How I Named My Blog / Movie Recommendation

I named my blog, as you can see in web browser above:  www.our-resting-place.blogspot.com

"You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You." ~Augustine

Augustine of Hippo, who lived in the 4th century (beginning of Dark Ages) came to Christ later in his life.  He saw his life before Christ as burdensome, he carried the weight of sin for so long as an irreligious libertine, and in his search he didn't understand "grace" but saw the requirements of God as a burden.  After a lot of searching, and after his mother's many prayers, the grace of God mercifully came down and he partook of the saving nature of Christ.  He saw 2 worlds, the City of God (eternal) and the City of Man (temporal and subordinate).  His theological writings influenced many great theologians after him.  Catholics and Protestants alike draw from his writings (and from what I understand, his writings show a progression in his understanding, so he wasn't always consistent in everything he wrote).

He influenced a girl name Sophie Scholl who quoted him.
  

I think I heard the quote above, before I saw this movie, but I heard it again in: Sophie Scholl, the Final Days.  She is now one of my heroes.  The movie is based entirely on a true story.

Sophie was a a brave young girl, at only 21 years old, who was willing to die, like Bonhoeffer, or Stauffenberg, in order to do the right thing for the City of God.  

Through her college connections and brother, she was involved in a group called, The White Rose.  This  organization, wasn't necessarily "Christian," (can read their pamphlets here), but more political, but I believe some of the the participants, maybe not all (not sure), derived their motivation from a Christian worldview.  There is  Biblical thought in the pamphlet, but the writings draw from many religious philosophies, thus making it not entirely "Christain" (but maybe they just wanted to have a broad appeal to many audiences.)  I think there was one main writer of the pamphlets in this group (Alex Schmorel), if I remember correctly from when I researched this a while back.  They wanted to tell the truth about Hitler and what he was doing, even exposing that Jews were dying in concentration camps.  The White Rose wanted to motivate people to resist   Hitler's regime.

(spoiler alert)  She didn't want to be caught, of course, no martyr's complex, but she was caught along with others and given a quick trial.  She was executed quickly, only 4 days after she was caught.  It wasn't instant, but she mustered up remarkable bravery before her death.  The movie brings out that process as well as the court proceedings.  There is a distinct Christian worldview throughout the movie.

The movie sought to be completely accurate based on her quotes and people that came into contact with her, albeit some information is second-hand.  It is in German (with English subtitles available), German-made, and that gives it the more accurate feel as well.  It is one of those movies that have you on the edge of your seat.  I can't tell you how incredibly well-done the movie is.  (I made some popcorn before we began the movie and I couldn't eat it, I was so riveted.)  By the way, if you saw Valkyrie, and feel that you've seen this movie already because they're both about brave heroes during WWII, that movie is not on the same level as Sophie Scholl at all.

Her excutioner had killed over 3,000 people and remarked he had never seen anyone die as peacefully as she did.

She is quoted as once saying,

Stand up for what you believe in even if you are standing alone.

Her last words were:

How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause. Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?

For sure she was an activist and motivated to change things because of her faith in Jesus Christ, and I think Christ was not just her example of self-sacrifice, but her Joy and source of strength and courage.

Her parents were Protestant.  Her father particularly loved theology of the Reformers, including Luther, and that love spread to her, as evidenced by some of her quotes.  Her worldview was developed in her younger years but was solidified as she matured, and applied what she learned in the home.  There seems to be a progression of her understanding of her theology and how that would influence her actions, just like with Augustine.

In the movie, she was in prison, and she quoted Augustine as she looked out the window (if I remember correctly).  "Our hearts are restless until they find rest in you." (she was having anxiety attacks, knowing what her future was, she longed for the comfort only God can give during that difficult time)  When I heard that, I thought, what a great verse!  Is that in the Bible?  Psalms? I Googled it.  (don't you just love that you can Google anything and find it??)  It was Augustine.  

Here are a few other quotes:

I know that life is a doorway to eternity, and yet my heart so often gets lost in petty anxieties. It forgets the great way home that lies before it. 

I will cling to the rope God has thrown me in Jesus Christ, even when my numb hands can no longer feel it. 

An end in terror is preferable to terror without end. 

But I want to have that kind of love, that denies itself, that takes risks that God might be calling me to, that has peace that surpasses all understanding in Christ, and He is a source of that love.

In the political world, (the City of Man), as we see tyrant leaders, even in America, who find the God of the Bible and religious freedoms distracting from their evil and hypocritical agenda, I believe we are called to to stand up for (with an attitude of thankfulness and respect for governing authorities according to Romans 13):  the lives of the orphans, the unborn, the persecuted, the rights to worship God freely and pursue our service and growth in Him, and to tell others about Christ.  We need to be educated voters. We should blog, Facebook, tell others the truth because the MSM (main stream media) will not.  Remember that Hitler was voted for democratically by people who were duped and only thinking short term of their own personal pocketbooks.  Stalin was worshiped even as he sent them to die in the gulags because the press carried the myths.  These are things worth fighting for especially those who are apart of the City of God, as we rest in Him.

Sir Winston Churchill wrote in particular of the German resistance:

The political history of all nations has hardly ever produced anything greater and nobler than the opposition which existed in Germany. These people fought without any help, whether from within or from without, driven only by the uneasiness of their consciences. As long as they were alive, they were invisible to us, because they had to put on masks. But their deaths brought their resistance to light.

C. S. Lewis wrote:

If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages....all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither.

I'm so thankful I live in a country that gives us the opportunity to adopt. and help orphans thrive and come to a knowledge of Him.  If we lived under a Hitler or Stalin, I don't know that we could have anything to offer these orphans.   This is the kind of freedom the founders of America understood, not freedom for the sake for greed and materialism, but to be free to help others and be instruments of his grace.  To God be the glory.