God Knows Us Better Than We Know Ourselves

[rest_in_thee]

I've always been drawn to St. Peter. While I imagine he had great confidence in his skills as a fisherman, he does not appear to have believed himself capable of much greater than that. Mark's Gospel especially portrays him as always messing something up, always getting it wrong, always kind of stumbling along. Even at his greatest moment, when

Comments

[silentactic]

Thank you, it was a blessing to read this today.

[rest_in_thee]

I'm glad you enjoyed it :) Thanks!

[digifaith]

Thanks for this -- I'm just getting into the first letter of Peter, and I see a lot of this reflected there as well as in the Gospels.

I think one of my favorite things about Peter is that the whole time he's with Jesus, he just doesn't get it and misunderstands so many things, and yet he becomes the head of the church on earth anyway, because he believed. There's a powerful message in there, that living a life for God means not always understanding everything. I tend to cling to logic and being able to make sense of things, and there are many things that I can't reconcile in my mind but that I feel a need to believe anyway. Peter is, before all else, a man of faith.

(Hmm, Chronicles of Narnia icon. I love allegory.)

[rest_in_thee]

Peter is, before all else, a man of faith.

Indeed, and isn't that really all we are called to be?

[chordoflife]

So good to read this.. I feel like a failure most days.. have felt it often and it hasn't been pleasant. Knowing that with all his bumbling, Jesus still cared deeply for Peter is something I am drawn to. I am sure God cares less about my shortcomings then I do.. it's hard for me to detach myself from the failure in my life, because so much of my identity has been wrapped up in trying to finally get to place where I have a career that I am happy with and a life that gives me meaning and joy more then my current state of living does.

Well said!

[rest_in_thee]

Yeah, and not only did he care for Peter, but he saw something great in Peter that Peter likely didn't see - as He certainly does with you, too!

[napoleonofnerds]

Peter isn't like me because he's all infallible and he got miracles and people bother to read the things he writes. :(

I think my favorite story about Peter is when he's fleeing persecution and sees Jesus carrying the cross up the Appian Way, prompting Peter to turn around and accept martyrdom. Needing correction to the last is a good way to go, if you can get it.

[rest_in_thee]

Needing correction to the last is a good way to go

That'll be me, always in need of correction. That's why I keep you around :)

[napoleonofnerds]

Blessed are you who can get it, then.

[rest_in_thee]

I think I may have just called you my own personal Jesus :-P

[elizabby]

Oh yes, I love Peter too! He was always the one I felt was the most "approachable" of the Apostles. Not as confident and "instructive" as Paul, sometimes getting it wrong and changing his mind. It gives me hope! Peter was the person in the Bible I read about the most when I first became a Christian and needed to be convinced over and over that God could love a person like me. I have learned to like Paul too, over the years, but Peter was my first example on the Christian road!