I am breezing my way back through a great memoir, The Pastor, by Eugene Peterson. What a gentle book to remind me of life and calling!

Peterson grew up in a setting familiar to me when it came to church. His story resonates deeply in my life, at least until he went to college.

Peterson wrote this:

The way we learn something is more influential than the something that we learn. (p. 33)

HOW we are formed has more influence that what was put in as information. His early life was formed by being in Sunday night church services where his mother led the congregation in singing and then preached to them. He was formed by singing and by story.

It threw me back to the early formation of my own life and how it developed in me a love for the Church. Others grew up resenting being in church so much. I thrived on it. I learned music in the church. I learned to memorize in the church. I learned to communicate in the church.

What has formed you?

What patterns were the forms that taught you early in life? What was learned in those patterns?

They teach us.

I am grateful for forms that somehow led me to love Jesus more and to always seek out his Body on earth.