Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

  • Home
  • My Books
  • Essays
  • Contact

Good News for Those who’ve Blown It

By Anita Mathias

File:The Denial of Saint Peter-Caravaggio (1610).jpg

Image: Caravaggio
You can live with Christ in the closest possible

Intimacy; have a Spirit-given breakthrough

Understand that he is the Son

Of the Living God, know

He speaks the words of eternal life.

You can see him on the mountain, transfigured.

And then… babble,

Something about building booths,

Because you don’t know what to say

But you must say something.

And so bossily,

Despite having seen him transfigured,

You decide to take charge, and take him aside and rebuke him

When he tells you that suffering was always part of the plan,

And you get called Satan,

Not long after you have been called blessed.

And then…what you can do,

Is declare you will never ever fall away from Jesus,

Even if everyone else does,

And then you do just that….deny him

Three times.

 And then, when Jesus gives you another chance,

You blow that too,

And instead of contemplating your fate

Which Christ has just revealed to you.

What you do is competitively obsess over John’s fate!

* * *

You can love Christ for many years,

And be 83 pounds overweight,

You eat in a sloppy, unthinking way; eliminate exercise

Deal with your feeling through food.

You can lose your temper with some regularity; take offence,

Write people off. Of course you can!

* * *

Your vessel of clay may be different,

Alcoholism perhaps; drugs; an abortion; divorce,

A sexual history so chequered you’d rather not think about it,

Or perhaps you been good for so long,

That you feel very bad and angry inside.

* * *

It’s not the vessel of clay that counts,

It is the treasure within.

Your simple love for Christ,

Your desire to follow him,

Though you, so often, forget him.

For one day, your vessel, my vessel, Peter’s vessel

Shall all be cast away on the scrap-heap of discarded things,

And what matters shall shine forth: the treasure within:

The heart he always loved; the heart that loved him back,

Though it got side-tracked–so very often.

 

Get all my posts quietly in your inbox by entering your email:

More from my site

  • Calm of Mind, All Passion Spent, in Mid-October Days, when the Light is GoldenCalm of Mind, All Passion Spent, in Mid-October Days, when the Light is Golden
  • At the End of Broken Dreams, an Open DoorAt the End of Broken Dreams, an Open Door
  • God is love, one of deep affection and grace and forgiveness and inspirationGod is love, one of deep affection and grace and forgiveness and inspiration
  • Will We Let Anything Separate God from Our Love?Will We Let Anything Separate God from Our Love?
  • The Worst Evangelism Question Ever, or, When we See Him Face to FaceThe Worst Evangelism Question Ever, or, When we See Him Face to Face
  • Poor Me and Amazing Me: Which Narrative is Yours? Poor Me and Amazing Me: Which Narrative is Yours?
Thank you for sharing...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
16Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Email this to someone
email

Filed Under: In which I am amazed by the love of the Father, random Tagged With: Meditations on failure, Peter, vessels of clay

« Previous Post
Next Post »

Comments

  1. Ang says

    September 23, 2013 at 2:53 pm

    Thank you for this beautiful reminder, Anita.

    • Anita Mathias says

      September 23, 2013 at 3:34 pm

      Thanks:-)

  2. LA says

    September 22, 2013 at 1:50 pm

    One comment, it’s harder to step from one post to the next…there is no “previous” or “next” post navigation that I can see when you’re in the individual post as I am now to comment.

    • Anita Mathias says

      September 22, 2013 at 7:54 pm

      Yikes. I will try and get it fixed.
      Thanks so much,
      Anita

  3. LA says

    September 21, 2013 at 1:21 pm

    It came easily because it’s perfectly Christ-driven. It came from that treasure within!

    I love the fact that Peter is the character in the story to give us perspective on our own failings. The only sad part is that he doesn’t go far enough. Working in prison ministries, one discovers that in order for that whole “if he can love Peter, he can love anyone” to work for repentant violent crime convicts, Peter needs to be a whole lot worse. For them, Peter is the bottom of the line of Jesus’ patience and love and they realize they fall far, far shorter. I do wish that Jesus had given us at least a few more examples of actively loving people who had done really awful things. But Peter is a good way to start the conversation.

    • Anita Mathias says

      September 21, 2013 at 2:26 pm

      Thank you so much.

      Paul who acquiesced to murder?

      I guess in our century there was Starr Daily http://www.twolisteners.org/LoveCanOpenDoors.htm or Nicky Cruz of Run, Baby, Run. There is a whole sub-set in England of criminals who are evangelists–Darrell Tunningley (Unreachable) http://www.unreachable.org.uk/#!darrell-tunningley/cmmp or Richard Taylor of the Cwmbran Revival.

      Glad you liked the facelift. The other one had so many holes in it, and I guess I am just going to discover what isn’t working with this one.

  4. Pam says

    September 21, 2013 at 10:43 am

    Beautiful.

    • Anita Mathias says

      September 21, 2013 at 11:03 am

      Thanks much, Pam. And welcome to my blog! 🙂

  5. Anita Mathias says

    September 20, 2013 at 7:30 pm

    Thank you, Claudia for your visit, and thank you too for following me on Facebook. Glad you liked the post. It came easily!

  6. Claudia Dahinden says

    September 20, 2013 at 6:09 pm

    Simply beautiful. Thanks for that 🙂

Sign Up and Get a Free eBook!

Sign up to be emailed my blog posts (one a week) and get the ebook of "Holy Ground," my account of working with Mother Teresa.

Join 653 Other Readers

Read my blog on Facebook

Follow me on Twitter

Follow @twitterapi

Anita Mathias: About Me

Anita Mathias
Premier Digital Awards 2015 - Finalist - Blogger of the year
Runner Up Christian Media Awards 2014 - Tweeter of the year

Recent Posts

  • On why God Permits our Weaknesses and Frailities to linger, and on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit–and its limits!
  • In Praise of Desert and Wilderness Experiences
  • It’s all God’s money: Thoughts on “the Cattle on a Thousand Hills”
  • Gratitude: A Secret to Happiness
  • The Things Worth Doing Badly
  • A Christmas Reflection, and Letter
  • Even Better than the Alps… Thoughts on Returning Home
  • Peaceful at Pentecost
  • Failing Better: A New Year’s Resolution, of sorts
  • Burn-Out Vanishes When We Rediscover Purpose

Categories

My Books

     Amazon.com            Amazon.co.uk



Archive by month

Instagram

Load More...

Follow on Instagram

Google Ad

My Tweets

© 2018 Dreaming Beneath the Spires · All Rights Reserved.

»
«