I think again about “Last Third” living and come across a marvelous quote from Winn Collier’s outstanding biography on Eugene Peterson:
“His life and work had been more like tracing a scent than following a map. Discovery, not direction.”
This description leaps in my heart. Early on in life is was about the map. It was about direction. It was about “calling.” Over time, that journey has shifted in my mind. Eugene Peterson lived that out. He really did follow a scent… the scent of Jesus.
I have told people over the last several years, “All I want to bank on is the beauty of Jesus. It’s all I can cling to.”
The longer I walk with Christ, the more I find it true.
I was in a beautiful conversation the other day with a dear friend and this deep longing welled up in me all over again. The longing to be around people very different from me, where I am struggling to understand them, but wanting to understand. I love that place because over the past couple of decades I have discovered that when I am around people not like me, the deepest truths of the Kingdom become a sweet reality:
I love Jesus more.
I love people more.
I am trying to follow the scent of Jesus.
Apprentice 2 Jesus 