a nugget from nazi germany

Here's a nugget from the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Christian who resisted the Nazis and was consequently imprisoned and executed in 1945, just prior to the end of the war. This is a man who knew the true meaning of life!  (He also knew how to write long sentences!)

"Everything that we with good reason await from God, that for which we are allowed to ask, is found in Jesus Christ. ... It is certain that we are permitted to always live in the nearness and amidst the presence of God and that this life is an entirely new life for us, that there is nothing impossible for us, because there is nothing impossible for God; that no earthly power can touch us without the will of God and that danger and need only drive us closer to God; it is certain that we must demand nothing and yet are permitted to ask for everything; it is certain that in sorrow our joy is hidden, and in death our life is hidden; it is certain that we are in a fellowship that sustains us in everything. ... Had Jesus not lived, then our life would be meaningless in spite of all the other people who we know, honor, and love."

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Widerstand und Ergebung (Munich: Chr. Kaiser Verlag Munchen, 1951), pp 196-197. Reprinted in Modern Theological German: A Reader and Dictionary, Ed. Helmut W. Ziefle (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1997). My translation.