After nearly a month’s break from the Resolutions and several sporatic attempts to get Resolution 7 up on the blog, something just didn’t seem to be right. So I’d put it on the back burner and let it simmer and go back to the sections of his memoirs and some readings from his works for inspiration. If my goal in this series was simply to share what I saw in the resolution and my thoughts about it, then this would be a fairly straight forward resolution and it wouldn’t have been too difficult to get something up quickly.
But that is not what I set out to do. I set out to examine the resolutions in the context of the life and writings of Jonathan Edwards with a view toward understanding the man and, hopefully to apply what I learned in my own life for the purpose of developing a heart after God like his. I saw in his writings a depth of character that came through his own self examination and I thought, “it would be good for me to know myself like this—I am too adept at rationalizing and defending myself.”
I have come to see that I have bitten off a good deal more than I can chew, and yet I will endeavor to persevere because it does me good. And if it takes me much longer than I thought and if I lose the interest of others or if I find I am never able to sensibly share this on the blog, then so be it. Protecting my own pride and not wanting to look like a quitter is not sufficient reason to carry a project on to (public) completion, and so in all this I will say along with Edwards:
Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat Him by His grace to enable me to continue with this project, so far as it is agreeable to His will, for Christ’s sake.
Friday, January 13, 2006 at 09:05AM
Reader Comments (5)
Sounds like you're accomplishing your main goal a bit more than you give yourself credit for. ;)
Hi, Kim! Thanks so much for coming by my blog! Always fun to talk to another PCA-er! :)
You know, I didn't pay a lot of attention to your JE Resolution posts until our pastor mentioned them (at length) in his 1/1/06 sermon. Since them I've not only read them all, but the thought of taking on this challenge myself actually crossed my mind ... for about .0000002 seconds and then it was gone.
And Kim in ON is also doing this? How cool is that! Y'all have got to stick with it! I am so anxious to read #7 - get on it, my friend!
I have really been struggling with resolution #7. I'm not sure I really know what he's saying.
Hmmm....That one's odd. What would one be afraid to do if it where the last hour of their life? Or is it saying he's resolving to never do anything during the last hour of his life? Or maybe he's afriad of doing anything during that last hour?
A pox on all those commas! I can't figure it out, either.