Well, I think I've realized what my problem is with Eugene Peterson's series of recent books - "The Jesus Way" in the most recent episode. It's certainly not for any lack of compelling interest that slows me down as I go through them. Quite the opposite. It's that with each section - heck, paragraph - packed with so much to gnaw on, I simply don't want to spend any ordinary type of time with the books. I only want to read it when I'm best able to shut out the rest of the world around me. And that's a fairly precious commodity due to scarcity. Needless to say, the holiday weekend helped out immensely.

One downside, though. I'm going to have to let down however many of you - all four or five - might have been hoping for an excerpt or two to go along with my reading. I simply can't bring myself to do it in this case. Namely because Peterson spends the second half of the book speaking so richly to my own piqued interest that I can't merely pull out a one- or two-page nugget to show off to the world.

The second half of the book, it seems, is devoted to contrasting "the Jesus way" with those of contemporary ways: those of King Herod, the Pharisees, Caiaphas, the Essenes, Josephus, and the Zealots. Peterson sprints through each, pointing out the plausibility for how and why Jesus might have been expected to latch onto a certain aspect of each groups "way" as He sought to redeem us. As an example - just try reading through the section on the Pharisees and asking why on earth (literally!) Jesus might not have chosen them as his utensil for building His following. A lot of weightier books have been written on each of these comparisons, but Peterson gives a brief telling that paints a rather rich collage based on each contrast. What's amazing is that, as you read each contrast, you can't help but see how we've adapted Jesus' Way as our own version of the Herod "way" ... or the Pharisee "way" ... or the every other comparison "way."

Strictly as a literary mechanism for calling us to Jesus' Way, Peterson's writing in the final seventy-or-so pages is worth the full price of the book alone. I'd be tempted to try, however feebly, to sum up the six comparisons that Peterson draws and quote the summary that Peterson ends with. But it doesn't strike me as reasonable that the final three paragraphs of the book are worth spoiling any potential reader for. All I can offer at this point is that, if you're the reading type: read the book. It'll make a better follower out of you.

Next Up: A semi-re-read of Joel's "Your Best Life Now" ... Peterson's "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places" is on the way.