so...i fell in love again

Today I fell in love with primary sources...again. It was half way through reading Jonathan Edward's "Narrative of Surprising Conversions" that the my stomach knotted a little, my lungs breathed in what felt like the freshest air, and my mind lighted-up. We are so used to looking through others peoples ideas about ideas and, for some odd reason, thinking we are gazing at a clear and true rendering, when all along we could have the conversation ourselves. The only reason why I would get a running magazine is to remind me of the beauty of what I could be experiencing if I would but lace up my shoes and step out the door. When I run, I fall in love again. I fall in love again when I exchange my window booth to stand at the foremost point of the ferry, feeling the wind rip through my hair and thin fleece jacket, watching the water tirelessly play against the small ferry boat it buoyies upon its formless body. I have read countless theologians recount the theology of Jonathan Edwards. Like good critics they began by saying nice things and then went on to say what they disagreed with. If you read too many commentaries they begin to all sound like hyenas prodding an old carcass. Turning to the actual source, Jonathan Edwards (or the Bible, the primary source for all good primary sources), I find a man still alive with passion for Jesus. In his own words he is present. He has not been scrubbed and stretched across canvass, held by a frame. In his Narrative he signs his letter, "I leave this to you, and shall only say, as I desire always to say from my heart, To God be all the Glory whose work alone it is." He is a man excited that Jesus is spoken of in the town and because he sees the evidence of grace in lives, transforming communities. Oh may God grant us more people who fall in love when they hear about God working in their community. And may more people read Edwards and be inspired to go and do likewise.

I will leave you with a journal entry by Jonathan Edwards, which he wrote concerning his future wife, Sarah Pierrepont, titled "Apostrophe to Sarah Pierrepont":

“They say there is a young lady in New Haven who is beloved of that almighty Being, who made and rules the world, and that there are certain seasons in which this great Being, in some way or other invisible, comes to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight, and that she hardly cares for anything, except to meditate on him — that she expects after a while to be received up where he is, to be raised up out of the world and caught up into heaven; being assured that he loves her too well to let her remain at a distance from him always. There she is to dwell with him, and to be ravished with his love and delight forever. Therefore, if you present all the world before her, with the richest of its treasures, she disregards it and cares not for it, and is unmindful of any pain or affliction. She has a strange sweetness in her mind, and singular purity in her affections; is most just and conscientious in all her actions; and you could not persuade her to do anything wrong or sinful, if you would give her all the world, lest she should offend this great Being. She is of a wonderful sweetness, calmness and universal benevolence of mind; especially after those seasons in which this great God has manifested himself to her mind. She will sometimes go about from place to place, singing sweetly; and seems to be always of joy and pleasure; and no one knows for what. She loves to be alone, and to wander in the fields and on the mountains, and seems to have someone invisible always conversing with her.”