Peter- walking a rocky road

Sometimes reading self help books or well-meaning blogs can make us feel that adopting a regime, a mantra or a new habit will lead to measurable results in a steadily increasing way. We feel as if we should be drawing a progress chart that climbs steadily upwards- but real life is just not like that. Maybe that's why so many of us find Peter an encouraging character in Scripture. When Jesus changes Simon's name to Peter, meaning the Rock, we cheer for him as we see Jesus recognising his strength of character.

Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[ will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Matthew 16: 17-20

But we know that Peter's progress is not smooth- he is impetuous, he often speaks without thinking, he takes risks and then regrets it, and at the moment when it counted, he hardly acted as a Man of Character.

Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant-girl came to him. ‘You also were with Jesus of Galilee,’ she said.

But he denied it before them all. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said.

Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant-girl saw him and said to the people there, ‘This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.’

He denied it again, with an oath: ‘I don’t know the man!’

After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, ‘Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.’

Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, ‘I don’t know the man!’

Immediately a cock crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: ‘Before the cock crows, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Matthew 26:69-75

Cultivating character is hard work, and at this moment Peter knew he had failed. How we react when we fail is also a mark of character. Do we let the failure define us? Do we give in to the voices that tell us we will never be any good, and may as well give up trying? Jesus did not give up on Peter- a few days later we see Jesus reaffirming to Peter how much he is loved, and the mission he is called to. If God does not give up on us when we fail, then we have good reason to not give up on ourselves either. Peter's story shows us that the road to cultivating character may not always be smooth, but we do not have to walk it on our own.