New Semester

I came across this passage while doing some last minute "fun" reading before getting to my new textbooks. It is found in a letter from Jonathan Edwards to one of his daughters - Esther Edwards Burr. Her husband had recently passed and her infant son (Aaron Burr the future Vice President) had fell ill. Jonathan Edwards' letter was in immediate response to her resolve of God's love.

"Indeed, he is a faithful God; he will remember his covenant forever; and never will fail them that trust in him. But don't be surprised, or think some strange thing has happened to you, if after this light, clouds of darkness should return. Perpetual sunshine is not usual in this world, even to God's true saints. But I hope, if God should hide his face in some respect, even this will be in faithfulness to you, to purify you, and fit you for further and better light."
(November 20, 1757)

It's something we have heard before, and maybe we have been on both sides of this situation. This is what our faith is about. This is why we have it. We are not believers simply to get a pass to heaven but rather to understand what God is doing here with us. This is the kind of faith and understanding of God that I want to have and pass on...

This is only slightly unrelated but - this is my prayer for the entire campus this coming semester:

That we may live like sin is sin and grace is grace. That we learn to better glorify God in all we say and do. And that we forever encourage those under our charge, in whatever capacity that may be, to do the same.