Defining Moments

Saturday, October 26, 2019

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.”

1 Peter 5:1–3

One of the most famous plays in baseball history happened on October 25, 1986, in the sixth game of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Mets. With the score tied in the tenth inning, Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner allowed a softly hit ground ball to go between his legs into right field, giving the Mets the opportunity to win the game, and eventually the championship. Despite twenty-two successful years of professional baseball, Buckner’s error on that one play became the defining moment of his career. 

If there is anyone in the Bible whose life could have been defined by one moment of failure, it was Peter. The denial of the Lord that he issued again and again after Jesus’ arrest was a striking lapse, all the more because it came so closely after Jesus’ warning that Peter would not stand with Him when the moment of testing came. “Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended” (Matthew 26:33).

Peter could have given up, but instead he responded to the renewed command he received from Jesus and spent the rest of his life winning the lost and building the church. Peter did what all of us should do—he obeyed what Jesus told him. And later in his life Peter passed on the same mission to those who would come after, instructing them to feed their flocks.

Today's Growth Principle: 

It is not our failures, but our response to those failures that determines how our lives will be remembered.