Just Call Me Peter

Our battle is not against flesh and blood...

Everybody wants to follow Jesus, but nobody wants to be Peter, or Judas. We all want to be the disciple Jesus loved, maybe John, but we don’t want to be the guys who betray Jesus, or deny Him in the end; nevertheless, that’s exactly who we are… most of us at least.

It’s who I am. I can live this life, and follow Jesus, until it gets too emotionally exhaustive, and then I have to collapse and say ‘woe is me,’ and post a sad message on Facebook so that everyone who scrolls past can read how miserable I feel and perhaps say something or press the ‘care’ emogee and thus make me feel heard. What’s of that? Pull yourself up by your bootstraps MeginLea and state to your friends that you feel alone and falling apart for this period-of-time and need some help. They’ll help you. I certainly got a ton of love in return from a mere Facebook status; most definitely a real life friend could be found. People legit reminded me of their numbers!  And that in itself testifies- we are not as alone as we may feel at any given time. If we hear a voice in our head saying we are alone, it is not the voice of God. Just remember that. There are A LOT of people, actually, in this world who are literally for us even when we feel like we are drowning. 

Unfortunately, most of us just get tuned into hearing the voices of the people who are against us, and sadly, when we’re gasping for breath, it’s hard to reach out to the people who WOULD be life lines because, well, life: circumstances- current- covid. But reality is, the life-boat is there. It is just lost in the cacophony of condemnation, judgment, unkindness, hatred, bitterness, with no sign of the fruit that shows they are of Christ… So we have to cry out for it. Cry out into the waves for our friends lost in the seas of their own dramas and traumas. Tell them, so they can hear, “I’M DROWNING! HELP!” And pull them to the forefront, [or are they pulling us?]. And somehow there we are- together, holding onto the edge of the boat! They’ve dropped their own dead weights momentarily to aid us and tread water with us, because they get that life is about treading water…constantly, and because THEY are actually THE REAL friends, the REAL CHRISTIANS, the REAL [dare I say] HUMANS who live out an ethic of empathy and love, not the people who are just judging us and breaking us down and casting stones…from the shore.

Nobody wants to be freaking Peter…who SAYS he will follow Jesus, but then goes off and denies him within the next few hours. But here we are, and it is okay because Jesus restores Peter, and in doing so, Jesus forever normalizes the fact that we are going to have the best intentions, and then make a giant mess of it all. Jesus dies for Peter. Jesus pays for Peter. And then He restores and gives Peter His Sprit… And Peter, me… though we’re pretty embarrassed, him grabbing his outer-garment and wrapping it around his waist; me thinking I should retract my Facebook status but then deciding: “You know what, I’ll let it stand. Let there be no shame, in falling short, in failure. In being less than human….less than completely fulfilled in Christ as I was created in the Garden to be.”

Let us normalize our weakness, or let me normalize it for you, and then embrace our frailty and the fact that sometimes we have to wine or act like brats because it hurts. And that’s okay. There is grace. I certainly don’t mind giving grace to people. You probably don’t either. Maybe I should try to give it to myself occasionally. You should too. I’m sure you don’t want to be Peter, but if you are like me, you probably end up in his role from time to time, or worse…in the role of Judas… I’ve been there too. He is for another day. But today, if you’re Peter with me, take heart. We are very loved. Satan is a liar. Jesus restores and breathes life. And He will carry us through every storm till we arrive at shore… suddenly, mysteriously… that is just His way. Amen.