Denials...

Gospel - morning John 13:36-38[36]Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus answered,"Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterward."[37]Peter said to him, "Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down mylife for you." [38]Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for me? Verytruly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me threetimes."

Have you ever let down a friend?  Have you said you would be there...and didn't show up?  I have.  And now as some time has passed, I don't seem to remember what was so important at that time to abandon my friend.  Forgive me.

Relationships are so easily broken when we deny and abandon our friends and family: the very people we would lay down our lives for.  So why do we do it?  In Peter's case: survival, self-protection, fear.  What about you: fun, better deal, possibility?

This is the human condition, my friends.  As people of faith, we deny, we abandon, we disappoint, we betray.

When I consider how Peter felt, how I feel when I deny and abandon, I wish I could take it back, go back, redo.  Perhaps maturity of faith and experience makes these occurrences less and less.  Yet it will happen again ...as I will do the vey thing I do not want to do.

Jesus accepts us and loves us anyway.  On this day I consider the steps of betrayal, denial, and abandonment over this past year. I offer these confessions to Jesus, and I consider how you I will walk with Jesus in the coming year.  How will you walk with Jesus in the coming year?  Jesus will be there walking with you.