An afternoon with John Owen

Kelly Kapic, in the introduction to Overcoming Sin and Temptation, remembers longing for a mentor during his days in London while working on a PhD. He recounts this conversation with his wife:

As we sat talking that morning, in what had become normal language around our home, I began a sentence with, 'Do you know what Owen said yesterday . . .?' Stopping me, Tabitha interjected, 'You are being mentored. Listen to how you refer to John Owen, as if he were alive. He is your mentor.' (p23)

This afternoon I had one of those sessions of being mentored by John Owen. Elisabeth fell asleep in the stroller on the walk home from church, and so I pulled out The Glory of Christ and sat on a park bench for a good hour and a half and was reminded again why I love 'being around' this man, as is evidenced by the following excerpt:

There is no contemplation of the glory of Christ that ought more to affect the hearts of them that do believe with delight and joy, than this, of the recapitulation summing up] of all things in him. One view by faith of him in the place of God, as the supreme head of the whole creation. Moving, acting, guiding and disposing of it, will bring in spiritual refreshment to a believing soul. . . . Did we live more in the contemplation of the glory of Christ, and of the wisdom of God in this recapitulation of all things in him, there is not anything of our duty which it would not mind us of, nor anything of privilege which it would not give us a sense of, as might easily be demonstrated. (Owen, John. "The Glory of Christ." Glasgow: Christian Heritage. 2004. p166)

[Translation: Nothing brings true Christians more joy than the thought of all things being made subject to Jesus. If we lived more in the constant awareness of the beauty of Christ, and God's wisdom in making everything subject to Him, our duties would not be burdens, and our privileges would be even sweeter.]