Light, power and action together

Richard Thompson reflects on a quotation from George Fox

by Richard Thompson 20th April 2018

In December 2008, nearly ten years ago, I came across a remarkable sentence of George Fox and copied it into my inner diary: ‘You have the light to see all evil and the power to withstand it.’ Early Quakers lived that message and in spite of – or, perhaps, because of – the animosity and persecution meted out to them, experienced amazing strength and creativity. Now we are in the twenty-first century and this insight is still precious. I can see different levels to which it applies. For each one I have modified the words ‘evil’, ‘power’ and ‘withstand’, replacing them by more appropriate words with respect to the different levels of experience.