Eugene H. Peterson citations

“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.”

“The Bible makes it clear that every time that there is a story of faith, it is completely original. God's creative genius is endless.”

“When we submit our lives to what we read in scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but our stories in God's. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves.”

“We cannot be too careful about the words we use; we start out using them and they end up using us.”

“And yet I decide, every day, to set aside what I can do best and attempt what I do very clumsily--open myself to the frustrations and failures of loving, daring to believe that failing in love is better than succeeding in pride.”

“I will not try to run my own life or the lives of others; that is God's business.”

“relinquishment is prerequisite to fulfillment”

“The puzzle is why so many people live so badly. Not so wickedly, but so inanely. Not so cruelly, but so stupidly. There is little to admire and less to imitate in the people who are prominent in our culture. We have celebrities but not saints. Famous entertainers amuse a nation of bored insomniacs. Infamous criminals act out the aggressions of timid conformists. Petulant and spoiled athletes play games vicariously for lazy and apathetic spectators. People, aimless and bored, amuse themselves with trivia and trash. Neither the adventure of goodness nor the pursuit of justice gets headlines.”