Linda and I have several friends who became followers of Jesus in the Jesus Revolution, and have stayed with Him.
I'm one of those. I am 77 years old. I became a Jesus-follower in 1970, when I was twenty-one. I have been following Jesus for fifty-six years!
There are many like me. We have persevered. Through many dangers, toils, and snares.
We are not perfect. We continue to grow into greater and greater Christlikeness.
I am more convinced today than ever that Jesus is the Way. And that there is, as Eugene Peterson calls it, The Jesus Way.
For my devotional times I am re-reading Peterson's A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship In an Instant Society. Although Peterson does not self-refer as a prophet, I think he is. His words and thoughts and insights are prescient. To me, Peterson remains more a prophet than some who think they are prophets, and some who love to be seen as a 'prophet'.
Peterson begins his book by quoting the atheist Nietzsche. {FYI - In his recent book Carl Trueman builds on Nietzsche's famous "Parable of the Madman.")
Nietzsche says, "The essential thing 'in heaven and earth' is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living."
Peterson adds, "It is this "long obedience in the same direction" which the mood of the world does so much to discourage."
How does our culture discourage persevering in Christ? Peterson writes:
"There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness." (Long Obedience, 12)
