We all need a wise older person to guide us, a trusted soul who has been where we hope to go. We all need someone farther down the road, someone we trust, someone who will stop, look back, put hands to mouth, and say, “It’s going to be okay. Come this way.”
I have that person. His name is Eugene Peterson.
I’ve never met him. I only know him through his books. His many deep, amazing, holy books, books that have shaped my faith and work in more ways than I could explain.
For those who do not know, Eugene Peterson was a pastor, professor, scholar and author. He pastored a Presbyterian church in Bel Air, MD. Never a fan of megachurches or a seeker of the limelight, he pastored his small church quietly and, from the world’s perspective, unremarkably for 29 years. Upon retirement, he served as a professor of Theology at Regent University in Vancouver. It was during this time he worked on the book which made him somewhat famous. The Message, a common-man’s translation of the Bible, has sold over 15 million copies.
But that’s not the work I most cherish. Peterson was first and foremost a writer to pastors. He wrote more than 30 books (I’ve read maybe 15?). His books overflow with gentle wisdom, biblical insight, prophetic voice, and humility. They cover topics like Jesus, prayer, community, church life, conflicts, and how to be the peaceful presence of God to the people right in front of you, whether you like them or not.
Among my favorites are Working the Angles, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, and Letters to a Young Pastor (a collection of letters he wrote to his son, published posthumously).
The thing I love most about Peterson’s writings, besides the fact that he was extraordinarily well-read, a lover of nature, a scholar, and a truly elegant writer (not a preacher who published his sermons), is how timely they have remained. They were insightful when written—born of the moment—yet increasingly so in ours. Here are few samples:
“A technologized world knows how to make things, knows how to get places, but it is not conspicuous for living well.” (The Jesus Way, p. 28)
“No matter how right we are in what we believe about God, no matter how accurately we phrase our belief or how magnificently and persuasively we preach or write or declare it, if love does not shape the way we speak and act, we falsify the creed, we confess a lie. Believing without loving is what gives religion a bad name.” (Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, p. 261)
“We feel the need for justification only when we sense that we are not quite in the right. Maybe there is more to life than orthodoxy.. Self-justification is a verbal device for restoring the appearance of rightness without doing anything about the substance.” (Tell It Slant, p. 39)
Or this one, in a brilliant chapter comparing the way of Herod to the way of Jesus.
It is impossible for me not to be impressed with Herod. He ruled Palestine for thirty-four years…He was not a religious man, but he turned out to be a relentless aggressive propagandist for Greek and Roman culture, using it as a means to political power…And here is the astonishing thing: Jesus ignored the whole business. Jesus spent his life walking down roads and through towns dominated by Herod’s policies, buildings shaped by Herod’s power, communities at the mercy of Herod’s whims. And he never gave them the time of day.” (The Jesus Way, p. 200)
One of my favorite anecdotes about Peterson is the time Bono (yes, that Bono) reached out to him. He was touched by the Message, and wanted to meet with Eugene to talk about the Psalms. Not only was Peterson not star-struck, he didn’t know who Bono was and had never heard of U2. Nevertheless, he welcomed him into his Montana home, and their conversation has been preserved in a beautiful short film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l40S5e90KY
Eugene Peterson was able to live in such a way as to be entirely aware of the world’s enticements, troubles, and obsessions, yet never feel the need to be reactive, rash, defensive, nor anxious over the settled future of Jesus and his church.
I’m writing this now because I just finished Peterson’s five-part series on Spiritual Theology. It has taken me three years of reading slowly, a few pages at a time, in the mornings. I’ve underlined things. I’ve copied paragraphs into my journal. I’ve sipped coffee and taken deep breaths. These books have kept me sane, brought me back from the ledge more than once–a deep well of good water in poisonous times.
I’m going to miss them. But I’ll return to his work again, I’m sure.
“Oddly, I have never felt so incompetent to write on what is involved in following Jesus in the context of this culture. And yet, even more oddly, I feel a drive, an energy, to keep writing. I still feel most like a pastor when I write, and I guess that is why I do it.” (Letters to a Young Pastor, p. 114)
Thank you, Eugene, my mentor I never met. I feel the same way.