We are apt to complain, but remember: God’s infinite plan ordered [these trials]… The reason we do not see the wisdom of [the trial] is partly because being creatures we cannot fathom the wisdom of the Creator, and as sinful creatures we are blind and prejudiced. It is also partly because we forget the purpose they ultimately aim toward, and measure them by our own standards. It is also partly through our own pride, because we have such a high opinion of our own wisdom, which is foolishness indeed.
— Samuel Willard (1640–1707), Puritanischer Prediger
Topics: Suffering & the Question of God, Guidance & God's Will, Humility & Pride
Occasions: For Reflection
Samuel Willard
Samuel Willard (1640–1707) war ein puritanischer Geistlicher in Neuengland, Pfarrer an der Old South Church in Boston und amtierender Leiter des Harvard College. Bekanntheit erlangte er durch sein postum veröffentlichtes Monumentalwerk *A Compleat Body of Divinity* sowie durch seine Kritik an den Hexenprozessen von Salem, bei denen er gegen die Zulassung sogenannter Geisterbeweise auftrat. Heutigen Bibellesern vermittelt sein Werk eine systematische Auslegung der reformierten Bundestheologie und zeigt das Ringen um Besonnenheit in Zeiten religiöser Spannungen.
All quotes by Samuel Willard (8)
In our own woundedness, we can become sources of life for others.
Henri Nouwen
Ultimately mourning means facing what wounds us in the presence of One who can heal.
Henri Nouwen
C.S. Lewis
When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.
Henri Nouwen
He has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer His embrace.
Joni Eareckson Tada
Etty Hillesum
God writes straight even on crooked lines.
Paul Claudel
God lets us walk no path that he himself has not walked, and on which he does not go ahead of us.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer