A Burning in My Bones: The Authorized Biography of Eugene H. Peterson, Translator of The Message

by Winn Collier

rough place. But the land’s natural beauty overwhelmed the more sordid human elements.

achievement could be a seductive addiction, as burning and deep as a bottle of Thunderbird.

We can be both good and violent at the same time. One person can bring both joy and sadness into the world.

The response to fear or insecurity was not community solidarity or renewed peacemaking. It was to hunker—the least Christlike posture possible. The bunkers formed by this mentality were certainly metaphorical, but they sometimes became literal, physical extensions of the quiet fear pandemic.

We are most deeply asleep at the switch when we fancy we control any switches at all. —Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm

The spirituality of marriage is far more complex than its sexuality.

My father was a butcher. When he delivered meat to restaurants, he would sit at the counter, have a cup of coffee and piece of pie, and waste time. But that time was critical for building relationships….Sometimes I’m with pastors who don’t wander around. They don’t waste time. Their time is too valuable….To be unbusy, you have to be disengaged from egos—both yours and others—and start dealing with souls. Souls cannot be hurried.

Moreover, he believed that Christians should handle disagreement through human-to-human relationship, not through open diatribes or public denouncements.

“All shall be well and all shall be well.” Eugene looked at Eric like a light had turned on, words welling up from deep memory and long habit. “And all manner of thing shall be well,” he answered.