The Long Journey

1 Peter 5:6-11
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. 10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. 11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Like many people in Midian, I have lived in a lot of other places before settling here. New Jersey, New York, California, Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania....all have been home to me.

When I lived in Georgia, I was eleven-years-old. I was living in a small, fairly poor, little agricultural town. I lived with my grandparents as my mother slowly succombed to cancer, and my father was off in another state trying to secure a job. It was, in several ways, the defining period of my life... the combination of the actual events, made even more intense by the age during which they occured, set a powerful mark upon my character. In may ways, I am still that eleven-year-old, in a town far away from home and friends, in a culture very different from where I grew up. But, of course, I am also a completely different person...leaving the age aside, I have been blessed with a wide variety of experiences and relationships that have further shaped me as a man.

As I sit here at this desk, peering over the woods beyond my back yard, I am struck by how long the life journey has been...and how it has changed me.

While every church-going Christian has encountered stories about Peter, I think we often forget what a long journey Peter made from his calling by Jesus, until his own crucifixion in Rome. Peter, the brash young fisherman who said exactly what was on his mind (and whos actions were always led by his emotions), turned into Peter, the Elder of the Church, a man who preached humility, peace, and getting along with others.

Arguably, while the focus of the New Testament is on Christ, there is no one we follow for a greater duration than Peter. Peter is the bold disciple who cuts off the soldier's ear, but, then retreats into the cowardice of denial the very next day. Peter, the missionary to the Jewish diaspora, is, later, the first to reach out to the Gentiles (with the baptism of Cornelius). Peter, the staunch defender of the church, turns into a supporter and brother of its greatest enemy and killer (Saul/Paul). Peter...the man who never seemed able to put two plus two together while in Jesus' company, becomes the rock on which His church is built

The first letter of Peter gives us some indication of what the first Apostle has taken away from this great journey...a life that the rest of history will view as one of the most remarkable of all time. Though Peter was given great power by the Holy Spirit, great responsibility by the Church leadership, and a special place amongst the Twelve by Christ, Himself, Peter marches into the twilight of his earthly life concerned mainly about humility and love.
I guess it can't be so surprising that a man who denied that He knew Christ mere hours after he promised not to do so, only to be forgiven by the Risen Lord three days later, would know something about the importance of humility, forgiveness, and love. On the long journey from follower to leader, Peter relays the importance of laying the stresses, strife, and false promises of the world behind in order to rest in humility with a forgiving God.

The long journey, for many of us harboring old memories in Midian, can lead us through times when we are consumed with our own weaknesses. The long journey takes through many times when we wish we could simply cast aside all of our problems and flaws, and live the life of supermen. If we are lucky, though, we end the long journey in a place where we give up regret and disappointment, in order to rest in the mercy of God.

Like Peter, a man who God Almighty called his friend, there is no escape from our own imperfections...there is only a long journey to a place where their sting is taken away by a loving Creator. Like Peter, the keeper of the keys, we must realize that God blesses the humble, and that being right is less important than showing love.
On the long journey, eventually we can leave behind our heavy baggage, if our hearts and minds are focused on the road ahead.
Journey well........