Redeem the Time
You could be next.
Note of acknowledgment:
This essay draws on Hanna Reichel’s “For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional” (November 2025), including several of the historical examples discussed below; what follows reflects my reading of it.
“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil,” Paul writes to the Ephesians (5:15–16 KJV).
I used to take that line as moral advice. Now, I also see it as strategy.
Sometimes you can’t stop what’s coming or defeat it. But you can buy time. Time for someone to escape, for a message to be delivered, for a door to close, or for a flight to be missed. Time for a lie to unravel. Time for evil plans to slow down or fail. When harm seems certain, delaying it still matters. Deflecting is not the same as giving up.
In Berlin-Tegel prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian locked up for his role in the anti-Nazi resistance, faced despair so severe that he feared where it might lead. But “I have told myself from the beginning,” Bonhoeffer wrote, “that I will do neither human beings nor the devil this favor; if they want it done, they better finish it themselves.”
Bonhoeffer stayed alive. Over the next year and a half, he produced some of the most searching reflections of the twentieth century: on faith stripped of religious props, the crucified God, “cheap grace,” and discipleship as standing with God in suffering. He redeemed the time. Had the Nazis not executed him when their defeat was imminent, he might have lived to complete his famous Ethics. What he did give us existed only because despair didn’t have the final say.
Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist known from the film about him, worked within the system as it was. He joined the Nazi Party, turned his factory into an ammunition plant, and followed orders when refusing would have meant the factory’s closure or worse. In doing so, he saved about 1,200 Jewish workers from deportation or death. By the end of the war, he had spent all his money on bribes and support. The Nazis held out for a little longer, but he bought time. For those who survived, that difference meant everything.
French railroad workers did not openly refuse when the Nazis took over the rail system. Instead, they delayed trains, sent shipments the wrong way, and pretended equipment was broken. Each act seemed small, even ordinary. But together, they disrupted supply lines, slowed troop movements, and made it harder for the Nazis to respond to D-Day. Many saw these actions as mistakes or bad luck, which was the goal. They were quietly buying time through small acts of resistance.
In Denmark, officials concealed Nazi demands within extensive bureaucratic processes. Files disappeared, requests for clarification increased, and additional approval steps were introduced. Some adhered to “Dienst nach Vorschrift,” meaning they strictly followed legal procedures rather than expediting illegal orders. Although these actions did not alter Nazi objectives, they created opportunities. This space enabled the escape of more than 7,200 Jews to Sweden in October 1943—over 98% of Denmark’s Jewish population.
You can only survive horror if you stay alive. That statement is blunt, but it’s true: ordinary actions are often what make survival possible. Call it the “banality of resistance.”
Buying time rarely looks heroic. It seems like causing delays, following procedures, not answering the door, or waiting for a warrant signed by a judge. Or building networks before they are needed, so they are ready when trouble comes. It looks like putting legal, social, or material barriers between threats and people in danger.
It also means being prepared. Have your papers ready, supplies on hand, and plans in place before panic sets in. Who do you call? Where do you go? Who keeps things going? How do you stay in touch if systems break down? I don’t ask these questions for fun. I ask them because time is the one thing you can’t get back.
None of this feels dramatic. None of it looks like victory.
But redeeming the time is not about winning. It means refusing to let harm move quickly. It means slowing down what needs speed, confusing what needs obedience, and staying alive long enough for something or someone else to arrive.
Hope in times like these is not just optimism. It insists that time still matters, that delay still makes a difference, and that even the simplest acts of survival can keep the future open a little longer.
So I return to another take on Paul’s words. Redeem the time, not because it promises a happy ending, but because it keeps the end open.
Notes and additional reading
Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Written during Bonhoeffer’s imprisonment in Berlin-Tegel, these letters—many addressed to his best friend Eberhard Bethge—trace his struggle with despair alongside his reflections on “religionless Christianity,” discipleship, and moral responsibility under severe constraint.Schindler’s List, Thomas Keneally
Documents how Oskar Schindler used bureaucratic designation, bribery, and calculated compliance to shield roughly 1,200 Jews from deportation—showing how survival often depended on delay, paperwork, and time bought at great personal cost.Fighters in the Shadows, Robert Gildea
A study of resistance as misdirection, delay, and procedural friction rather than open revolt, showing how small, deniable acts accumulated into significant disruption of German logistics and bought time for Allied and underground efforts.Rescue of Danish Jewry, Leni Yahil
An account of how Danish officials, civil servants, and citizens used administrative delay, legal formalism, and quiet coordination to obstruct Nazi deportation orders and enable the rescue of more than 7,200 Jews in 1943.
For years Penelope wove the burial shroud each day but secretly unraveled it each night. She bought time with no assurance that Odysseus would return in time or would ever return. The “banality of resistance" -- yes.
Speaking of weaving, your point about building networks is well taken. Simply attending and leaving mass rallies, whatever the rallies' tactical value, can reinforce the notion that "mass man" (Merton's term), individually and collectively, can go it alone.
I man I know, sentenced to life in prison, had a profound religious experience there and read Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning in the prison library. Frankl's work to help others in Dachau helped my friend redeem the time in prison by focusing on helping others. It prepared him for a work of profound community organizing. His pardon came, just as Odysseus came and the Allied liberators came, but of course that's not the point. "The substance of things hoped for," I suppose, is the point.
Thank you for this excellent essay.