At the beginning of May 2010, Epworth UMC Berkeley's most excellent Pastor, Odette Lockwood-Stewart wrote
"I have only just begun to reflect on rather than react to General Conference and the amazing ways the Spirit is at work in this global human connection. On May 20th Epworth's adult study will be dedicated to our reflections and responses. This is a paradoxically powerful time to baptize and to receive new members at Epworth. Resistance is the secret of joy. Grace and peace. Odette"
It is "Resistance is the secret of joy" that caught my eye. What could she mean?
Linda Haverty Rugg responded on Facebook:
I knew an elderly lady in Germany who had lived through two World Wars and imprisonment of her sons in concentration camps for refusal to serve in the military. She had herself been a resister under Nazism and later under Soviet Bloc rule in East Germany. She said, "We have been lucky! We have always been able to afford resistance." That is "Wir haben uns Widerstand immer leisten können." I've always thought that this was one of the most profound things anyone ever said to me.