if you were like me, in high school american history you learned about the puritans. they seemed so stiff, uptight and boring. now that i get to read their works on my own, i have come to realize that they are basically awesome.
one of my favorite books is called "valley of vision", which is a collection of puritan prayers. i often read it during my daily bible reading/prayer time.
this morning i read a prayer on joy. definitely wouldn't call them a people who are stiff, uptight and boring from this prayer. here is one part i liked:
"All thy ways of mercy tend to and end in my delight.
Thou didst weep, sorrow suffer that i might rejoice.
For my joy thou hast sent the Comforter...
Thou art preparing joy for me and me for joy;
I pray for joy, wait for joy, long for joy;
give me more than I can hold, desire, or think of."
That prayer is beautiful. Although I do want to say that in my studies they were harped on for being more than just boring. I know this isn't the point of your blog, but I am one of those people who was shaped by an educational system that left me a bit disillusioned. Self-mortification practices, the witch trials, and books like Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter" painted them to have tendencies toward acting out of extreme legalism and intolerance. Both of these qualities are highly frowned upon in our society anymore, so I can see why they often get a bad rap. These qualities can also be dangerous to the heart and soul of one who claims to be a believer. These instances we study may just be the most extreme cases and we're looking at them like a random sampling so we could easily have a skewed perspective of these good people. Every person and every society has good qualities and makes big mistakes as well, so I definitely still want to learn from some of their mistakes (in order not to repeat them) along with learning from their strong points (such as their writings, joy in simplicity, discipline, etc). Just wanted to touch on this because anything associated with the Christian church in our past can be a tricky subject.
ReplyDeleteummm...is my comment on your blog longer than the blog itself? haha :)
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