Fruit of affliction...

This, from John Piper…

“It is an inspiring thought that one small pebble [that is, the testimony of a Christian’s life] dropped in the sea of history can produce waves of grace that break on distant shores hundreds of years later and thousands of miles away.”

Indeed, it is. And what’s more, to think that it’s God that breathes a bit on those ripples and makes them into waves, which can crash again and again as encouragement in the lives of future saints.

Biographies are so good for my soul. I just read Piper’s “The Hidden Smile of God: The Fruit of Affliction in the Lives of John Bunyan, William Cowper and David Brainerd.” (That’s a pretty long title, eh?) Excellent stuff.

These guys really suffered for the Kingdom, and suffered uniquely—Bunyan in jail for 12 years, away from his wife and children, simply because he wouldn’t not preach the Gospel; Cowper, through a disposition weak against depression and a life oft filled with darkness; Brainerd, in a frail body, which succumbed to tuberculosis at the young age of 29. But each advanced the Kingdom and left a legacy for Christians today, also in a unique way.

I won’t try to tell you all about these men—I think ya’ll should just read the book, or any book, about them—but I will tell you the most encouraging thing I took away.

It was about David Brainerd, the famous young missionary to the American Indians, who suffered dearly for their cause, and sacrificed much to be with them. David Brainerd, the contemporary to and friend of the great Jonathan Edwards, whose house in which he died. David Brainerd, an inspiration to thousands of missionaries and whose Diaries are still in print and widely read today.

David Brainerd—this same David Brainerd—struggled to love the Indians.

That just blew me away. It wasn’t always easy for him. He didn’t always feel like getting out there and going to them. Sometimes, even he would rather have just stay home.

Yes, sometimes he was melted with love for them. “But other times he seemed empty of affection or compassion for their souls. He expresses guilt that he should preach to immortal souls with no more ardency and so little desire for their salvation. His compassion could simply go flat. November 2^nd, 1744: ‘About noon, road up to the Indians; and while going, could feel no desires for them, and even dreaded to say anything to ‘em.’ So Brainerd struggled with the rise and fall of love in his own heart. He loved, but longed to love so much more.”

Me, too! Me, too!

What a relief and an encouragement to know that such a great man suffered these same lulls in love, felt the same deadness of affection from time to time. Outside of that, he even longed to speak with people of his own tongue sometimes. He didn’t always take so nicely to his harsh conditions. He was lonely out in the wilderness, and he even struggled with depression.

And yet he was still a pebble.

And I guess I just think that’s cool, is all.