Religion is a very scary thing, because a pastor is in a position of power. And if you use that power badly, you ruin people's lives, and you ruin your own life.
Eugene H. PetersonRead
There are no experts in the company of Jesus. We are all beginners, necessarily followers, because we don’t know where we are going.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes humility in faith, suggesting that no one can claim to be an expert when following Jesus, as we are all learners on a journey.
Eugene H. Peterson's quote reflects on the nature of discipleship and the human condition in relation to spiritual guidance. It suggests that, regardless of one’s experiences or knowledge, everyone is essentially a 'beginner' in their faith journey, as true understanding and certainty of our spiritual path can elude us. This humility is important as it highlights the need for reliance on Jesus as the guide in our lives, acknowledging that we are all still learning and discovering the way.
Themes
FaithHumilityLearningSpiritualityDiscipleship
In practice
Example use cases
During a church service to inspire the congregation to embrace their spiritual journey.
More from Eugene H. Peterson
All quotes →When we sin and mess up our lives, we find that God doesn't go off and leave us- he enters into our trouble and saves us.
Eugene H. PetersonRead
If you don't take a Sabbath, something is wrong. You're doing too much, you're being too much in charge. You've got to quit, one day a week, and just watch what God is doing when you're not doing anything.
Eugene H. PetersonRead
Christians don't simply learn or study or use Scripture; we assimilate it, take it into our lives in such a way that it gets metabolized into acts of love, cups of cold water, missions into all the world, healing and evangelism and justice in Jesus' name, hands raised in adoration of the Father, feet washed in company with the Son.
Eugene H. PetersonRead
Exile (being where we don't want to be with people we don't want to be with) forces a decision: Will I focus my attention on what is wrong with the world and feel sorry for myself? Or will I focus my energies on how I can live at my best in this place I find myself?...'I will do my best with what is here.'
Eugene H. PetersonRead
The Latin words humus, soil/earth, and homo, human being, have a common derivation, from which we also get our word 'humble.' This is the Genesis origin of who we are: dust - dust that the Lord God used to make us a human being. If we cultivate a lively sense of our origin and nurture a sense of continuity with it, who knows, we may also acquire humility.
Eugene H. PetersonRead
Similar quotes
And one more idea which may be laughed and sneered at in some supposedly sophisticated circles, but I just have to believe that the loving God who has blessed this land and thus made us a good and caring people should never have been expelled from America's classrooms. It's time to welcome Him back, because whenever we've opened ourselves and trusted in Him, we've gained not only moral courage but intellectual strength.
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How incessant and great are the ills with which a prolonged old age is replete.
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The wealth gathered by Jamsetji Tata and his sons in half a century of industrial pioneering formed but a minute fraction of the amount by which they enriched the nation. The whole of that wealth is held in trust for the people and used exclusively for their benefit. The cycle is thus complete; what came from the people has gone back to the people many times over.
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Our government's got a war on drugs. That's certainly better than no drugs at all.
Kurt VonnegutRead
The sad truth is that man's real life consists of a complex of inexorable opposites - day and night, birth and death, happiness and misery, good and evil. We are not even sure that one will prevail against the other, that good will overcome evil, or joy defeat pain. Life is a battleground. It always has been and always will be; and if it were not so, existence would come to an end.
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Seal the openings, shut the doors, dull the sharpness, untie the knots, dim the light, become one with the dust. This is called the profound union.
LaoziRead