Skip to main content

Long Obedience

             “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan? (Jeremiah 12:5)

          I haven’t touched on all the topics mentioned as Satan’s attacks from the book FerVent. I need to go back through the book and do the exercises in addition to reading it, but I feel led to return to a book I’ve read at least twice. The title is A Long Obedience In The Same Direction by Eugene Peterson.

          To give you a broad idea, Peterson looks at the Songs of Ascent from Psalm 120-134. They were songs sung as people walked up the path to Jerusalem. You may never have climbed a mountain in a vehicle or on foot. Vehicles tend to snake back and forth to give the car an incline that isn’t too steep. It’s less direct. It takes longer. It affords more opportunities for thieves and other problems, but it makes the trip possible.

          When I was working on my family’s genealogy, I spent a lot of time in cemeteries, and I found that a lot of cemeteries in a mountainous area are built on the sides of steep hills or mountains, partly because it’s land that can’t conveniently be used for other purposes. I learned very quickly that even if the gravestones are positioned to be read going up or down the side of the mountain, my search required that I go back and forth, making the same switchbacks as I would in a car in the Rocky Mountains. It was still difficult.

          But Mr. Peterson doesn’t begin with Psalm 120. He begins with today’s passage because whether we like it or not, we can’t dash up the mountain path. Going up the mountains takes time, and we are limited. We aren’t as swift or strong as horses. We stumble even when there’s nothing to stumble over. At least, I do. We have to face the fact that getting to the mountaintop, to Jerusalem, will take some time and hard work. It will take a long obedience in the same direction instead of bouncing from thing to thing. I find that I tend to bounce – especially recently. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more