LET GOD REINVENT YOU AND YOUR WORLD
Each of us has a mission. It may be simple and straightforward, it may be far-reaching with many elements, but in becoming followers of Christ, each of us is called into his service in the way that will fit us best. It is a way designed to take advantage of our talents, our personalities, our particular gifts. There are vocations we are called to, roles we play in the lives of others, acts of kindness to be carried out, social good to be done, missions to undertake, and the gospel to share.
Each of us also has within us a sense of discernment concerning where God is taking us. That discernment, that sense of mission, may have been obscured along the way. We may have issues, we may have complicated pasts, but all of us have a sense of God’s calling. And if we are embracing and pursuing that calling, we may face difficulties beyond the challenges of the task itself. It’s hard to find people we can share our callings with. When you know there is something unique about you, and you know God has his hand on you, sharing that can provoke the insecurities of people around you. One of the lessons that comes with being reset is that there are times when it’s best just to go on and do what we are called to do, no matter the reactions of people we know, even those closest to us.
God’s call to reset is part of realigning yourself to undertake your mission, and not everyone may understand it. But to be reset is to embrace your role as a visionary, a dreamer, a destiny chaser. You are called to embrace that whether or not people understand or support you.
Discernment [is our] sense of our mission.
Reset: Noah
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
—GENESIS 6:5–8
Lest you think reset is only for those who have fallen to low stations, remember that we have seen that it is not a matter of station at all. Those who preach may be as in need of reset as those who listen, those whose wrongs are minor as much as those whose wrongs are great, those whose houses are in order as much as those whose houses are in chaos.
The call for reset, to be clear, is for those who are already among God’s people. If you have no relationship with God, no channel of communication, something much more than reset is needed. That is the call to salvation, the call to be reborn. Reset is for those whose relationship with God already exists. It is a call to get back to that place where everything was fresh and firing on all cylinders.
Perhaps you have lost touch with the power and peace you found in Jesus early in your Christian walk, but you can still hear the voice of God calling you back. You may be far enough outside of God’s will that you have fallen into a pit of despair. Or maybe you have just gone a little stale and have allowed other things to crowd out God.
Or perhaps you are solidly on the path, but you feel the call to something better, something bigger. Your walk with God may be as solid as ever, but you know there is more to strive for. God can turbocharge even the most committed believer and take him or her to heights they’ve never dreamed of. God can offer them new challenges that revolutionize their lives while enabling them to do great service to the people of God, the community, or the world as a whole.
Few people have had it more together than Noah. In fact, in an age of chaos it was Noah alone on God’s team. “Noah was a righteous man,” says Genesis 6:9 (ESV), while “the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence” (v. 11 ESV).
God can turbocharge even the most committed believer.
It is likely that Noah was a farmer. In Genesis 5:29, we are told that Lamech, in naming his son Noah, said, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed.” It’s logical to think that in one sense he was saying Noah’s labor would help take some of the burden from Lamech in tilling the soil.
More important, though, Noah was the one bright spot on an earth whose wickedness grieved God the Father. Such was the violence and degradation he saw everywhere that he vowed simply to destroy what he had made.
If it had not been for Noah, the human experiment might have ended right there. You and I might not be here. But Noah was “a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God” (6:9). And so God chose reset rather than destruction for the human race. He would save Noah and his family—eight people in all—as well as representatives of every kind of animal to begin repopulating the earth when the waters finally receded.
Lessons from the Flood
We can learn much about our own reset from the picture the Bible paints here. Through reset, we can leave the past behind. In the process of resetting us, God is erasing the past, wiping it out as if with a worldwide flood. We no longer have to be bound by the mistakes, the wreckage of our former selves. We can be free of those things that had held us in bondage and kept us separated from the will and power of God. We can emerge from the ark of reset into a new world, with each new sunrise in essence the first.
God wants us moving forward, not backward. He wants us concentrating on the future, not the past. With reset, failure is in the rearview mirror. God has called us to new challenges, and he will give us new strength to meet them. The world we enter once we reset is filled with hope and promise.
We can emerge from the ark of reset into a new world.
And what about Noah? That farmer, that man of God, was already possessed of a pure heart. He already had the desire to live for God. But now he would be repurposed. He would go from harvesting crops to harvesting timber. He would go from shaping plowshares to shaping an ark. He would go from tilling the ground to sailing the waters.
With the planetary reset, everything changed. The rains that had once nourished the earth now destroyed it. Just the faithful remnant of humanity would remain. Noah’s reset would in essence be that of humanity, since he and his family were all that remained.
Noah had already stayed faithful within the storm that roiled the earth in the form of wantonly destructive human behavior. He was steadfast when all else was chaos. Now he would face a literal worldwide storm.
As he had on the ground, though, Noah would be traveling with God. He would utilize skills he had honed all his life. No doubt as a farmer he had worked with animals, and that experience would serve him well on an ark filled with them. God told him to gather food for his family and the animals, and no doubt much of that came from his farm.
God does not erase the good in you when he resets you. He just allows you to clear away the dross that keeps you from using that goodness, those skills, for his purpose. He will continue to use your talents and attributes.
That is what reset did for Noah. It is what it will do for you.
Peter: Rescued, Retooled, Restored
Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.
Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.
But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”
And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”
So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”
And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
—MATTHEW 14:22–32
Of all the examples of people who were reset in the Bible, few are worth studying more than Peter. No one got more personal attention from Jesus. No one seemed to have more potential as a leader, and no one seemed to struggle more. He experienced incredible highs and unfathomable lows. Nobody shows more clearly what being reset really means.
Peter spent three years, day in and day out, with the Lord, and it was Peter to whom Jesus entrusted his young church. Peter and his brother, Andrew, were the first people called to be disciples. He was with Jesus at pivotal moments from the transfiguration to the garden of Gethsemane. It was Peter who first realized and said, “You are the Christ” (Matt. 16:16). And yet after all that, Peter denied even knowing Jesus. Along the way Jesus retooled him, rescued him, rebuked him, and restored him.
What kind of man was Peter? Why is he someone we can identify with so easily? Peter was hardworking, plainspoken, and definitely earthy. As a fisherman he would have been possessed of great strength and stamina. He was impetuous and yet he could be solid and trustworthy once he was on board with something. Jesus called him a rock, as a nod to that core of stability, yet Jesus knew as well as anyone that Peter could fly off the handle and be driven off-course by anger or fear. His impulsiveness had its positive aspects—he impulsively left his boats to follow Jesus, for instance. He was so human, so fallible, and yet so dogged and determined.
For all Peter’s flaws, Jesus knew that at Peter’s core he was special, and Jesus entrusted him with leadership the way God has entrusted you with your own mission. One of the pivotal moments in Peter’s life provides us with a great example of the ability and willingness to follow Jesus no matter what the level of support or understanding from others. In this story from Matthew, Jesus sent the disciples ahead of him in a ship while he went to a mountaintop to pray and talk to the Father. The disciples, on the boat by themselves, experienced fierce winds and waves that beat against the ship. No doubt they had to work hard just to keep the boat righted.
During the fourth watch—between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m.—Jesus began walking toward them on that choppy water. This was an intense storm, the kind that is still common on the Sea of Galilee, but the storm is also a fitting symbol of the spiritual, emotional, and mental upheavals the disciples were going through and that we go through as well. Jesus had just been rejected by the people of his hometown of Nazareth. Then his cousin John the Baptist was beheaded. Now the apostles, in this storm-tossed boat at three in the morning, saw a figure walking toward them on the water. They made the perfectly logical assumption that it was a ghost, and they were terrified.
Jesus called out, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid” (14:27). It’s okay! Be cool. Sometimes in the worst of our own storms, when we’re wondering where the Lord is, he has a way of reminding us that he’s right in the middle of it with us.
Come On
One of the things that made Peter special was his impetuous desire for the good stuff. He wanted to be in the midst of things. He wanted to be key to the mission. On this rainy, windy night, he was about to exemplify courage. Keep in mind that all the disciples were on that ship, but it was Peter who said, “Lord, if it is you, then bid me to come. Let me walk on the water” (v. 28, author’s paraphrase). He was the one with the faith to believe it was possible. The lesson for us is striking. There will be plenty of people who have the opportunity to hear God’s call, who are called to reset. It is up to you to be Peter, the one who says, “If there’s a chance to walk on water, I’ll take it.”
Jesus, without hesitation, called him. “Come on,” he said. The Lord wants us to stretch, wants us to work miracles, wants us to reach for the thing others are afraid to try. He’ll tell us that if we’ll just listen.
Peter got out of that boat and began doing something that had never been done before by anyone who wasn’t God. He began to walk on water. A storm was raging. All of the apostles were on the ship, and all but one were still living in their fear. Peter asked, and Jesus gave him the opportunity to show just what he was made of.
God will set things up for you that way sometimes, presenting a seemingly impossible situation for just that purpose—to see what you’re made of. God is looking for you to reveal who you really are. He’s giving you the chance to step up and live out the assignment that is made just for you, that calls on your skills and takes on a task other people might well think you’re crazy for taking on.
“You’re going back to school?” “You’re going after that job?” “You’re going on a mission trip?” “You want to buy a house?” That’s what you might well hear from your friends and family when you go after the next goal, the next dream in your life. And that may well have been what Peter’s eleven brothers in the boat were thinking or saying when Peter stepped out to walk on the surface of the sea.
[God is] giving you the chance to step up and live out the assignment that is made just for you.
You’re not called to be like everybody else. God will give you things to do that other people might not get on board with. Sometimes if you talk to people about it, you just might turn a friend into a hater, so you may want keep it to yourself. Notice that Peter did not form a committee or poll the other apostles. He spoke directly to Jesus.
If you’re going to dream and dare big things, I have news for you: you’re going to have to leave some people in the ship. Wrap your mind around the fact that you cannot worry about the opinions and attitudes of people who stay behind. When you know God has called you to do something, those opinions don’t matter. There’s no need to seek approval from people who aren’t going where you’re trying to go.
The Ships We Ride In
There are certain ships in life we all ride in—relationships, friendships, partnerships, fellowships. And some of those ships are too small to get you where God is taking you. These ships can’t always hold the massive vision God has for your life. When your calling is bigger than the ship you are in, it’s time to step out into the water, even if it’s stormy. Certain systems and organizations and corporations are designed to keep you at a certain level, to hold you down and keep you in your place. You may feel the pressure. You may have been thinking, Wait a minute! I know there is something in me that is bigger than this ship and the constraints it places on me.
Sometimes you have to say, “I love you, ship, but I’ve got to go. You’ve brought me this far, but you’re just too small to take me where I’m going.” Sometimes the ships people want you to get into are too small. They become places of containment that cause you to get stuck and to fail to reach your destination.
God is moving you out of those small places. God is taking you to a place, where, in communion with him, you can find the power to walk on water. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. drew on the image of the mountain—Mt. Nebo, in this case, where Moses was granted a view of the promised land—in his last speech, given in Memphis on April 3, 1968. This is the speech known for the phrase, “I have been to the mountaintop.” And it is interesting to note that Dr. King opened his remarks that evening thanking people for attending the rally “in spite of a storm warning,” something with both literal and richly metaphorical meanings. In his remarks he was declaring that because he had been to the mountaintop, he refused to be limited by the systematic oppression of the age, and he was able to step out of complacency to receive strength and do something that had never been done before.
I’ve been there, Dr. King was saying, and it isn’t about me. If I don’t get there, it doesn’t matter, as long as you get there.
God is moving you out of those small places.
Are You Ready to Step Out?
When you step out of the boat, you’re declaring, “It isn’t about me.” Like Jesus, like Moses, like everybody God has ever used, it’s never about you but what God can accomplish through you. And if you’re going to ask God to give you the ability to step out of the boat, you had better be prepared to step out. Don’t ask for it if you aren’t ready for it. Peter made his request. “Lord, since you say it’s you, can I come?” Jesus said, “Come on,” with no hesitation and no reservation.
You would think there might have been a pause, some examination of Peter, a determination that he was mentally ready. But Jesus already knew Peter was ready. He knew he would be the one. The Lord knows your level of readiness. He knows how prepared you are. And it’s up to you to know that you have too much of the Word in you not to be ready.
Are you ready to step out into what God has called you to do? Don’t let people with boat mentality keep you from your destiny. You cannot allow others to make that determination, and it’s not just what they are doing now that we’re talking about. Look past what they have done and don’t worry about what they might do to you. Don’t give them the power to hinder your progress.
The Lord knows your level of readiness.
Peter had little regard for the opinions of those who didn’t have the faith to step out with him. He stepped out of the boat. Boat mentality is the province of those who are content with settling for systems that limit their potential. It is the province of those who would rather trust the safety of a boat without Jesus than step out and trust the sea with Jesus. These are people who would rather be content with being confined to the comforts of the boat—even if the boat is crowded, noisy, smelly, and leaking—than risk walking on water. They are unwilling to move out and trust God for what God is getting ready to do.
You know those kinds of people. You’ve seen them. They don’t want to do anything, and they don’t want anybody else to do anything. They’re the folk you see when you go back to your old neighborhood or your hometown, sitting on the stoop talking nonsense. They’re lifetime crew members on a boat going nowhere. Aren’t you glad you got out of the boat? Aren’t you glad you said, “Hey, that’s not for me.” That’s what Abraham did, that’s what Jacob did, and that’s what Peter did. They said, “God is calling me to something greater, and I’m willing to go.”
I am not telling you to act stuck-up, like you’re better than other people. But you know you’ve outgrown people on the boat when you start having conversations with them and they’re talking about the boat and you’re talking about the sea and they don’t understand what you’re talking about. You’re talking about your future. They’re talking about your history. You’re talking about where you’re going. They’re talking about where you’ve been.
Another Level of Faith
Remember, it takes faith to walk on water—another level of faith altogether. Second Corinthians 5:7 says, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” Walking on a stormy sea is not for wimps. Trust God to keep you in an environment you’ve never walked in. I always tell people, “Don’t step out if you don’t have the faith to stick it out.” There’s a reason some people stay in the boat. They lack the faith or fortitude to chart new courses. They would rather walk in somebody else’s footprints than create their own.
Be determined to accept the challenges that are inevitably going to come. You can’t commit to the sea if you’re not willing to go all the way. It’s going to take time with God to prepare yourself to walk on water. That’s why we need that time on the mountain, in prayer and communion with God. What’s more, you had better count the cost. Nehemiah understood this. When he got confirmation from the king that it was time to build the walls of Jerusalem, he told his people working with him, “I need you to have building materials in one hand and a weapon in the other, because we got a word from the king” (see Neh. 4:16).
When you get a word from the King, it doesn’t matter who doesn’t like you or who’s trying to come against you. You just walk out there. Why did Peter step out of the boat? Because the King told him to. It doesn’t matter who was in the boat talking. If God told you to do it, you have to do it.
Don’t expect even those closest to you to understand. Peter was out there by himself. The disciples were still in the boat. If you’re not comfortable with some isolation, if you can’t deal with being misunderstood, if you can’t handle a hater or two making things up about you, if you can’t take criticism, then you may want to stay in the boat. It can be lonely out there. But what you gain when you step out of the boat is the presence of Jesus, and if you have him, that’s all you need. He is the cure for that loneliness. I would much rather have Jesus and me in a storm than me and eleven frightened people in the boat.
I would much rather have me and Jesus in a storm than me and eleven frightened people in the boat.
Your Destination, Not Your Situation
Once you have the willingness, once you’ve counted the cost, success in any endeavor involves keeping your eye on your destination, not your situation. If you’re going to make it, it’s critical that you maintain focus. People don’t always give Peter enough credit. He walked on water! But as he experienced the rising waves and the howling winds, he took his eyes off of Jesus. He was on his way to meet Jesus on the surface of a stormy sea, and then he got in his own head. He became so distracted by his current situation that he forgot about his ultimate destination.
Some of you are looking at what you’re going through, and you’ve taken your eyes off of where you’re going to. You’ve forgotten that when the Lord said, “Come” to Peter, and to you, he had already factored in the things that were going to happen. He knew what stood between where you had been and where you were going. And in the case of Peter, the Jesus walking toward him was the very God who had made the wind and the waves in the first place. He was in control then, and he’s in control now.
If your trust is in Jesus, and Jesus has called you to walk on water, wind and waves are not going to take you out. Understand who is in control of your situation. Make up your mind that nothing is going to keep you from the promise of God. It’s a matter of saying, “I’m going to get what God has for my life.”
What God shows us when Peter falters is that he rescues us from failing situations. The text says Peter lost focus and began to sink. He cried out to the Lord, and the Lord took him by the hand and lifted him up. You have to realize that God is committed to your reaching your destination. All of us have failed at one time or another. Some people you know may act like they’ve never taken their eyes off of Jesus, but all of us, if we’re honest, will admit that we have. All of us have doubted. All of us have failed. If it were not for the grace of God, none of us would be here today. When the worst was about to happen, God stepped in and rescued us.
Peter was walking toward Jesus, and we can assume that Jesus was walking toward Peter. Jesus was destined to get to Peter before he reached the boat. I’m fascinated by what that tells me—Jesus gets to people on the sea before he gets to the people in the boat. When you fall, Jesus is as close to you as he is to the people cowering on the boat. The other thing I think is fascinating is that when Peter slipped, he cried out to Jesus, which is a deeper revelation to me. He didn’t call out to the others in the boat. And when he slipped, you would assume that one of the boys he’d been rolling with would have said, “Let’s help Peter!” But if people don’t have the faith to step out with you in the first place, what makes you think they’re going to come to your rescue when you’re in trouble? I’m not putting my faith in people. I put my faith in Jesus. That’s who I’m calling on.
Falling Isn’t Failing
It’s worth noting too that the closer you get to your destination, the greater your distraction. The waves may well have been getting bigger as Peter walked toward Jesus. Think of your own situation, the times when you said, “I’ve been out here for a while. Why now, God, has the storm grown like this?” It’s because the Enemy knows this is his last chance to derail you before you arrive at your destination. It’s gotten rougher because you’re closer now than you’ve ever been. This isn’t the time to whine. This is the time to shout, to say, “Lord, thank you because I wouldn’t be going through all these distractions if I were not close to my destination.” Every distraction is confirmation that you’re close.
Peter teaches us that falling doesn’t make us a failure and that we don’t have to be defined by our falls. That’s one reason we shouldn’t be hard on the Peters of the world when they mess up. There’s some Peter in all of us, and I come against the judgmental spirit that wants to look down at those who falter. Everybody has failed at something. If you haven’t, keep on living, and you will.
Some widely quoted sayings about failure have been attributed to some well-known men: Robert Kennedy— “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” Winston Churchill— “Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” C. S. Lewis— “Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.” Abraham Lincoln— “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with failure.” And Zig Ziglar— “Remember, failure is an event, not a person.”
Peter teaches us that falling doesn’t make us a failure.
You should never give up on people who fail because the kingdom is full of them. It’s full of people who failed but got back up. Maybe you’re one of them. Maybe, like Peter, you blew it. You stepped out there and were doing it, but then things got rough, and you lost focus and fell. But God gave you another chance. The Bible says Jesus took Peter by the hand, and they walked back to the boat. Maybe people were ready to count you out, but I am here to tell you, you are not a failure because you fail. It’s not over until God says it’s over, and if you have nothing else to praise God for, thank God that you are not defined by your slipups but by your pickups. You are defined by where God is getting ready to take you.
Called to Carry On
Whether it’s your career, marriage, health, ministry, or education, God is not interested in letting you go under. The Bible says Peter was beginning to sink, but he did not go all the way under. He called out to Jesus, and Jesus took him by the hand. I don’t care what has happened in your life; God is not going to let you go under. He responds to the cries of his children. Because you had the courage to step out on a word from God, because you did what nobody else had the courage to do, because you walked on water, God said, “I am invested in your future.” You are called to success. You may have lost focus, but Jesus rescued you.
I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore,
Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more,
But the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry,
From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.
Love lifted me!
—JAMES ROWE, “LOVE LIFTED ME”
When Peter and Jesus got back to the ship, the other disciples said, “Now we know you’re the son of God” (Matt. 14:33, author’s paraphrase), and they began to praise him. God is going to make your haters understand who he is.
Some people speculate on how far Peter sank before he cried out. Some say he was ankle-deep. Some say he was waist-deep. Some say he sank up to his neck. I don’t know how far Peter sank, but I have a revelation for you. No matter how deep you’re in it, if you’re alive, God has kept your head above water, and as long as your head is above water, you can cry out to Jesus. You may be neck-deep in your relationship, in your career, in your marriage, in your finances. But as long as you can get a word out to the Master, your breakthrough is at hand.
There is no reason to hang your head because of the tough times. You might feel like giving up, but God is not going to let you go under. You might be the only one in your family doing what you’re doing. You might be the only one in your bloodline who has stepped outside the boat, and that’s why the devil is trying to kill you. But I don’t care how high the water is. It’s not over your head because it’s under his feet.
As long as your head is above water, you can cry out to Jesus.
What God has for you is too big for you to remain in that small ship. God is about to release you. Step out, even if you have to step out by yourself. God is not going to let you go. Every day you may pass by doubters and people who don’t get it. They are the people still in the boat.
I don’t talk to boat people anymore. I talk to people like you. Go after your destiny. Get what God has for you. Get your degree. Get your house. Become debt-free. Write that book. Go after it. I’m looking for water-walkers, people who can say, “Even if I’ve got to walk by myself, I’m going to walk. God is not going to let me go.”
Get out of the boat.
Reset and Repurpose
The world has its own kinds of resets. Graduation, a new job, marriage, parenthood, and many other milestones that carry new status or responsibilities are seen in the world as resets. They are rites of passage analogous in a limited way to the spiritual resets we are talking about—and sometimes they are one and the same.
Often one of the marks of such a reset is a name change. We see it in marriage. We see it in professional titles, such as doctor, pastor, or lieutenant. Family relations can do it. All of a sudden, daddy, mommy, grandma, uncle, and aunt are names that indicate a new relation or status. There are other examples. Monarchs and popes often take new names upon assuming their new roles, and many actors, musicians, and others in the public eye rebrand themselves with names that indicate they are stepping into new roles.
We have already seen some biblical examples of name changes, and it’s worth revisiting Peter, to examine the way his identity was changed by Jesus, as we examine the way our own identities and labels shift when we undergo the spiritual reset we are aiming for with this book. As in the case of Jacob and Abram, a name change indicates the profound turnaround to which these people were called. They were given new identities, signaling new mission and purpose.
Simon Peter: The Rock
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
—MATTHEW 16:15–18
We looked at the life and lessons of Peter in an earlier chapter, but let’s stop for a moment to look at his transformation. John 1 tells us that Jesus met this fisherman named Simon through his brother, Andrew, and renamed him right then and there—Cephas, or Peter, meaning “stone” or “rock”—so the story in Matthew is most likely a reaffirmation.
Let’s revisit Peter in all his complexity. We looked in detail at the fact that he was trusting enough to ask Jesus to let him walk on water and then self-conscious and doubtful enough to lose focus and sink. He was weak enough to fall asleep in Gethsemane when the Lord asked him to wait up with him, then impetuous enough to slice an ear from the high priest’s servant. He was cocky enough to boast he would never betray Jesus, then craven enough to deny knowing him three separate times. His reaction to the last event, though, is a key to Peter. He wept bitterly when he was caught in his own duplicity and weakness, for he loved the Lord and hated the part of himself that could be weak and cowardly.
Jesus knew and loved the complex human being that was Peter. At the Last Supper, he said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31–32 NASB). He knew the depths and the heights of which Peter was capable. He knew the denial was coming, but he knew too that once the disciples would be on their own, following his departure, Peter would be the one who could lead. “Be the rock, as I have named you,” Jesus was saying to him, and there would soon come a time when Jesus would say to Peter, “Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep” (John 21:15, 17).
But it is the episode in Matthew where Jesus renamed him that lets us see both Peter and his relationship with Jesus in all their complexity. It was Peter who took the lead in answering Jesus’ question: “But who do you say I am?” His knowledge, Jesus assured him, was not his own. It was divine. Peter had crossed a huge threshold in his discipleship. He was drawing on the things of heaven. As the time grew shorter, Peter was seeing more. He was still Peter—there was plenty more weakness ready to show through—but God was entrusting him with insights not granted to everyone else.
Peter: The Highs and the Lows
From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
—MATTHEW 16:21
Just how much of the old Peter was still there was evident in his very next exchange with Jesus. Jesus began to talk about the suffering he would soon face and about the fact that he would be killed. It was Peter, rash as ever, who reacted first. You can just see him grabbing Jesus’ arm and taking him off to the side.
“Far be it from You, Lord,” he said. “This shall not happen to You!” (Matt. 16:22).
Jesus didn’t get angry often, but when he did, people wilted.
“Get behind Me, Satan!” he said, no doubt shocking Peter and all the rest. “You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (v. 23). This is the leader of the apostles, being upbraided as clueless in the moments after God had given him the keys to the kingdom!
In Peter we see the highest highs and the lowest lows of discipleship, and it’s worth asking why Jesus stayed with him. “Peter,” we can hear him saying, “the reason I never gave up on you is because I knew I needed your special attributes. Yes, I said, ‘The devil wants to sift you like wheat.’ I saw your deficiencies. I knew your proclivities. I knew all your issues, and yet I loved you through it all. I knew you were called to be the one. Peter, you often had your brain in park and your mouth in drive. You always wanted to give me advice; you always did crazy things. You were just a rough-around-the-edges guy, but I saw something in you, Peter, and even when you left me when things got tough, I never gave up on you because I always believed in you. I saw in you the capacity to discern and interpret spiritually what the other disciples could not.”
The Holy Spirit bestowed on Peter the gifts he needed. He was not a rock on his own. He was shifting sand, sometimes faithful, sometimes faithless. He ran hot and cold, depending on the circumstances. With the Holy Spirit, though, Peter became the stabilizing influence for the new church and living proof that God always believes in those he has called.
Peter became the foundation through which the church emerged. He was the defender of Pentecost. This shows us clearly that being reset is a gift that we must meet half-way, applying ourselves to facing and rising above our own weakness and shortsightedness. And we can’t forget that God uses us because he needs our special gifts. He needs us as his eyes and ears and as his mouthpiece. As members of the body of Christ, we have roles that only we can play.
Mary Magdalene
And the twelve were with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities—Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance.
—LUKE 8:1–3
Our final look at reinvention in this chapter comes with Mary Magdalene. The only pre-crucifixion mention of her in Scripture references the seven demons cast out of her by Jesus. We don’t know if their manifestation was behavioral or a physical or mental illness. It is through references in apocryphal writings that we get the picture of her as someone who had led a life of sin, probably in prostitution, until meeting Jesus. In any case, her association with Jesus reinvented her, and Mary (the name Magdalene simply refers to her as a native of Magdala, on the Sea of Galilee) was apparently close to Jesus for the rest of his ministry on earth and with his followers after that. What’s clear is that she was profoundly changed and carried her gratitude into loyalty and service, most likely for the rest of her life.
It is with the events of the crucifixion that Mary Magdalene comes into sharper focus in the gospels. First of all, her mere presence at this Roman execution spectacle was testament to her bravery and steadfastness since the apostles, with the exception of John, had by this time run off. She and another Mary were present when Jesus was laid in the tomb and lingered after its owner, Joseph of Arimathea, left. She was at the tomb Sunday morning. and both John and Mark say she was the first person to see the risen Christ.
Mary Magdalene is generally named first among the women who followed Jesus, the way Peter is named first when the apostles are named, indicating that she had more than likely assumed a leadership role, and the phrase “provided for Him from their substance” may well mean she contributed financially as well. Whatever her past, Mary Magdalene’s life with Jesus is a great representation of transformation, love, and service.
How Does It Feel to Be Reset?
To be reset is to be hauled into a master’s studio as a block of granite, nothing more than potential, and emerge as Michelangelo’s David; it is to lie on a palette as daubs of color and come to life on canvas as Da Vinci’s The Last Supper.
To be reset is to go into the furnace as oblong clay, wet and glistening, soft, no more than mud, and emerge as a brick, a useful building tool, ready to be part of a great structure.
To be reset is to go into the locker room at halftime trailing, downtrodden, and with defeat in your heart, and emerge for the second half on fire, with nothing but victory in your heart, willing to do whatever it takes to operate at the absolute peak of your capacity.
To be reset is to go into boot camp an aimless youth, a little soft, a lot unfocused, and emerge a soldier, someone honed and hardened, someone with clear purpose and a new sense of pride and character.
To be reset is to be broken eggs that reemerge as a soufflé.
To be reset is to be hauled from the junkyard as a rusty old automobile, broken-down, unable to do that for which you were made, and emerge from a reconditioner’s shop gleaming, running smooth as a purring tiger, ready to take to the road or to dazzle at a vintage auto show.
To be reset is to be an orphan, abandoned by someone whose life is in ruin, and emerge later from an adoptive household a healthy, happy human being, ready for a life of use and value.
To be reset is to be a yolk and white inside a shell, basically just a blob of gelled liquid, to be absorbed by a tiny single-celled embryo and grow to become a fully formed chick, cracking that shell from the inside and emerging as a fledgling, ready for the world.
To be reset is to be an abandoned property with weeds and thickets all over the yard, the house closed up and musty in need of repair, and emerge a showplace, with fresh paint and sunlight streaming in, the yard trimmed along with hedges and gardens and a glistening pool in the back.
Blessing in a Bottle
Shakespeare wrote of sermons in stones, and this is the story of my blessing in a bottle.
I was thirsty one day, and I picked up a plastic bottle of water. I say humorously sometimes that inanimate objects talk to me, and this one certainly did. As I was about to open it, my spirit heard it say, “Hey, before you open me and drink me, I need to tell you my story.”
“Okay,” I said. “Tell me your story.”
“Well,” it said, “one day not long ago, someone turned me up and emptied me. I’m not nearly as thick as some plastic containers, and I’m certainly not as hard as glass, and this person crushed me until I was flat and tossed me in the trash. I was misshapen, dirty, and surrounded by garbage. Not a great place to be, is it?”
“I should say not.”
“But then someone came along and spied me and recognized that I have value. She lifted me out of that place of darkness and despair and took me with her. I didn’t know where I was going, but I was glad to be out of where I was. She tossed me into a bin, where I recognized that everyone around me was a lot like me. We were still dented and in some cases dirty, but someone had recognized that all of us had value. We wound up in a recycling plant, where we were cleaned up, re-formed, and made brand-new again. I went to a place where they filled me with water and—voilà—here I am.”
Like that bottle, I’ve been recycled. That’s my story. I have been reborn to do great things. That can be your story too. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter if you wound up on life’s trash heap. Our God is a recycler—the Great Recycler. His people haven’t always been what they are now. He’s poured out our pasts and purified us as he’s refilled us and sent us out into the world.
REFLECTIONS
• What is your mission? What is it that God has called you to do?
• Can you imagine reset as a clean break with what doesn't work in your past, a rebooting as profound as the Great Flood?
• How do you identify with Peter? Share a time when you or someone you know acted like Peter.
• How do the “ships” in your life—relationships, friendships, and so on—serve you well or badly?
• Are you ready to trust Jesus outside of the boat?