While I'm sitting here at my computer, in my air
conditioned home, with the radio blaring and the t.v. on downstairs, I
try to imagine how life was as a young Puritan. To be honest, I don't
think I could live a week the way they do. I could try but it would be
excruciatingly difficult.
The Puritans didn't have all the luxuries we have
today. They
were told many things by preachers such as Jonathon Edwards, who lit a
candle of fear in their minds. If I was alive to hear Edwards preach,
I'd certainly have to question myself. He preached that God holds us in
his hands and he can make or break us. If God decides it so, he will
let us go and we will fall from his hands to nothing but Hell.
Certainly no one wants to go to Hell. So, the Puritans tried to better
their lives, and go by rules or "resolutions." They believed if they
followed these resolutions, even though their fate was predetermined by
God, they could live a life of good and maybe prove they are meant to
go to Heaven.
One of the many detailed resolutions they had to
follow was "To
think much, on all occasions, of my own dying and of the common
circumstances which attend death." I certainly would be frightened to
think of dying every second of the day. I'd be paranoid, looking
around, thinking how I would die, what would happen to me after I die.
I don't think I'd be a happy person to be around. I often wonder how
many Puritans walked around day to day thinking about "I could die
today!"
The other resolution, similiar as above, "Never to
do anything
which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life."
When I was in class, I actually tried to think what I would actually
do, if it was the last hour of my life and if what I was doing then, is
what I would actually do. I think I'd have a lot more to say, I'd speak
my mind more. I once thought, if I was on an airplane that was
crashing, what I would do. I think I'd write. I'd write my finals words
in my journal which I always carry and then close my eyes. Nothing
more, nothing less. But, I wouldn't actually know that is what I'd do
until faced with the situation. I see this resolution as not a good
thing, yet not bad. It mostly depends on the person.
The resolution I find would benefit me the most
would have to
be "Never to lose one moment of time; but improve it in the most
profitable way I possibly can." I think this would help me a great
deal. I tend to wait till the last minute to do things or say, "I'll do
it later" and then I never do it. I think it would be hard for me to
get used to not being a procrastinator. This weekend, I didn't even try
to do my history homework, I kept saying, "I have all weekend, I'll do
it later." Before I realized, it was 5:30am Monday morning. I was very
tired and wanted to sleep but I couldn't because I had slacked off all
weekend and I needed to do my history homework.
What would be very hard to follow would have to be
"To study
the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently as that I may
find and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same."
I'm not a very religious person. I would make a bad Puritan. My family
has always been torn between religions somehow. My father is Buddhist,
my mother is Lutheran. I don't go to church. I don't ever read the
Bible or any type of Scriptures. I don't think I even read the Bible
once last year. I have friends of all types of religions, Mormon,
Catholic, Jewish, Wiccan, Atheist and Christian. Some are more
religious than others, they go to church every Sunday and they truly
are dedicated and firm believers in their religion. How they "grow"
from their religions is they see how people have sinned and try to
better themselves and not do the same. That doesn't seem like it
changed much in many decades except people are more tolerant to other
religions.
I read the Puritan's code and try to think of
positively as of
why Jonathon Edwards would want each resolution. There is quite a good
reasoning behind them all. I may not be able to follow a select few but
ones such as "After afflictions, to inquire what I am the better for
them; what good I have got, what I might have got by them." is a very
good resolution to follow. To think how you benefit from things that
people have done to you or you do have done to others.
Even though I may never be able to really
experience the true
life of a Puritan and be influenced by Jonathon Edwards, I believe if I
did indeed follow these resolutions it would change my life a great
deal. I'd probably be eating healthy and living with all my might and
living every day to the fullest. I'd also be asleep and not still
sitting here at my computer at almost 11pm at night. What can I say,
I'm a procrastinator, not a Puritan.
