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On Story: With Eugene Peterson
I just finished reading Bono’s autobiographical tome, Surrender, and was delighted to find out that the great lyricist was a friend of the late Eugene Peterson. Peterson pastored for thirty years before becoming professor of spiritual theology at Regent in Vancouver, B.C. In my last post I shared excerpts from a conversation I had with him about rest. What follows is what he told me about “story”—excerpted from a conversation we had while he was still a prof and I was starting out as one. SG: In the academic environment it’s easy to intellectualize everything. How can we keep from developing the kind of mentality that would view the Trinity as…
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Give the Gift of Good Listening
Few doubt the power of a good listener. This is why we have counselors, spiritual directors, coaches, and (in the missions world) debriefers. Basically, we pay people to listen because effective listening is a learned and precious skill. And a gift from God. I recently had the privilege of being debriefed. I recounted something I was wrestling with to someone who listened actively and non-judgmentally. As I processed aloud, I found I could release the angst that incident had produced and find clarity. I realized I could let it go and no longer dwell on it. Telling one’s story in a safe place brings resolution, healing, and growth. This requires…
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Leader, Do You Have a Book in You?
Back when I was in high school living two miles outside of Washington, D.C., my parents took me to visit The Library of Congress. As I stood eyeing walls of books, millions of them from floor to ceiling, it occurred to me that a whole lot of people publish. And that number has continued to skyrocket. Today the Library of Congress contains more than 74 million manuscripts—about one for every five Americans. So why in the world would you want to add to that stack by writing a book of your own? Write because you have better data. Maybe you’ve taken a look at all the books on the market…
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Declare God’s Faithfulness
Listen to this blog as a similar podcast: There is a line in one of my favorite praise songs that says, “Though darkness fills the night, It cannot hide the light; Whom shall I fear?” Darkness is one of those things that can cause fear. Think of a time when you were in a really dark place. With not even a glimmer of light. Was it in a cave? Or on a dark street? How do you feel in total darkness? Afraid. Lonely. You look for light from any source, don’t you? You see that light, and you follow it to get out of the darkness. That’s what God does…
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Witnesses
What comes to mind when you hear “witness”? I think of ABC’s Eyewitness News and the 1985 thriller Witness starring Harrison Ford about an Amish boy who witnesses a murder (yes, I’m dating myself). Recently, however, I’ve been challenged to step up as a witness. In fact, ALL believers are called to testify as witnesses. Not in a court of law. But in our lives and through our work. Acts 1:8 proclaims Jesus Christ’s final words before ascending into heaven, and what Jesus says still applies to all believers today: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all…
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For Your Summer Reading Edutainment: The Sisters of Sinai
Want a summer read that’s part adventure story, part biography, part introduction to biblical manuscripts, part historical drama, and part faith journey? If yes, check out Janet Soskice’s The Sisters of Sinai. The main characters are identical twins Agnes and Margaret Smith of Scotland. Their travels lead, among other places, to St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai. There Agnes discovered one of the oldest manuscripts of the Gospels ever found. The sisters’ staunch Presbyterian father, widowed shortly after their births in 1843, raised his girls as one might raise boys in the Victorian era—educated, physically active, and engaged in the life of the mind. And he kept a promise that…
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Art Saves Lives
I just finished reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. The student who brought me the book also sent me a link to a transcript in which the author told about his 97-year-old cousin, Helen, a Polish Holocaust survivor: “She started telling me this story of how, in the ghetto, they were not allowed books. If you had a book … the Nazis could put a gun to your head and pull the trigger—books were forbidden. And she used to teach under the pretense of having a sewing class . . . a class of about twenty little girls, and they would come in for…
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Three.Words.Story
Maybe the right words to share your faith story in a conversation come naturally to you. Praise God for that verbal gift! I am willing to declare that for most of us (including me), those words just don’t come easily. We don’t know where to start. We don’t know how much to say. We say too much. Frankly, I have not been in a church yet that stressed the importance of being able to share one’s faith story by actually EQUPPING EVERYONE to do it — including frequent opportunities to practice it! Why is that? How many hours do we spend practicing other things? But not this. Not “the word…
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Nain: The Perfect Setting
Like the mansion “Downton Abbey,” the setting itself played such a role in Shunem’s story that it functioned almost as an independent character. Shunem’s people took pride in its heritage: About 800 years before Christ, Elisha had brought a woman’s dead child back to life here. Elsewhere some years before that, Elisha’s mentor, Elijah, had restored to life a widow’s only son. And afterward, the biblical text records, “Elijah gave him to his mother" (1 Kings 17:23). So Elisha’s miracle at Shunem was not the first time a prophet had raised a woman's child, but it was certainly the last. Just on the other side of Shunem’s hill, assuming we…
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Life with a New Liver
Meet Lisa. She’s a dear friend, coach’s wife, lover of Africa, and most recently, a liver transplant survivor. Her story will challenge you to live each day more fully. “We’ll be there in 7 minutes.” Those are the last words I remember from my care flight. Although I can’t recall much from the week of February 2, 2014, I realize God performed a miracle in my life. On Sunday afternoon, I went in for a routine gallbladder removal—or so I thought—but God had different plans. After the surgery, my general surgeon was concerned about my liver. An MRI revealed that I had developed a rare liver condition called Budd Chiari.…
