This week I've had the pleasure/challenge of reading 'last letters from Stalingrad' (letzte Briefe aus Stalingrad). Being a true sober hearted Brit with a stiff upper lip and non-expressive manner, few things tend to impact me. This book did however, causing me to shead a couple of tears in the process. The book contains a series of letters said to be written by German soldiers towards the end of the second world war. They're writing from frozen Russia, perishing from the cold, poor equipment and lack of supplies. They're surrounded and outnumbered by the Russians. They've realised Hiltler's not going to save them, with any nazi ideology they had rapidly unravelling. They face either lifelong slavery in the Gulags of Siberia or dieing in the coming final standoff. Many prefer, for various reasons, the idea of the latter. The letters are written to families and sweethearts, showing huge outpourings of fear, hopelessness, anger and bitterness, each forming an empassioned final goodbye. The authorities kept and stored all the letters. None of them reached their intended recipients.
So, what have I taken from these harrowing accounts? Well firstly, no matter how much we make plans or how hard we work, we are ultimately not in control of our destiny. All will die, all have an appointed time. Often it takes a personal crisis to remind us we're not kings of this world, but mere mortals, flourishing only for a time.
Secondly, in our turbocharged world of individual achievement and output, personal crises are some of the few times that challenge us on what's really important; family, love, freedoms. The make us ask what is life for, is this really all there is, why did it work out like this? This seems not to be bound by culture or time, with German soldiers, modern day Brits and ancient Hebrews all in the same boat.
God's word has something to say on this in psalm 103. Think, what does it say about man and what does it say about God?
Psalm 103:13-19
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
So, what have I taken from these harrowing accounts? Well firstly, no matter how much we make plans or how hard we work, we are ultimately not in control of our destiny. All will die, all have an appointed time. Often it takes a personal crisis to remind us we're not kings of this world, but mere mortals, flourishing only for a time.
Secondly, in our turbocharged world of individual achievement and output, personal crises are some of the few times that challenge us on what's really important; family, love, freedoms. The make us ask what is life for, is this really all there is, why did it work out like this? This seems not to be bound by culture or time, with German soldiers, modern day Brits and ancient Hebrews all in the same boat.
God's word has something to say on this in psalm 103. Think, what does it say about man and what does it say about God?
Psalm 103:13-19
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
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