Transparent Christian Magazine

I’m a clay-footed Christian, best defined by the tired phrase been-there-done-that. When asked to consider and write about my heroes and mentors, I stumbled a bit (those darn clay feet) because I realized I had few such folks, who I’d just as soon call models.

Then a friend, Deacon Jerry at my church, reminded me that “you should write about your old buddy, St. Peter.” Anybody who knows me knows that St. Peter is my favorite saint. Heck, I think we’d be buds even if he weren’t a saint.

More like me than perhaps I’d care to admit, Peter was brash and rash, the first to rush in and the first to turn tail and run. He led with his chin and his passion. He was the first to acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah, the first to swear undying allegiance to his Lord, the first to wield his sword (by some accounts) in Christ’s defense, the first to run to the tomb to see if the women were telling the truth about his friend and Lord being gone, maybe even risen.

He was also the first to doubt. Imagine Peter in the boat looking at Jesus on the water and answering the invitation to join Him, maybe even swaggering a bit and an “Oh boy.” He believes just enough to step out of the boat, but then — imagine as he realizes what he is doing — swears (loud and blue, I am sure) and sinks into the water.

He was also the one who got angry with Jesus for bugging him. Peter, do you love me, Christ asked him three times. You bet, says Peter once and then twice, but gets fed up by the third time. He is also the one who loves Jesus enough to suggest that He ratchet down the rhetoric a bit, only to suffer Christ’s angry reply. I can imagine Christ shaking His head as he wondered, “Will Simon EVER get it?”

They must have had an amazing and wondrous relationship, pretty much a friendship, I imagine. And then there’s the final disappointment. Jesus has been arrested and hauled away. Peter, frightened at the possibilities, turns his back on his friend and master … three times. If you’ve ever been betrayed by a friend, you know how much that can hurt.

I can see (maybe it’s a scene from a movie I remember unconsciously) how Peter would swear denial of this man and then look up and see Christ’s face. Jesus must have felt pretty alone then and disappointed in this friend who He must have loved and to whom He had given the keys to the Kingdom of God.

So, why is Peter, this failure of a man at every turn, a hero of mine? It is partially because I can so closely identify with him. As a man of wobbly, clay-footed faith, I am one such failure – eager and full of spiritual fervor one moment, turning my back on and doubting the whole thing as a stupid fraud the next.

But the real reason, beyond that, is that the Peter I read about in the Gospels barely bears any resemblance to the Peter I read about in the Acts or his letters. This is a man who Christ never gave up on, who He forgave the worst betrayals, and who – through the Holy Spirit – was transformed into a man so devout and filled with the Spirit that he sacrificed everything – even, ultimately, his life – for his Lord. Peter, finally, did get it!

Peter is my hero because I can only hope to be like him someday – transformed from clay-footed doubter and denier into an unswerving, unquestioning servant of the Lord. God bless.

John R. Ingrisano
www.Dailyconnections.net

A Perfect Day

A perfect day is not a day
when you do everything right.
A perfect day is when you are forgiven
– by yourself and by God –
when you do everything wrong. — John R. Ingrisano

Editor’s note:
Sign up for John’s mailing list. His daily “Thought” is one of the few e-mails I look forward to every day, and I actually read it! It’s short, to the point and real!! Also, you can buy John’s book “A Perfect Day” here.