An exerpt: Life, in fact, is too much for us

An exerpt...

Life, in fact, is too much for us. This business of living in awareness and response to God, in attentive love to the people with us, and in reverent appreciation of the world round about exceeds our capacities. We aren't smart enough, we don't have enough energy; we can't concentrate adequately. We are apathetic, slouching and slovenly. Not all the time, to be sure. We have spurts of love, passionate risks of faith, impressive episodes of courageous caring. But then we slip back into indolence or greed. Soon we are back at the old stand, handing out glib patter that fools others into thinking we are better than we really are. Sometimes we even deceive ourselves into thinking we are pretty nice people indeed. Jeremiah knew it all from the inside: "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt" (Jer 17:9).

But a ruthless honesty will always leave us shattered by our inadequacy. The world is a frightening place. If we are not a little bit scared, we simply don't know what is going on. If we are pleased with ourselves, we either don't have very high standards or have amnesia in regard to the central reality, for "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). Pascal said, "Fear not, provided you fear (God); but if you fear not (God), then fear."

There is an enormous gap between what we think we can do and what God calls us to do. Our ideas of what we can do or want to do are trivial; God's ideas for us are grand. God's call to Jeremiah to be a prophet parallels his call to us to be a person.

Run with the Horses
Eugene H. Peterson