By immersing ourselves into the main character of John Bunyan’s story entitled, The Pilgrim’s Progress, we discover that the “mess” in Christian’s life illustrates the beauty of God through the burden which he carried. At the very beginning of the story, the author makes repeated references to the character walking seemingly in a wandering fashion. This theme of having no fixed course continued into the dream state as the character ultimately cries out for help. Paragraph one of The Pilgrim’s Progress, in the Similitude of a Dream; The First Part states, “I dreamed, and behold I saw a Man cloathed with Rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a Book in his hand, and a great Burden upon his back. I looked, and saw him open the Book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled; and not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, saying What shall I do?” (Bunyan, 2001).
Generally speaking, it has been said that, dreams are the window to our souls, and under this context the author introduces a humungous burden which our character walked around with. Additionally, we learn that the character in the dream was reading a “Book”, and “became overwhelmed with a fearful sorrow” (Bunyan, 2001). It is important to note here that, this sorrow came after the act of reading because this tells the reader that the “Book” is very special (Bunyan, 2001). In other words, the “Book” evoked the actions and the “crying out for help” (Bunyan, 2001). The “Book” itself is actually the Holy Bible which is God’s gift to mankind for us to obediently follow through faith in this sinful world (Bunyan, 2001). The deceptions of Satan in this world can force us to walk around on autopilot thus enabling the learned behavior of habitual sin (our burdens). The burden that Christian carried around reveals the beauty of our magnificent Creator because God is all knowing.
All in all, the beauty of the Lord is demonstrated in the steadfastness of His omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience. To enumerate, as human begins our perceptive lenses are limited to this world, but God is greater. God’s plan for our lives was known to Him before we were born. In Volume I of Authorship and Authenticity: Kierkegarrd and his pseudonyms, Søren Kierkegaard states, “Philosophy is perfectly right in saying that life must be understood backwards. But then one forgets the other clause-that it must be lived forwards. The more one thinks through this clause, the more one concludes that life in temporality never becomes properly understandable, simply because never at any time does one get perfect repose to take a stance: Backwards” (Daniel Conway;K.E. Gover , 2002). We cannot go back in time to correct our mistakes, but we can repent to our Lord and Savior to remove our burden. Now that is real beauty.
Works Cited
Bunyan, J. (2001, March 23). The Pilgrims Progrss Vol. XV, Part 1. (C. W. Eliot, Ed.) Retrieved Ocotber 25, 2018, from The Harvard classics: https://www.bartleby.com/15/1/101.html
Daniel Conway;K.E. Gover . (2002). Volume I of Authorship and Authenticity: Kierkegarrd and his pseudonyms. New York,NY: Routledge-Taylor & Francis .
