I mentioned yesterday that Eugene Peterson addressed backsliding in his meditation on Psalm 125. He concluded that it’s possible but it’s not accidental. His opening two stories are worth looking at. Here’s the first:

Backslider was a basic word in the religious vocabulary I learned as I grew up. Exempla were on display throughout the town: people who had made a commitment of faith to our Lord, had been active in our little church but had lost their footing on the ascent to Christ and backslid. My uncle Oscar was a backslider. He had been a warm, ardent Christian. In his middle years, on the basis of a mere wisp of rumor, he acquired hundreds of acres of useless land. Not long afterward the Department of the Interior decided to build a hydroelectric dam on that land. Suddenly my uncle was a rich man. The excitement of making money got into his blood; attendance at worship became infrequent. He became impatient with his children and with me, his nephew. His work habits became compulsive. That was when I first heard backslider applied to someone I knew. He died of high blood pressure and a heart attack. Everyone in his family visibly relaxed.

Uncle Oscar was, unfortunately, a backslider as were Templeton and Ehrman that I wrote about over two years ago. But Peterson told another personal story that starts this way:

Two girls, older than I, whom I very much admired, attractive and vivacious, went away to college. They returned for vacation wearing brighter lipstick and shorter skirts. From the pew in front of me on a Sunday morning I heard the stage whispers between two grandmotherly types: “Do you think they have backslidden?”

What do you think? Had the girls “backslidden” as evidenced by brighter lipstick and shorter skirts? With characteristic dry humor, Peterson continues:

One became a pastor’s wife, the other a missionary with her husband in Africa.

So, no. We need to be careful not to judge people for the wrong things.

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.”

He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. (Matthew 15.1 – 6, ESV)