Burning highlights

Have I mentioned that I finished 'A Burning in My Bones,' the Eugene Peterson biography written by Winn Collier? 

This was perhaps the best read for me at this time. Or, maybe any time. It's another of those "slows-me-down" books, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sometimes I felt like maybe I'd read it before because parts were so familiar from reading Peterson's own works. I was reminded of some things I'd forgotten, but also learned some things I never knew (or knew I knew). More than anything, maybe, it made me want to be a pastor again. Not sure if I could muster it, but there's still a bit of a ... burning.

Anyway, as I may have mentioned, I read it on my kindle, and it didn't occur to me until well into the book that I could highlight sections, so below are some of my highlights. And don't get me started on how stupid Amazon has made it to retrieve these highlights! Like, why can't we just copy and paste them? Oh, I know, because that's how rich people/companies operate! Grhhhh. 

• (181) "Steve, yesterday, told me [about the view of ministry] and what he experienced here, where I am not trying to do very much, but am looking for what the Spirit is doing. Well, I'm glad he sees that and wants it. I think he knows, at least a little anyway, of how difficult it is -- but more of the difficulty is inward, the struggle to be here, stay out of the way, and to pray without forcing anything -- or running out and contradicting by action what I enter into by prayer." -EP
• (206) "...but if I cannot pray and run and read and write I cannot live." -EP
• (221) Virginia Owens told the group, "I wish someone took my writing seriously enough to want to kill me."
• (225) "Too many Christian ministers get impatient with slow learners and profoundly broken people like me. But Eugene didn't. He stayed around, confident that God would heal and restore and mend." And he did.
• (241) In one of his last courses, Eugene recounted, with his raspy voice, the sad contours of David's final years, how this man with such desire and fervor, such promise and intention, squandered the last part of his life. Eugene paused often. "He would just be very quiet," Cuba remembered. And then, after one long stillness, Eugene offered a single line: "We don't always finish so well." Eugene longed to finish well, to live a faithful life. To be consumed, to the end, by God's fiery love. To become a saint. And to finish the final miles, he would need to return to his quiet home. Eugene needed Montana.
• (264) These five books would be his heart and soul: Christ Plays in 10,000 Places. This is the basic book on biblical spiritual theology, which is foundational to all of the rest. Practice Resurrection. This is the course on spiritual formation using the book of Ephesians as the groundwork. Follow the Leader (later renamed The Jesus Way). This I would describe as a course on spiritual politics using aspects of leadership as they come into being in contrasting Jesus with Herod, Caiaphas, and Josephus. Tell It Slant. This is the course on spiritual direction, which is based on the parables. Eat This Book. This is the course on using scripture as the formative text for spirituality.
• (268) Apart from mentioning Hans Urs von Balthasar's Prayer as the best book on the subject and Edith Stein as a preeminent writer on contemplation, Eugene gave little advice on how to pray.
• (273) To be a pastor, he believed, means one must live with fear and trembling, to cling to hope in God even as she reckons with her own unsteady soul. To be a pastor requires immense humility and self-awareness, clinging to mercy like a drowning man grasps for a buoy. The strongest sign of authenticity in what you and I are doing is the inadequacy we feel most of the time.
• (275) "...a near pacifist but not doctrinaire." -EP
• (275) "Well, I want to be a pacifist," Eugene answered, "but I'm not sure I have enough courage."

There was plenty more I could have, and maybe should have, highlighted, but these are what I managed on this reading. 

Someday I would like to read the five books listed on p. 264 (I've read one, and maybe two, already). Actually, I've been thinking of signing up for a free trial of Audible, and maybe I could listen to them if I decide to do the Assault Bike this winter instead of running. It would be way cheaper, but I've never listened to a book before, so we'll see.

And, there ya have it. Now to decide what to read next. I have on deck: The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by Comer, The Narrow Path and Good and Beautiful and Kind by Villodas, and Where Your Treasure Is by Peterson (plus several others laying around the house and on kindle). I'd like to do one or three more by the end of the year. Guess I better get started...