Great Adventure - Mary Rowlandson

1637–1711

We’re used to it now. Someone goes through a harrowing experience, and a tell-all book is soon on the shelves. A Christian woman named Mary Rowlandson may have started that trend, publishing a bestselling book in 1682 about an adventure that occurred in 1676.

The mid-1600s had seen great expansion for the Puritan colonists in New England, with thousands of new immigrants entering the region. They pressed the frontier westward, into tribal territory. In some cases, the colonists bought land from the tribes and negotiated agreements, but not always. In the winter of 1675–76, Wampanoag warriors attacked Puritan settlements throughout New England—including the village of Lancaster, Massachusetts, where Mary Rowlandson lived with her minister husband and three children. Thirteen colonists were killed, and many others were injured. Mary and her children were taken captive, along with other villagers.

For eleven weeks, the raiding party fled retaliation from Puritan forces, dragging their hostages with them. Ultimately, Mary’s release was won with a ransom: twenty pounds raised in an appeal to some church women in Boston.

Years later, Mary wrote about her ordeal in a book titled The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. An instant hit, it went through four printings in the first year. America had never had a book so popular.

Rowlandson frankly described her difficulties but also took every opportunity to mention God’s goodness. “So it must be, that I must sit all this cold winter night upon the cold snowy ground, with my sick child in my arms, looking that every hour would be the last of its life; and having no Christian friend near me, either to comfort or help me. Oh, I may see the wonderful power of God, that my Spirit did not utterly sink under my affliction: still the Lord upheld me with His gracious and merciful spirit, and we were both alive to see the light of the next morning.”

This is the sort of two-fisted honesty we need in our attitude and our conversation. We must not deny the challenges we face, but we can trust “the sovereignty and goodness of God” to provide for us—even in the most harrowing adventure.

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

James 1:2-3