Eugene Peterson tells of leaving...
Illustration
Eugene Peterson tells of leaving his pastoral duties one day and driving into Baltimore to hear the novelist Chaim Potok give a lecture at Johns Hopkins University. Potok, an intensely religious Jew, told how he had always wanted to be a writer, but before he went to college his mother took him aside and said, "Chaim, I know you want to be a writer, but I have a better idea. Why don't you be a brain surgeon? You'll help a lot of people from dying; you'll make a lot of money." Chaim could only respond, "No, Mama, I want to be a writer." Every time Chaim returned home for vacation, every summer, throughout his college years the same dialogue continued. Finally, the explosion happened. "Chaim, you're wasting your time. Be a brain surgeon. You'll help a lot of people from dying; you'll make a lot of money." The young student no longer could hold in his driving passion. "Mama, I don't want to keep people from dying; I want to show them how to live." Peterson left the lecture that day determined not to help a lot of people so that they could become successful, or keep them from dying. He returned home resolved "to show them how to live." -- Hasler
