Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.

Luke 22:31-31 Jesus knew it.  He knew Peter would fail.  Jesus knew Peter would deny him in his greatest hour of need and run from the cross, if he was ever there.  It is easy to look back at Peter, across the millennia; look back and condemn him for his lack of faith.  But, beloved, we know what Peter did not.  We know how the story ends.  What if we had been with Peter?  What if we had not known how things turned out?  Would we have been so brave?  Would we have remained near Jesus or, would we too have failed? Failure is a part of living.  If anyone tells you they have never failed, look them in the eye and say, just keep on living.  Everyone fails at some point along the journey.  We have to accept that we are going to fail.  But, we do not have to accept that we are failures.  There’s a BIG difference.   To fail and to be a failure are as different as having an illness and being that illness, as different as a moment of hate and being ever hateful.  We will all fail, be ill and have a moment of hate but, those things need not be who we are.   Accepting that we will fail allows us to learn from our failures.  In fact, on Saturday morning, February 15^th, Neal Degrasse Tyson, an amazing and renowned astrophysicist, failed to answer questions correctly on the National Public Radio Show, Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.  When the show’s announcer chided him about failing, Tyson said, “I don’t see it that way.  Instead, I had two opportunities to learn something new today.”   We will fail.  And we can turn our failures into who we are or, we can turn our failures into a new opportunity to learn and grow.  That’s what Peter did.  That’s what we must do. 

PRAYER:  Lord, help me to see my failures as a part of my life and learning.  Help me to use them to grow.