Let it Click.

Peter is one of my favorite people in the Bible. I can totally relate to the act now, think later personality he portrayed both before he met Jesus and even as he travelled with Him. And I admire him most of all for his ability to stand up and be the man Jesus called him to be, even after the heart-wrenching and humiliating experience of denying Him three times.

Certainly even back then it was hard to face people when you knew that THEY knew how badly you failed. It's really hard not to think of the people in the Bible as larger-than-life, but Peter really was just a man. I know, I know . . . Jesus was just a man, too. But I think of Him as a man with benefits. He was no ordinary man. Peter was a very ORDINARY man.

As you read through I & II Peter, you can see very clearly how he passes along the lessons he learned through his own life experiences. He knew he failed, but he also knew he could use those failures to help others see truth. So, thinking totally of Jesus and not of himself, he went forward. He loved, he taught, he cared. And he became a tremendous man of God, full of faith and purpose.

It seems so long ago, doesn't it? Sometimes it's hard to see how relevent that is today. But it is. It's very relevent. If only we could get our minds around the fact that Peter was just a man . . . just an ordinary man. Maybe like your husband or neighbor or brother. Maybe like the guy that works in the cubicle next to you. Maybe like a rude clerk at the grocery store. If we could REALLY get our minds around that, maybe something would click inside of us.

I think it's really hard for most of us to think God can do amazing things with our lives. We know ourselves. We know every shortcoming, we know every bad attitude. We know sometimes we lack motivation and sometimes we're totally self-centered. And we're pretty darn confident VeggieTales won't be basing any cute vegetable stories on our lives.

And yet we know it's there. That love, that devotion. That desire to have our lives bring glory to Him. Peter was just a fisherman. In fact, he was a fisherman that made a lot of mistakes in life. But when he saw Jesus, something changed. Oh, he still made mistakes. He still acted without thinking. And he still had the capacity to act selfishly. But something burned inside of him . . . that love . . . that powerful love.

Try to get your mind around it. Peter was an ordinary human being with ordinary problems and ordinary attitudes. No different than you. And as you really meditate on it, my prayer is that you will feel that little click on the inside. He CAN use you. With all the flaws, all the attitudes, all the growth that still needs to take place. He CAN use you to do amazing things for His kingdom.

In fact, He wants to.