by, Samantha Syrnich TLC
I am not afraid to die.
I already have been dead before.
It was the warmest,
most loving place,
the brightest light I have ever known
in all my years on this planet.
To be bathed in that embrace was to know
what home really feels like.
And yet—
I am afraid to die
before I am granted true,
real life,
free from the harms of reprehensible humans.
Before I see my dreams —
at least a few of them —
take shape in waking hours.
Before I am granted my wings,
not to leave this world,
but to fly within it,
to walk in freedom,
to move,
to see the places my heart has always longed for.
Before I can live without fear
of those who circle me now.
Bonhoeffer once wrote,
“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”
That is my life’s cry —
to do more than survive.
To see justice break the wheels that crush.
To breathe in the morning air
without chains around my soul.
He also said,
“Faith is only real when there is obedience …
and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.”
And so, I keep walking,
one step after another,
not toward fear,
but toward the light I once saw,
the light I still believe waits for me
on this side of the veil as well.
Until then,
I hold close his prayer,
sung from the darkness of a cell
yet filled with unshakable hope:
⸻
Von guten Mächten (By Good Forces)
by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
By good forces wonderfully hidden,
faithful and quiet,
surrounded by benevolent powers,
so wonderfully sheltered and comforted,
I want to live these days with you.
And should it be that they bring us hardship,
may we accept it with courage,
and through it,
with God’s good comfort,
enter into the bright new day.
By good forces faithfully and silently surrounded,
with every new morning —
still —
we are with you,
and in the night,
let us be together,
and joyfully await the coming of the light.
1909-1945 RIP Dietrich Bonhoeffer
⸻
MY INTROSPECTION 2 OUTRO – FOR YOU THE READER:
This piece unites my own living testimony with the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose life and death bore witness to costly grace, injustice, and unshakable faith.
In my voice, I speak of death not as a fear, but as something I have already known — the warm embrace of light beyond this world. Yet my fear now is not death itself, but dying before I am granted the chance to truly live: to see my dreams take shape, to walk free of fear, to fly in the body that still anchors me to this earth.
Bonhoeffer’s words echo in me because they carry the same cry that rises from my own soul: not to simply survive, but to speak against injustice,
to act with courage, and to live in the costly grace that demands more than silence.
His poem Von guten Mächten closes this piece as a hymn of hope. Written from the shadows of a prison cell before his execution, it now stands as a timeless comfort to those who walk through hardship yet believe in the light’s return.
Together, our voices —
his from the past, mine from the present —
affirm one truth:
that even in suffering,
we are held by forces of goodness, light, and love that cannot be taken from us.
———
Declaration of
Authorship: This
statement is my original writing and reflects my personal views and intent.
Any reproduction or use requires my written consent.
© 2025 Samantha Syrnich
TLC
All Rights Reserved – UCC
1-308
No reproduction,
distribution, or use of this work without my written consent.
Signed, Samantha Syrnich TLC
———-
By Gentle Powers • Von guten Mächten wunderbar geborgen • Siegfried Fietz
Hear his prayer as song here:
https://youtu.be/3l9QEnKsL74?si=tvQejvkvFswZk
The Phoenix Quill: Words Born of Fire, Inked in Truth 