Eugene Peterson Is At It Again

The days seem long around here. We wait until Mom wakes up, visit until she gets tired, and then we wait some more until she wakes up again. As my barnstorming-pilot brother-in-law Shane so aptly put it yesterday: "So, let's see. Start with Krispy Kreme's and the Sunday paper. Then we got the Netherlands vs. Serbia at 11. We got Mexico vs. Iran at 2. We got Angola vs. Portugal at 5. We shop for groceries. We got Mavericks vs. Heat at 8. Then bed. We start over again on Monday." He's pretty much nailed it.

Except for today, just put in the names of different countries in the time slots and erase the NBA Finals and you have today's schedule.

At any rate, I've been doing some reading in a new Eugene Peterson book. He's one of my favorite theological/philosophical writers. And his new series of books is designed to teach theology through a devotional approach and making doctrinal statements applicational. If you're asking me, it's just what the Church needs exactly when the Church needs it. Here's a few nuggets for you to chew on for a bit:

"There comes a time for most of us when we discover a deep desire within us to live from the heart what we already know if our heads and do with our hands. But 'to whom shall we go?' Our educational institutions have only marginal interest in dealing with our desire...Meanwhile, our religious institutions...prove disappointing to more and more people who find themselves zealously cultivated as consumers in a God-driven marketplace or treated as exasperatingly slow students preparing for final exams on the 'furniture of heaven and the temperature of hell.'"

"(Nicodemus, in John 3) wasn't looking for theological information but for a way in, not for anything more about the kingdom of God but for a personal guide/friend to show him the door and lead him in: 'How do I enter...?'"

And now for the REALLY good thought-provoker for your day:

"You would think that beleiving that Jesus is God among us would be the hardest thing. It is not. It turns out that the hardest thing to believe is that God's work--this dazzling creation, this astonishing salvation, this cascade of blessings--is all being worked out in and under the conditions of our humanity: at picnics and around dinner tables, in conversations and while walking along roads, in puzzled questions and homely stories, and blind beggars and suppurating lepers, at weddings and funerals. Everything that Jesus does takes place within the limits and conditions of our humanity. No fireworks. No special effects. Yes, there are miracles. Plenty of them. But becuase for the most part they are so much a part of the fabric of everyday life, very few notice. The miraculousness of miracle is obscured by the familiarity of the setting, the ordinariness of the people involved...when it comes to dealing with God most of us spend considerable time trying our own hands at either being or making gods, Jesus blocks the way. Jesus is not a god of our own making and certainly not a god designed to win popularity contests."

So, Diner readers, there you go.

*fixes another cup of coffee, and waits your input. The owner had plenty of time to loiter around the Diner these days*