazi era was executed on April 9, 1943. He had been a teacher and musician. He was 47 when his life was snuffed out.

In October 1942, in a prison cell Alfred wrote:

"As in the game of chess, so too in life it matters not Whether the duel be fought with pieces carved with wood or gold. How one plays, and what one plays for, that alone Reveals the man.

Whether, upon post-mortem, menials hurry off the corpse, Or obsequies of state consign one to a splendid tomb, How one dies, and what one dies for, that alone Reveals the man."

Mr. Schmidt-Sas sealed his belief that the Nazi regime was utterly wrong with his life. Alfred demonstrated strong conviction to be sure, the kind of soul conviction that must throb in the hearts of men and women as long as civilization progresses on planet Earth.

Too often we gripe and complain about the quality of the "pieces" we are called upon to use while playing the game. I have heard men consigned to playing with crude chess pieces state, "I did much better when I could use Ivory." "I could live better on the outside." The truth is that you can only play with the material available and you can only live where you are. A friend of mine, Austin Bennett, demonstrated the he could win in the game of chess while playing 40 people at once!! And that with cheap dime store pieces! One thing is for certain, if you cannot win with what you have, you cannot win with what you do NOT have. So it is with living the life victorious, you have to "win" where you are. Maximilian Kolby could have enjoyed the rectory more than the concentration camp where he willingly gave his life for another man. We do not know the names of those who acquiesced to Hitler and lived through the war in rectories.

On a different level, the level of wild success with fame and lots of money, the same life demand for excellence and commitment to a noble life is expected. Note the disappointment at the stars who fall into dissipation and the athletes who break hearts when caught cheating. "Say it ain't so Joe" is still apropos today. When people of the cloth depart from the noble life in Christ hundreds even millions of people are deeply hurt.

The point? Live for Christ to the fullest wherever you are with whatever means you have, you are impacting others.

Larry Lilly Copyright � 2007 Use with credit

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