I began reading Eugene Peterson last August, after a good friend of mine spent several years reading most of his works. He's quickly becoming one of my favorites. I really appreciate his restful, thoughtful spirit and the particular way he encourages us to get God's Word in us, to form and shape us in a way that leads to flourishing.
Therefore, I was pleased to hear Andy Crouch bring him up in the latest episode of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. The entire podcast, while well done and fascinating, has been a troubling and sad indictment of what happens in leaders when charisma outpaces character and how abuse can be overlooked and even protected by those close to it because a lot of good is happening too.
And that brings us to Peterson, and Teresa of Calcutta, on a different way to live and be. Here's Andy Crouch:
Through this whole story of the rise of the mega-church, there's this incredible alternative being offered in the writing and the life of this guy, Eugene Peterson. Who then happens to perform a kind of act of media, sort of brilliance, by doing The Message thing...Then he becomes powerful in a worldly sense. Everyone was like, "Oh, Eugene Peterson." But his life mattered long before The Message. His life would matter if the Message had never been produced and sold the way it did. There was a witness, right there, in our world.Teresa of Calcutta, not a perfect person, sometimes a little harsh with her people that she had power over. But nonetheless, a witness. I think about the fact that Teresa and Diana died in the same week. They are like these mirror images of what we want to be as a human being. The two most recognizable, visible women in the world, it was said, at the time. But utterly different paths to celebrity. Utterly different paths to influence. And of course, one of the things I said in my book Culture Making, it's fascinating that almost everybody wanted to be like Diana, but nobody could be like Diana. Only one person gets to marry the Prince of Wales. And most of us are not beautiful like Diana. We've got no shot. Zero.Meanwhile, you have Teresa of Calcutta and anyone could be like her, because all she is is a saint. And anyone can be a saint if they open themselves up to Jesus. We have not lacked for models of godly power. We just don't want the suffering that comes with it, the long stretches of anonymity and seeming ineffectiveness, the humiliation of being like your Lord. That part we would really rather not have. There have been other options. But the way of Eugene Peterson, the way of Teresa is right there. Any day I can wake up and say, "I'm heading on that road." Whereas, if I look at some celebrity and try to imagine how I'd get to where they are, I got no chance. Yet, every day I'm tempted to divert into some facsimile of the path of celebrity rather than the path of sainthood.
