Eugene Peterson on how life slowly, almost unnoticeably leaks.

I love the stuff Eugene Peterson writes. He’s best known perhaps for his recent work, translating/paraphrasing the Scriptures in The Message. When I was in seminary I read some of his books; in fact, his book, The Contemplative Pastor, was one of the most impacting books I read back in the early 1990s.

Now that he has completed The Message, Peterson has returned to writing, and he’s churning out the books like crazy. We have three of them (I think there are currently four), so far, but may not get to them till after graduation next spring. However, Joleen and I are occasionally reading together a little from one of his latest books, Living the Resurrection. A section we read last night especially grabbed my attention (emphasis added):

It’s a curious thing but not uncommon for Christians to begin well and gradually get worse. Instead of progressing like a pilgrim from strength to strength, we regress. Just think of the Christians you really admire. Aren’t most of them recent converts? Isn’t it exciting? Then think of the Christians that you’re just bored to death with. Aren’t they people who have been Christians for forty or fifty years? They are wearing out—not just in body but in everything else too. There are exceptions, of course.

We lose our vitality. We become dull. We continue to go through these life-affirming, Christ-honoring motions, but our hearts are no longer in it.

The regression is rarely dramatic. It’s not sudden. We start out with life, life, life, and more life. God is primary and present in all we do. But then while we’re happily and innocently going about our work, our feet get tangled up in those cords of Sheol, those ropes of death. It is so casual at first that we hardly notice. But then one cord gets attached—who knows how?—to an ankle by a double half hitch. Then there’s another and another. Before we know it, we are regressing. We are hobbled. We become less. We lose the immediacy, spontaneity, and exuberance of resurrection life.

Interestingly, this often takes place at the same time we’re becoming successful in the eyes of our peers, associates, employers, or congregations. But the life is leaking out. God and life have become disconnected.

As we read that, I thought about the necessity of both gifts and character. In the beginning, we have only undeveloped gifts and we know we need God. But as our gifts develop, if we’re not careful, we begin to rely more and more on our own gifts, and therefore, rely on God less. As the life leaks out, our gifts outpace our character and that leads to all kinds of problems!

Like all leaders, I want to continually grow and develop my (God-given) gifts, but no matter how much my gifts develop, I must be intentional about maintaining my connection with God and growing/developing my character. Truth is, my (God-given) gifts are only of real value when my character is at least as developed as my gifts.

What are you doing to guard against the inevitable leaking of life?

We’ve reached an important milestone in the dissertation-writing journey.

We finally talked with our faculty mentor, Dr. Russell West, earlier this week. Fortunately, we only had minor revisions to make before submitting our proposal drafts (chapters 1-3, out of 5), which went out in yesterday’s mail.

This submission sets a number of things in motion, so here’s a brief synopsis of what the rest of the process will look like …

1. Proposal hearings will be scheduled for both of us (probably during the week of 10 September). Our drafts will be edited (i.e. marked for corrections) by the D.Min. office’s editor and returned to us within two weeks. We will have two weeks to return three corrected copies (in three-ring binders) at least 10 days before our hearings.
2. At our proposal hearings (at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY), we will meet with the three people on our dissertation committee (Dean of the D.Min. program, our faculty mentor, Dr. Russell West, as well as our second readers, Dr. Stephen Martyn for Joleen, and Dr. Chris Kiesling for Randy).
3. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will begin making preparations for our projects, which is the next phase of the process. We will each conduct “an act of pastoral analysis on a practice of ministry” (more on our projects later). Afterward, we will write chapters 4 and 5.
4. Submit defense-ready drafts. The timing of this will depend, in part, on how the adoption process is going. We may need to either shoot for an early defense (drafts submitted around Thanksgiving for a January defense) or possibly a later one (defenses must be completed by 18 April), if we get the call to go to Korea sooner than expected. Either way, the last half of 2007 and the first half of 2008 looks to be very exciting and challenging!
5. We’ll have some corrections/revisions to make to those drafts, and then more corrections/revisions to the post-defense draft.
6. If all goes well, the process will culminate on Saturday, 24 May 2008, at graduation!

Thanks for your prayers throughout this part of our journey!