Ok, not really Fig Newtons. I am reading a biography on John Newton, but every time I pick up the book I want to eat a Fig Newton. Specifically a raspberry one because they are yummiest.
QUIZ TIME!
John Newton is famous for
A) writing "Amazing Grace"
B) inventing Fig Newtons
C) eating lots of Fig Newtons
D) being a major leader in Britain's abolitionist movement
E) being an influential clergyman and theologian in Great Britain
Answer? A, D, and E.
Perhaps you caught onto the Fig Newton diversion. I, like many of today's Christians, had heard of John Newton as author of Amazing Grace. I did not know know of his work outside of hymn writing. John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace by Jonathan Aitken is the story of Newton's life-- how God in his perfect timing redeemed and transformed a man far from Him.
Today I was struck by a quote by Newton:
"I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am."
*(I think this may have been shortened- I don't have the original text to compare it to.)
How much time I spend wishing I were better than what I am, imagining a future when I have things "figured out." Or sometimes I spend too long reminding myself of past faults and failures. In fact that is the wrong perspective. It is not what I lack, but what God abundantly supplies.
(Bonus points if you catch this reference)
