Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
Oh, how we love to judge Peter. Cocky, scared, dense, literal Peter.
We hear it in today’s readings. We heard it Sunday, Peter’s boast that he would lay down his life for Jesus. Jesus calls 
him on it, and of course, Jesus is right. Within hours, Peter has not laid down his life for Jesus but has denied him three times.
And we know we would never, ever do that.
Except we do, often, perhaps more often than we would like.
We deny Him when those around us make comments counter to our faith beliefs about abortion, immigration, and other hot-button issues… and we are silent.
- We deny Him when we set up false gods of money, prestige, possessions, and earthly relationships and prioritize them before Him.
- We deny Him when we are just too tired or too busy, night after night and day after day, to offer up even five minutes of prayer time.
- We deny Him when we judge others on the above rather than recognizing the splinters in our own eyes.
You see, we are Peter at his worst: cocky, scared, dense, literal.
But we can also be Peter at his best: Having the courage to acknowledge our errors, the humility to come to the Lord for forgiveness, and the faith to accept His help in starting anew.
And when we do that, flawed as we are, certain as we are to fall again, we truly can become a light to the nations.
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