I’ve been thinking a lot about Peter today. I don’t know about you, but I really relate to this guy. Rather, I used to relate to this guy. These days I feel mostly scared.
I think in our society these days we get so OFFENDED (To prove my point, I actually just deleted that upper case word as I reminded myself, “Oh upper case letters are offensive now.” Seriously?!). We put so much stock into the nuances of a word, or the picture that we took that conveyed the wrong message, or the way we said something that was offensive to someone.
Peter wasn’t worried about offense. He’s a shoot first, aim later type personality. He didn’t really think things through and he was always putting his foot in his mouth. I bet the other disciples rolled their eyes at him a lot, thinking, “There goes Peter again.”
I hate to say this, but Peter could be an idiot. You know, the guy who jumped out of a boat before thinking.
But you know what happened when his feet touched the waves? He WALKED ON WATER.
And that’s what Jesus does to our missteps, our ‘offensive’ words, our hurtful swords. He flips the switch on us and turns our mistakes into beauty. Jesus let Peter walk on water. He turns a terrible moment of a man’s ear being cut off and performs a miracle.
And Jesus let this completely flawed human – Peter – become one of the most influential figures in Biblical history. God uses our mistakes. God uses Peters.
Sometimes I get so lost in the fear of offending someone I stop acting like Peter. I start being afraid and I go silent. I get so darn worried about getting the dust of offense on me that instead of jumping off the boat, I stand completely still.
But Jesus has something to say to us:
Shake
The
Dust
I’m going to try to stop being afraid and get back in touch with my inner Peter. Will you join me? Let’s remind ourselves that mistakes are okay and offending people isn’t the end of the world. Just like the Bible says – if someone doesn’t receive us (or takes offense), we’ll shake that dust off and move on to the next town! Let’s not get distracted and lose sight of the mission. When we get caught up in the fear of our own mistakes, we lose sight of the fact that God is God and He is sovereign.
And you know what? When I let myself just be, I’m just like Peter. I bet you are too.
