Churched
Wisdom from Eugene Peterson:
When we follow Jesus, it means that we don’t know exactly what it means, at least in detail. We follow him, letting him pick the roads, set the timetables, tell us what we need to know but only when we need to know it…
When Jesus says “Follow me†and we follow, we don’t know where we will go next or what we will do next. That is why we follow the one who does know.
Thomas’ prayer (“My Lord and my God!â€) keeps us ready for what comes next; it keeps us alert to the Jesus who rules our life as Lord and commands our worship as God when we are least expecting it. Following Jesus is not a skill we acquire so that we can be useful to the kingdom (the Essene way). Following Jesus is not a privilege we are let into so that the kingdom can be useful to us (the Caiaphas way). It is obedience (“my Lord!â€). And it is worship (“my God!â€).
No matter how much we know, we don’t know enough to know what Jesus is going to do next. And no matter how familiar we are with the traditions and customs and privileges that go with being on God’s side, we aren’t familiar enough to know how Jesus fits into it.
No religious skills that any of us acquire will ever produce resurrection, and no spiritual strategies that we work out will ever produce resurrection. Following Jesus doesn’t get us where we want to go. It gets us to where Jesus goes, where we meet him in resurrection surprise: “My Lord and my God!â€Â
Eugene Peterson - The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways that Jesus is the Way – chapter 9
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