Unwell in a New Way
Eugene Peterson
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness Unfeathered unbelief would fall Through the layered fullness of thermal Updrafts like a rock; this red-tailed Hawk drifts and slides, unhurried Though hungry, lazily scornful Of easy meals off carrion junk, Expertly waiting elusive provisioned Prey: a visible emptiness Above an invisible plenitude. The sun paints the Japanese Fantail copper, etching Feathers against the big sky To my eye's delight, and blesses The better-sighted bird with a shaft Of light that targets a rattler In a Genesis-destined death. The people with whom I grew up talked a lot about breaking the will. The task of every devout parent was to break the will of the child. I don't remember ever hearing it used by adults on one another, but that may be a more or less willful defect in my memory. The assumption underlying this linchpin in the program for Christian development in our church was, apparently, that the will, especially a child's will, is contrary to God's will. A broken will presumably left one open to the free play of God's will. Fifty years later, I recall my now grown-up friends who were enrolled in this school of childhood spirituality and along with me got their wills broken with regularity. By my observations, we all seem to have passed through the decades every bit as pigheaded and stiff-necked as any of our uncircumcised Philistine companions who never went to church, or at least not to churches that specialized in breaking the wills of little kids. Apparently broken wills mend the same way that broken arms and legs do, stronger at the line of fracture. At the same time, I also recall a lot of emphasis in our church on making a decision for the Lord, and exercising my willpower ...
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