Even the best and brightest fall short on a daily. Here’s what matters more.

3 min read

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8

As John looked back over the day, he couldn’t help but think about how different the ending was from the beginning.

Spiritually speaking, he had started on a high point. His time with God in the morning was especially good. For thirty minutes or so, he was dialed-in, aware of his blessings, and in a good mental space.

If only he could’ve stayed in that lane.

By the end of the day, the bottom had fallen out. Somewhere along the way, focus gave way to a fog and peace gave way to stress. John started the day praising Jesus, but he ended the day yelling at his kids.

If his life were a stock traded on the market, a lot of money would have been lost on John that day.

Is this normal? Absolutely, it’s normal.

Peter’s Lapse[s]

Peter’s confession to Jesus that he was “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:13-20) is a centerpiece of the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all place it in or near the middle of their accounts because it was so pivotal.

You see, then, as now, people had all kinds of opinions about Jesus. Peter’s confession of the Lord’s true identity as the Messiah and Son of God cut through all the chatter and confusion. By the way, this confession still reverberates two thousand years later.

But in the very next scene, things changed for Peter. He went from being in the Spirit to being in his flesh lickety-split. When Jesus started talking about the suffering that was coming his way, Peter slipped right back into his default way of doing life and handling problems.

By nature, it seems that Peter was a proud, strong, Type-A individual. If there was a problem, he attacked it aggressively. When operating in the Spirit, Peter deferred to Jesus. But in the flesh, Peter was in charge.

In this situation, Peter’s thoughtlessness overcame him and he had the audacity to tell Jesus what to do.

Jesus wasn’t impressed.

Recovering

What’s true of Peter is true of all of us. We are subject to periodic lapses in judgment. We all have the capacity to toggle between the spirit and the flesh on any given day. If we were to chart it, we would likely see that the slow, subtle, and upward trajectory of our growth in Christ is marked with regular spikes and dips.

But what’s most important is that Jesus has no spikes or dips in his character. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. While the Peter that we meet early in the Gospels is not the same Peter we see in the letters that he wrote decades later, the Jesus that we meet is the same at every point and at every stage.

He doesn’t dip when we dip. Neither in his love or his loyalty does the Lord ever toggle. No fluctuation. None.

For the glory of God, may your life be free of lapses today. But even when the inevitable happens, not to worry. For, there is no lapse in the eternal character of Jesus.

It’s a new day with God. Run with it.