Bad things happen.
Really bad things happen.
Some of them will be your fault.
It’s part of life.
What happens after the bad will tell the story of our lives. Peter denied the One he loved most. When his friend needed him he wasn’t there. He couldn’t even pray without falling asleep, and when the pressure was on he folded. He quit. He ran. He gave up. He was, in the words of Jesus, “sifted like what.”
The courage he thought he had was an illusion. He was no better than anyone else.
He felt like a total failure so he went back to what he knew: fishing. But even fishing success eluded him on this night. Failure has a tendency to birth failure. While he fished, he must have wondered: What will the rest of my life be? Who would want me as a follower? Who would trust me as a friend? What will life be in the aftermath? Is there life in the aftermath of such a failure?
And then he heard a rooster crow and the aftermath became all too real once again. Think about it. Roosters crow every morning. Peter must have believed that every morning for the rest of his life he would be reminded of his pitiful failure. On that morning I bet he hated roosters. (Look it up. Luke 22:59-62)
But aftermath is the wrong word for friends of Jesus. He doesn’t friend the way other people do. With Jesus, the word is not aftermath, but afterward.
As the sun began to rise on Peter’s failure, he saw a man standing on the shore calling to him.
“Come and have breakfast?”
It’s like waking up the morning after the worst disaster of your life wanting only to stay in bed, curl up in a ball and die. You dread the dawn because it holds not light, just thicker, more obvious darkness. There’s nothing to get up for. What’s the point?
And then Dad comes to the door of your room and says, Hey sleepyhead, get up, let’s have breakfast.” And somehow you think, “Wait…I’m not finished?! There’s life after this? Are you kidding me? Breakfast? I deserve a beating.
And your Heavenly Father smiles and says, Maybe, but I’m hungry. Let’s start with breakfast.
Judas focused on the aftermath and wrote his own ending. Peter hung around and was surprised by the epilogue turned into new story titled; AFTERWARD.
God loves you that much. He’ll turn your aftermath into an afterward and write a whole new story with your life if you let him. Start with breakfast and see.
For Peter, the crow of the rooster every morning was a reminder, we serve a God of afterward.
“Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way…” (John 21:12)
