I had a hard time with this chapter, to be honest. Especially as we are in the midst of buying a large house out in the suburbs - ostensibly because we think that there is something God wants us to do that will require the amount of space that this house will have, but frankly, are we just deluding ourselves for our own personal pleasure? As such, this chapter was a bit of a hard thing for me to figure out. Because Bonhoeffer isn't actually saying that everyone should choose voluntary poverty, but he is saying that in whatever Jesus is calling you to you must respond 100% - its not enough to just pay lip-service to it, to say its a good idea and then ignore it.
But how, today do we hear this call? How, today do we discern between all of the voices telling us all of the things that we "should" do? Even within the Christian world, it would be easy enough to jump on this person or that person's bandwagon, to give 100% to a cause or a vision that wasn't actually Christ's call on our own personal lives. Is it enough to say that I feel strongly about going in this direction (or in Christianese, "God has put a burden on my heart"), and the opportunities all seem to be lining up so I'll walk forward until I get told to stop? It seems to me that Bonhoeffer is making a case that obedience looks like something more than that, but I cannot honestly say that I know what that would look like.
Very open to thoughts on this one ...
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