Simplifikasi

Melanjutkan diskusi buku Song of Songs (Kidung Agung), EP berpendapat bahwa kemesraan atau intimasi bukan hal yang mudah dicapai. Namun demikian, pendeta tak dipanggil to ease atau mempermudah pencapaiannya.

It is not the pastor's job to simplify the spiritual life, to devise common-denominator formulas, to smooth out the path of discipleship. Some difficulties are inherent in the way of spiritual growth - to deny them, to minimize them, or to offer shortcuts is to divert the person from true growth. It is the pastor's task, rather, to be companion to persons who are in the midst of difficulty, to acknowledge the difficulty and thereby give it significance, and to converse and pray with them through the time so that the loneliness is lightened, somewhat, and hope is maintained, somehow. (p. 51)

[Khotbah-khotbah dan kesaksian-kesaksian Kristen yang sering kita dengar atau baca, sayangnya, seringkali menyederhanakan pergumulan Kristen. Mereka disampaikan dengan tak jujur serta cenderung bombastis. Orang-orang Kristen suka mendengar atau membacanya karena bagian tersulit dari kesulitan-kesulitan dalam hidup ini telah dihapus, atau paling tidak, diturunkan kadarnya. Baiklah pendeta peka dalam hal ini.]

Sumber:
Eugene H. Peterson, Five smooth stones for pastoral work (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992).