I have always been a hot-shot up and coming leader. Whether it was in elementary school and junior high in the academic world or in high school when I got heavily involved in church ministry and the working world – I have always been one of those people who have risen to the top of whatever I got involved with. Even when I went to Bible College and experienced the setback of being a small fish in a very big pond when it came to music and worship leading (the biggest expression of my involvement in the church I grew up in) I quickly got myself involved in student leadership and was elected as my class’ freshmen representative on student council.
Growing up as the relationally awkward, fat-kid all through school I compensated by being a super-star where I could be and when I reached college and people started to exhibit a maturity that valued people beyond the superficial I really began to hit my stride. By the end of my second year at CBC I was having leadership opportunities thrust upon me and was (being blunt and immodest for a second) encouraged by many as one of the rising stars in the Alliance’s farm system. That all changed with a hockey pool.
Brooks One South – the floor that I lived on during most of my years in Regina – had a standing tradition of doing a fairly serious hockey pool every season. Not wanting to violate our student lifestyle commitments by gambling we had a reward of an end of season dinner out to the Keg where all the participants would buy the winner dinner and we’d celebrate the end of the school year together. All in all it was a great tradition – except for the fact that when a bunch of college age guys get together at a steakhouse to celebrate – sometimes other things flow besides jubilation. Some of the guys – seeing as the year was all but over (classes were finished and exams were all that remained) decided to order the table a pitcher of beer. I initially declined knowing that participating in such an event would put me in violation of the rules but caved in the end when the waitress just happened to bring an “extra” glass with the pitcher (I wouldn’t want something like that to go to waste now would I). So I bit into the proverbial apple and sealed my fate amongst the transgressors; hoping against hope not to get caught. All the while knowing deep down that I would do about as good a job of hiding this as Adam and Eve did hiding from God in the garden. Word got back to the dean of men, and I was ruined.
And even though I did nothing inherently immoral – I was of age, in a licensed establishment, and having had only one glass of beer, I was nowhere near intoxicated. I don’t believe there is anything unscriptural about responsible drinking and I enjoy a good pint from time to time to this day – on that day I broke the rules. I violated an agreement, a contract, the rule of law of Canadian Bible College and when the news got out my star lost all its shine. Not long before that event I had been rewarded with some very important leadership roles for the following year including one of the most prestigious of student leadership roles – one I highly coveted – I was appointed the R.A. of my beloved Brooks One South. Everyone had been congratulating me and I basked in my peer’s adulation – and with one glass of beer it was all gone. I was stripped of my responsibilities, berated by administration, publically disgraced and banned for a year from any sort of student leadership. There were other consequences of my actions but I don’t need to get into them this morning – suffice it to say I had fallen a long way down and I don’t think that anyone was putting much stock in me as a rising star anymore. I was a failure. Who would ever want to trust me again? How would I ever be seriously considered for a position in a church after graduation? How would I ever recover from this?
When I look through the stories of the New Testament I see a man whose trajectory in many ways mirrored my experience that year. His name was Peter. He had time and time again been built up because he was brash and self-assured and willing to speak his mind.
Peter: the man Jesus renamed “The Rock”
The man who is often portrayed as the leader among the disciples
The man who understood and recognized Jesus as the messiah
Also Peter:
The one who thrice denied Jesus in the courtyard
The deserter
The guilt stricken
The fisher of men who was failing at his attempt to return to being a man that fishes.
Peter “the rock” had become Simon the unsuccessful angler. Frustrated and riddled with guilt I’m sure he believed that the great future he anticipated in the Kingdom of God had evaporated like his master’s dead body. Vanished. Gone. How would he recover from this? How would he carry on?
Well after that night of fruitless fishing Peter saw someone on the shore who offered him just that: a way forward past his failure. Peter saw someone on the shore that offered him something he desperately needed. The same thing I needed at the end of the second year of Bible College. The same thing each and every one of us need to get past the failures and falters in our own lives. The man standing on the shore offered him grace.
It was the God of Second Chances and this Sunday I'm inviting you to some and see what he's offering you.
See you at 10:30 on Sunday,
Chris
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