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.
All the persons of faith I know are sinners, doubters, uneven performers. We are secure not because we are sure of ourselves but because we trust that God is sure of us.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the frailty of human nature and the importance of faith in a higher power rather than self-confidence.
Eugene H. Peterson highlights the inherent weaknesses and uncertainties present in all individuals, specifically those of faith. He contrasts the idea of self-assuredness with the concept of divine assurance, suggesting that true security stems from trust in God's faithfulness rather than confidence in our own abilities or moral standing. This perspective encourages humility and reliance on a higher power in the face of human shortcomings.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon about humility and reliance on God, this quote beautifully encapsulates the essence of faith.
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.
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.
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.
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.'
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.
Similar quotes
Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names. Language alone is meditation.
The current operating system [culture] is flawed. It actually has bugs in it that generate contradictions. We're cutting the earth from beneath our own feet. We're poisoning the atmosphere that we breathe. This is not intelligent behaviour. This is a culture with a bug in its operating system that's making it produce erratic, dysfunctional, malfunctional behaviour. Time to call a tech! And who are the techs? The shamans are the techs.
Sometimes he did not know if he slept or just thought about sleep.
Every luxury must be paid for, and everything is a luxury, starting with being in this world.
Choice is the engine of our evolution ... if you choose unconsciously, you will evolve unconsciously. If you choose consciously, you will evolve consciously
An atheist has got one point beyond the devil.