subversive spirituality

i want to simplify your lives

One of my favorite pastors and authors is Eugene Peterson. His writings have always had for me a grandfatherly tone, and while often he confronts me in my thinking, it has always been with warmth and grace and encouragement. Like a hug from a dear friend. I know he cares.

So when he told me recently, in his book, Subversive Spirituality, that he wanted to simplify my life, I listened. I think you’ll find it disrupting and helpful too.

Please take a moment to turn off anything you may be listening to or watching, and read through this thoughtfully and carefully.
Don’t try and multitask (which is an impossibility anyway).
Be present and listen prayerfully to this wise, old disciple of Jesus.

I want to simplify your lives.

When others are telling you to read more, I want you to read less;
when others are telling you to do more, I want to tell you to do less.
The world does not need more of you; it needs more of God.
Your friends do not need more of you; they need more of God.
And you don’t need more of you; you need more of God.

The Christian life consists in what God does for us, not what we do for God;
the Christian life consists in what God says to us, not what we say about God.

We also, of course, do things and say things; but if we do not return to Square One each time we act, each time we speak, beginning from God and God’s Word, we will soon be found to be practicing a spirituality that has little or nothing to do with God. And so it is necessary, if we are going to truly live a Christian life, and not just use the word Christian to disguise our narcissistic and promethean attempts at a spirituality without worshiping God and without being addressed by God, it is necessary to return to Square One and adore God and listen to God. Given our sin-damaged memories that render us vulnerable to every latest edition of journalistic spirituality, daily re-orientation in the truth revealed in Jesus and attested in Scripture is required.

And given our ancient predisposition for reducing every scrap of divine revelation that we come across into a piece of moral/spiritual technology that we can use to get on in the world, and eventually to get on without God, a daily return to a condition of not-knowing and non-achievement is required.

We have proven, time and again, that we are not to be trusted in these matters.

We need to return to Square One for a fresh start as often as every morning, noon, and night.