A Mentor's Mark

On Monday, October 22, 2018, one of my long time mentors went home to Jesus.

When I graduated from high school I had little interest in spiritual things.  I’ve commented on all that pish-posh elsewhere, so I won’t detail it out here.  I’m certain, by my actions and attitude, my youth pastor knew that about me.  I was good at faking who I was, but I couldn’t have been that good. 

On graduation Sunday, however, I received the same gift as every other senior in my youth group, devoted or not:  The Message Bible – New Testament. 

In 1994 it was brand new to bookstore shelves.  Eugene Peterson wrote it as a means of getting the Bible into the hands of church folks so they’ll actually read it.  He would say it was a translation.  Scholars would say it was a paraphrase…at best.  They had mixed reviews.  A few key texts bore Peterson’s pastoral and practical interpretations.  Thus heady folks felt it was unfit, or unfair.  Such is often the case with anything people wish they had thought of first. 

I took the book home that Sunday, set it on a shelf, and left it there as I went off to live life for myself.  Over the course of the next couple years of self-centered living though, when low moments hit, the Bible I would reach for was The Message.  Peterson’s mentoring imprint on my life had only just begun.

Several years and many life lessons later I discovered the bargain book shelf at the local Christian book store.  My values had shifted and my life had been realigned with Jesus and my appetite for reading had profoundly increased.  Often enough I’d find an unpopular off-title book or overly-popular overstock book that peeked my interest, and I would buy it up for a couple bucks and read it through.  One day in particular I thought I had struck gold. 

Thumbing through the el cheapo selections I stopped suddenly and leaned in.  What are these doing on this shelf?  Could that price be right?  There on the shelf were four volumes of The Message Bible – Old Testament; each one representing a different collection of Old Testament books (Pentateuch, History, Poetry, and Prophets), but together they compiled THE WHOLE OLD TESTAMENT!  I was giddy.   

I gathered up all four books and tucked them in amidst a selection of fiction books elsewhere in the store to hide them from any other potential bargain shoppers.  Then I ran across the parking lot to the cash machine by the local bank to pull out money enough to steal these books away.  Finally I scrambled back to the book store, grabbed my treasure and bought them before the obvious error in price marking judgement was found out.  These I read cover to cover.  The Bible had come to life for me!

More than a few years later I came across another book by Eugene Peterson.  This one was not the Bible.  It was called “Living the Resurrection” and it was a paradigm shattering read that propelled me into a season of reengaging my faith and passion in areas of life I had been missing after a season of discouraging circumstances.  Soon I found myself getting back to working on my Master’s degree. 

Picking away at requirements for a Master of Divinity degree proved to be tricky living 300 miles away from the classroom and commuting by train every other week.  Finishing would require some creativity. 

Some years back Eugene Peterson answered a call to leave the pastorate to instead invest in pastors by teaching at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  His courses outlived his full-time tenure by way of digital recording.  Two of these courses – Soulcraft and Tell it Slant – I found to fit well into the requirements for my M.Div. degree. 

Signing up then, I should have known what I would be in for.  Again, Peterson’s godly wisdom, prophetic biblical prowess, and gentle spirited instruction and pace gripped me and taught me more about the deepest driving core of my being.  He taught me how Jesus uses these life stories we live out alongside others’ life stories lived out to shape us from the inside-out.  He taught me how the stories of Jesus; these parables sprinkled throughout the gospel witnesses, take us by surprise and startled us awake to areas of our lives that have been lulled asleep by the wiles of mainstream culture. 

In 2011 Peterson published his memoir.  Titled “The Pastor,” it was on my porch step the day it released and open in my hands that evening.  His work and words had touched the deepest parts of me enough by then to spark off much curiosity about the man himself.  Up until that point in my life I had not read much biography.  Reading through those pages grounded Peterson on the same earthy planet as me and taught me to listen in to the lives of others and learn from them.  Proceeding from that point in my life, biography became an important genre on my book shelf.

Significant and central books that followed all the above were “A Long Obedience In The Same Direction” and “Run With the Horses,” both had become and have remained his most popular reads and both spurred me on in pastoral work with gentleness and humility. 

Backing up slightly, one of Peterson’s classes in particular required the reading of a couple books that introduced me to a couple book collections written by Peterson.  One was a collection of books aimed at the pastoral heart and vocation.  The other was a collection of books written so conversationally you’d imagine Eugene was sitting across the table from you.  Over these next six years all 9 books from the two collections would become soul shaping food for thought and transformation in this life I have lived.  Most of these books you can find annotate on the “Books” tab of this blog. 

Peterson was as much a poet as an author of prose and preacher of the Word.  His inspirations were various, but certainly the classic poetic works of George Herbert and Gerald Manley Hopkins were among the significant, along with the more contemporary works of Wendell Berry and Annie Dillard.  The marks of these poets can be seen on pages throughout his books.  Uniquely, one poem by Hopkins inspired Peterson so fully that he borrowed the first line of Hopkins’ untitled verses for his most recent original compilation:  “As Kingfishers Catch Fire.”

This book was not what I imagined it to be.  Rather, it was so much more.  This second to last publication before his passing was a compilation of Peterson’s homilies from years of pastoring and beyond.  It was an inimitable honor and joy just this past fall – even as Eugene Peterson himself was fading quietly toward eternity – to finally sit under his preaching.

There are a few more books on my shelf by Eugene Peterson that I have picked up from a variety of places along this way of my life.  I’m sure they’ll all hold equal court to my conscience as those volumes that have gone before.  Each one will kindly maneuver past the threatened threshold of my life and prepare my places and spaces to be places and spaces the Spirit of God can then utterly transform.  Each one will calmly shepherd me and teach me to be more like Jesus with every passing season. 

I will miss Eugene Peterson.  Not as much as those closest to him, I’m sure.  After all, I had never met the contemplative Pastor-Theologian in person.  In all the 24 years I have known him; more than half my life, I never did know him as well as others.  Although, he always seemed to know me better than I knew myself.

He mentored me with sincerity and sacrifice.  He was patient with me as my love evolved… 

My love the Scripture

My love to live fully alive, now

My love to care deeply for who I am and who I’m becoming

My love for biography and learning from the lives of others

My love for patience and perseverance

My love for pastoral ministry as a calling more than a job

My love for conversations and relationships born from real dialogue

My love for sitting under the preaching of godly men

My love to never stop learning

My love for Jesus

He taught me these things to great degrees.  The points and principles from his works are etched onto the inner workings of this life I live.  On me Eugene Peterson left his mark.