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About the Book
"LOVING" by Karen Kingsbury tells the heartwarming story of a devoted couple, Clark and Kathleen, who face a heartbreaking challenge when Kathleen is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. As their love is put to the ultimate test, they must navigate the difficulties of memory loss while finding strength in their unwavering faith and enduring love for each other. This emotional novel showcases the power of love, devotion, and the importance of cherishing every moment.
David Brainerd
Born to a farming family in Haddam, Connecticut, Brainerd soon turned his aspirations to the clergy and a life of study. The early death of his parents, combined with a naturally melancholy personality, caused him to be morose and to fixate on the brevity of life, so that his religious life was characterized by prolonged depressions punctuated by ecstatic experiences of God. He began to study for the ministry at Yale College in 1739. During his first year he showed signs of the tuberculosis that was to end his life prematurely. During the following year, the New Light preaching of George Whitefield and other itinerants such as Gilbert Tennent and James Davenport gained many adherents at the college, including Brainerd, and he became involved in a separate church founded by students. In November 1741 he was reported as saying that one of the local ministers who was a college tutor had âno more grace than a chair.â Determined to snuff out the New Light among the students, the Yale Corporation, led by its rector, Thomas Clap, expelled Brainerd for refusing to make a public confession.
Officially barred from the ministry, Brainerd nonetheless became an itinerant preacher, filling pulpits of New Light sympathizers throughout New England and New York. In the process he gained the admiration of many clergymen, including Jonathan Dickinson, a Presbyterian minister of New Jersey and commissioner of the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge. Dickinson in 1742 first proposed that Brainerd become a missionary. To prepare himself, in 1743 Brainerd went to work with John Sargeant, missionary to the Stockbridge Indians. He was ordained by the Presbytery of New York in 1744. From 1743 to 1747 he ministered to the Indians in western Massachusetts, eastern New York, the Lehigh region of Pennsylvania, and central New Jersey. At the New Jersey Bethel mission (near Cranbury), he achieved his most notable successes. Out of his experiences here came the publication of two installments of his journals that described both the revivals among the Delaware Indians and his own spiritual turmoil and exultation.
Brainerd preaching to the Indians for all of his zeal, however, Brainerdâs constitution could not stand up to the hardships of wilderness living. In April 1747, seriously weakened by tuberculosis, he left New Jersey for the home of his friend Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he died in October.
In 1749 Edwards published An Account of the Life of the Late Reverend Mr. David Brainerd, drawn from Brainerdâs extensive diaries and supplemented by Edwardsâs own commentary. Edwards sought to portray Brainerd as a model of Christian saintliness who manifested his faith in good works and self-sacrifice, expurgating many passages that recorded Brainerdâs depressions and enthusiasms. Over the centuries, this work has achieved international fame, has gone through countless printings, and has inspired many missionaries in pursuing their call.
Minkema, Kenneth P., âBrainerd, David,â in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 84-5.
This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.
the friend we all need
âA friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversityâ (Proverbs 17:17). What a joy it is to have a friend, one we can confide and trust in, receive help and encouragement from, one who knows and loves us just as we are. To have a friend walk beside us in the darkest times is a great blessing. But friendship, like all things in this fallen world, is broken. Because of sin, we have conflicts with others. We seek our own way. We hurt and betray one another. We know what it is like to have a friend fail us and let us down. Weâve probably had friends betray our confidences with others. Perhaps weâve even had friends turn their backs and reject us. Certainly we know what itâs like when close friends from the past fade farther away through time and distance. Some of us may know the heartache of losing a friend through death. As a result, it can be easy to grow cynical about friendship. We can be distrusting and cautious. We might find relationships online or through social media to be more appealing than flesh and blood friendships. We may keep the relationships we do have at a distance, never trusting enough to share whatâs really going on in our heart. And some may give up on friendship altogether, preferring to handle life on our own. Yes, friendship is hard and sometimes even hurtful. But Jesus came to redeem and restore all things, including our relationships with one another. Our Perfect Friend Thereâs an old hymn titled that says, Jesus! What a Friend for sinners! Jesus! Lover of my soul; Friends may fail me, foes assail me, He, my Savior, makes me whole. Charles Spurgeon once said, âOh! To be able to say âChrist is my friend,â is one of the sweetest things in the world.â While Jesus was mocked for being a friend of sinners (Luke 7:34), those who have been rescued from sin through Jesusâs sacrifice on the cross know the sweet taste of singing the words, âJesus! What a friend for sinners!â Though our earthly friends may fail us and earthly foes assail us, Jesus stands by us, our perfect friend. His love for us is unconditional; itâs not based on who we are and what weâve done. His love is not fickle or temporary. He doesnât make promises and then fail to keep them. He wonât turn on us and reject us. Jesusâs love for us is eternal, extending all the way back in eternity past, before time even began (Ephesians 1:4â5). And nothing can separate us from his love (Romans 8:38â39). Even now, he is at work for us, interceding before the Father on our behalf: âConsequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for themâ (Hebrews 7:25). As our friend, Jesus not only wants the best for us, but he knows what is best for us and ensures that only the best ever happens to us. He works out all the details of our life for our good and his glory. He comforts us, guides us, hears our every cry, knows what we need even before we do, and works in us at all times, transforming us into his own righteous image. He is the friend we never had, the friend we never deserved, the one friend we all need â our perfect friend. Our First Friend The friendships we have with other believers are rooted in our friendship with Christ. They blossom and bear fruit out of our relationship with him. In fact, our friendship with Jesus creates and shapes our friendships with others. Jesus describes himself as the vine and us as the branches, âAbide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.â (John 15:4â5) Through faith in what Jesus did for us in his perfect life, sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection, we are united to him. Through this union, we receive all the benefits of what he has done for us â justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification, and more. Just as a branch receives its life and sustenance from the vine, we too receive our spiritual life and health through our union with Christ. We grow and bear fruit from what he provides. One Friendship Shapes Every Friendship Every other friendship a Christian makes or maintains stems from this friendship. When we are adopted by the Father through Jesus, we are united to every other believer; they are our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Believers past, present, and even those yet to be born are our siblings in Christ. We are united to them just as the parts of a human body are connected to one another. In fact, we are so tightly woven together that when one part of the body hurts, we all hurt (1 Corinthians 12:26). We can only love one another because God loved us first (1 John 4:19). Biblical friendship begins with Christ and extends outward, not the other way around. His love flows into us, and out of that love, we love others. As we abide in him, we are fueled to love and serve our brothers and sisters. We receive the nourishment we need from Christ, and then share that spiritual nourishment with others. And because they are drinking from the same vine, they do the same for us. We all come to faith the same way, by grace through faith. Not one of us has it all together; we all rely upon the grace and favor of God. Because we know the mercy and forgiveness of Jesus, we can be patient and forbearing with one another (Ephesians 4:32). Jesusâs constant grace toward us when we sin and fail him enables us to forgive others when they fail or sin against us. Jesus is our first friend, creating and shaping our friendships with others. We love out of the overflow of his love for us. Jesus is also our perfect friend, the one who loves at all times. When friends fail us and let us down, we can continue to love them because we know we have been loved with a perfect and unfailing love. Because â as the old hymn says â Jesus is with us to the end.
