Our Opportunity

I am currently reading Eugene Peterson's A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. (You can peak at my reading notes here.) Peterson's seems to be saying that we all want our religious or spiritual fix, but there is very little interest in "the long obedience," the work required, quoting Friederich Nietzche, to make life worth living.

Peterson quotes a psychiatrist: "Thomas Szasz, in his therapy and writing, has attempted to revive respect for what he calls the 'simplest and most ancient of human truths: namely, that life is an arduous and tragic struggle; that what we call "sanity," what we mean by "not being schizophrenic," has a great deal to do with competence, earned by struggling for excellence; with compassion, hard won by confronting conflict; and with modesty and patience, acquired through silence and suffering."

Good stuff. It offers us an awesome opportunity to shift our perception. The struggles, the confrontation, the conflict, the silence, the suffering, aren't elements of life to be avoided. They are tools to be used to grow. Of course, remembering to live in that stream is important.