Too much of the world's happiness depends on taking from one to satisfy another. To increase my standard of living, someone in another part of the world must lower his. The worldwide crisis of hunger that we face today is a result of that method of pursuing happiness. Industrialized nations acquire appetites for more and more luxuries and higher and higher standards of living, and increasing numbers of people are made poor and hungry. It doesn't have to be that way.
Eugene H. PetersonExile (being where we don't want to be with people we don't want to be with) forces a decision: Will I focus my attention on what is wrong with the world and feel sorry for myself? Or will I focus my energies on how I can live at my best in this place I find myself?...'I will do my best with what is here.'
Eugene H. PetersonWisdom is the art of living skillfully in whatever actual conditions we find ourselves.
Eugene H. PetersonIn high school I was very much involved in poetry. You cannot read a poem quickly. There's too much going on there. There are rhythms and alliterations. You have to read poetry slow, slow, slow to absorb it all.
Eugene H. PetersonIt is not easy to convey a sense of wonder, let alone resurrection wonder, to another. Itโs the very nature of wonder to catch us off guard, to circumvent expectations and assumptions. Wonder canโt be packaged, and it canโt be worked up. It requires some sense of being there and some sense of engagement.
Eugene H. Peterson