Pioneers of the Free Spirit

I wanted to share this quote from Eugene Peterson's book Traveling Light.

"I, for one, do not underestimate the difficulties in living free for all, of traveling light: it is persistently hard. Nor can I do it on my own: I need Christ and a community of faith. But there is nothing more worthwhile doing. Many Christians today have to all appearances ceased to be what Jacques Ellul calls 'unconscious revolutionaries.' It is necessary to rouse awareness, to waken the spirit, because freedom is essential if all would be truly human. I am convinced that people settle for far too little in matters of freedom. Christians, in touch with the God who grants us a freedom far richer that its political and cultural versions, are in the privileged but awesomely responsible position of pioneers of the free spirit, the free life. Nicholas Berdyaev insists: 'God has laid upon man the duty of being free, no matter how difficult that may be, or how much sacrifice and suffering it may require.'

To discover movements of freedom in oneself where there has been only fear-ridden and cowering subjection; to stimulate a free world or act in persons submerged in apathy or pessimism, sluggishly living out their days with diminishing expectations and dwindling energy - these are gloriously worth doing."

Peterson, Eugene. 1988. Traveling Light" modern Meditations on St. Paul's Letter of Freedom. Colorado Springs: Helmers & Howard. 15.

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