A New Creature in Christ
I recently started reading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, and I was impressed by the description of Konstantin Levin when he returned to his home in the country after his marriage proposal was rejected by Kitty in Moscow. He was at first crushed by the rejection, but as he made the journey back to his own place “he began to see what had happened to him in quite a different light. He felt himself, and did not want to be anyone else. All he wanted now was to be better than before. In the first place he resolved that from that day he would give up hoping for any extraordinary happiness, such as marriage must have given him, and consequently he would not so disdain what he really had…. With a resolute feeling of hope in a new, better life, he reached home.” He was determined to be a better person and planned how he would care for his struggling brother more diligently, give of his possessions to help others, and live with less luxury. After he arrived, though, the doubts set in: “There cam...