Happiness is the end of the creation ... because the end of the creation is that the creation might glorify [the Creator]. Now what is glorifying God, but a rejoicing at that glory he has displayed? An understanding of the perfections of God, merely, cannot be the end of the creation; for he had as good not understand it, as see it and not be at all moved with joy at the sight. Neither can the highest end of the creation be the declaring God's glory to others; for the declaring God's glory is good for nothing otherwise than to raise joy in ourselves and others at what is declared. [Quote from The "Miscellanies" of Jonathan Edwards]This is how a blogger for Piper's blog digested the quote:
In other words, it would be meaningless for God to create the universe if the highest purpose of the creation was merely to understand or to declare his perfections. Rather, it is when the creation is made happy in understanding and declaring his perfections that God gets the most glory. [From John Piper's blog: http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/]
Praise God for summer.
Reading Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper
Sequence and card games
Laughter + silly sounds
Cooking with my Mommy
Ah, summer. :)
4 comments:
danggggg. you're quoting from the Yale site!
today (well, yesterday) in class, we were reading this puritan Richard Baxter, who was quoted by one student as having said something like, "the devil is always a better scholar than we are." he then said, "the devil is a better scholar than all of us...even better than John Piper, or Jonathan Edwards..."
we paused for a while, and then we were like "uhm, maybe not Jonathan Edwards. Piper maybe, but probably not Jonathan Edwards."
Oh, thanks for sharing Megan
-Grace (Suryaskdfnskf... ;p)
i like this. its something i consider when thinking about the purpose of art / life. and i particularly like the use of the word "happy" because it seems like the word had become cliche a while back (not necessarily for bad reason) and many people were hating on it (some still do), but sometimes it takes dispute to make a word fresh and meaningful again. happiness, like joy and everything else, is best defined in relation to God anyway. so i guess i don't blame people for hating on the word, since it was/is often used in attempted disconnect from God.
i say all this because i rarely find christians talking about "happiness" anymore - people try to avoid the word and use similar words. but i appreciate the repetitive use of it in this post.
This is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing! LOVE! =)
Kristina J.
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