Seeing Beauty and Saying Beautifully (Book Recommended)

Seeing Beauty and Saying Beautifully: The Power of Poetic Effort in the Work of George Herbert, George Whitefield, and C. S. Lewis by John Piper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To see and to savor and to speak the glories of Christ-
this is the delight, the calling of all Christians!

This effort to say beautifully is, perhaps surprisingly, a way of seeing and savoring the beauty. Piper here demonstrates three masters of the poetic effort in their own arenas. I enjoyed reading this book very much! (It made me want to return to college and take a few more English classes!)

"This is meditation: Getting glimpses of glory in the Bible or in the world and turning those glimpses around and around in your mind, looking and looking."

A quote from each of these greats:

Full of rebellion, I would die,
Or fight, or travail, or denie
That thou hast ought to do with me.
O tame my heart;
It is thy highest art
To captivate strong holds to thee.
(“Nature” by Herbert)

“I will never speak of what is real as though it were imaginary." Whitfield

“A great romance is like a flower whose smell reminds you of something you can’t quite place. . . . I’ve never met Ents or Elves—but the feel of it, the sense of a huge past,
of lowering danger, of heroic tasks achieved by the most apparently
unheroic people, of distance, vastness, strangeness, homeliness (all
blended together) is so exactly what living feels like to me. (Lewis)

See, savor, speak!
May God help us to will and to do this faithful thing, in accordance with our unique gifts!

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