Interrupted
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:31-32
I think anyone who has ever read the Bible, or knows a verse here and there, has had that moment when words jump out at them in a completely different way; at just the right time. Not in meaning—but in depth. In a soul-deep puncturing, that oozes God into an emptiness you didn’t know you had.
The verse above…it punctured me.
A single moment in time, peeking in on a conversation between Peter and Jesus, where Peter was certain he would always be loyal to Jesus, but Jesus knew what was coming. Jesus knew Peter’s denial was near. He knew Peter would run, and hide, and doubt.
A rooster would crow.
Three times.
They would lock eyes.
Shame entered.
Faith would be interrupted.
To the one out there that questions the very essence of your faith—you are not the only one! The doubts, the questions, the insecurities, the why’s, the why nots, the unanswered…
The strange place between everything in your heart, mashing with everything in your head—a space that brings puzzlement, and insecurity, and fear, and derailment along the walk you were so secure in. The cumulated matter of seconds mounding up into days, and weeks, and months all within a blink—all within a breath.
Your faith—interrupted.
Jesus knows. He knows what is questioning your loyalty. He knows what is making you run and hide. He knows what is causing your doubts.
Yet, He has no doubts.
“…and when you have turned back…”
Maybe it’s not right now. Maybe the thick of it has you lost. Maybe the questions are louder than the answers. But know this—your Savior knows. And it is the tenderness of His being, that can lock eyes in your deepest denial of Him and still say, I love you.
Peter became the rock. He became the very person Jesus said His church would be built on. He became the greatest fisher of followers. Peter became, and did, and lived out the very words Jesus said, “and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Peter’s interruption was just that, an interruption. Not a loss. Not a rejection. Not a finality. It was an interruption in faith and belief, which in a divine way, became the strongest faith needed.
It wasn’t exclusive for Peter.
There will be times of doubt, for us. Times of denial. Times of despair. Times of running.
His words will be waiting, “I have prayed for you…and when you have turned back…”
That verse punctured my heart.
I had missed the compassion. I missed the protection. I missed the promise. I missed the love.
But I see it now.
Do you?
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