"Lectio divina is not a methodical technique for reading the Bible. It is a cultivated, developed habit of living the text in Jesus' name. This is the way, the only way, that the Holy Scriptues become formative in the Christian church and become salt and leaven in the world. It is not through doctrinal disputes and formulations, not through strategies to subdue the barbarians, not through congregational programs to educate the laity in the "principles and truths" of the Scriptures--not in any of the ways in which the Bible is so commonly and vigorously promoted among us as an impersonal weapon or tool or program. It is astonishing how many ways we manage to devise for using the Bible to avoid a believing obedience, both personal and corporate, in receiving and following the Word made flesh." --Eugene Peterson
I have been trying, lately, to "eat this book." Peterson has done more to help me--both with his wise counsel in the book above and with his marveoulous translation of the scriptures--The Message--than anyone else.
I often want to make my own spiritual formation more complicated than necessary. But it can be as simple as Read, Pray, Live.
