Martin Luther

Today, upon the day of his death, our Synod commemorates Martin Luther, Doctor and Confessor. He died in Eisenach, the town he was born in, in 1546 and he died attempting to settle a dispute between two feuding brothers. Most appropriate. He had been in poor health for a number of years, but persisted in his duties and produced a really stunning amount of writings - and many people (I among them) think the writings from the close of his life were his very best. Yet in his honor today I'd like to give what I think of as his most beautiful writing about the Christian life, and it came earlier in his career. He wrote:

  This life is not godliness, but growth in godliness;
  not health, but healing;
  not being, but becoming;
  not rest, but exercise.
  We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way;
  the process is not yet finished, but it has begun;
  this is not the goal, but it is road;
  at present all does not gleam and glitter, but everything is being
  purified.
    - Martin Luther, A Defense and Explanation of All Articles (AE 32:24)