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Monday, March 13, 2006
Slipping Onto Satan's Side
Psalm 22:23-31; Mark 8:31-38
This week's message focuses on how easily even the best intentions can distract us from catching God's point of view. Poor Peter serves as a case study in getting it almost right and winding up all wrong.
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I understand how Peter could think he was standing up for God when he pulled Jesus aside and told him, "No way!" about this "going to Jerusalem to die" thing.
He was full of himself, praised just minutes ago by Jesus for seeing things from God's own perspective. "You're the Christ, the Son of the Living God," he'd blurted. "Right on!" said Jesus. "God showed you that, and you got it right."
But now Peter was getting it all wrong. Jesus actually called him "Satan"! He said, "You're not looking along God's sight line now, but squinting through the lens of common sense." And heading for a spiritual car wreck.
I know how that goes. I was there myself a few decades ago.
I had driven all night to meet my parents, then we rode together another 90 minutes to attend my grandmother's funeral. That evening I napped a couple of hours, then set off on the 300-mile trip back home.
Why the rush?
Well, the youth ministry I worked for had a big event coming up and I needed to hit the ground running as soon as possible. Family business was a major distraction from God's business. Being 25, I could easily pull two all-nighters and jump right back into ministry, powered by adrenaline.
I even stopped on the shoulder once to sleep some more in the driver's seat. Then... Time to stand up, kick out the kinks, and climb back behind the wheel for the duration.
Next thing I knew, brake lights were rushing towards my windshield. I hit my own brakes hard and started skidding. Ending up about eight feet behind a stopped delivery truck, I sat with hands frozen to the wheel, my heart in my throat.
I'd driven in a semi-conscious zone for who knows how long, the dawn light not registering in my mind, the road and traffic a blur to my sleepy brain.
My guardian angel got an ulcer that morning. But together we made sure I stayed w-i-d-e awake the remaining 100 miles between my highway wake-up call and my waiting bed.
And that's exactly where I headed as soon as I walked through our front door. So much for getting right back to God's work.
Amazingly, everything I needed to get done did get done, one day later and just as well.
I had risked my life out of obligation to do the right thing -- at all cost! Even if it stole from our ministry a dedicated leader, and cost my wife and two little kids me for the rest of their lives.
Drifting off to sleep at the wheel, I'd let my car drift towards destruction. Losing my focus on God's sight line, I had gone cross-eyed with pride in my own point of view on what mattered most and how to get it done.
All innocently, I had slipped onto the devil's side, working directly against God's best intention for me, for my family, for my ministry -- all 40 years of it since that dangerous day.
posted by Jack Buckley at
2:14 PM
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