By Ife J. Ibitayo
I spent some time today looking through my high school yearbook with my little brother. I couldn’t help but grin as I saw pictures of my high school self. Apparently, a decade later, I still look the same. I don’t know whether that’s a compliment to my youth or an insult to my maturity! But as I flipped through the yearbook’s pages, my smile dimmed when I arrived at the photo of the leaders for our Christian club because there was one person missing from it.
I still remember the day when our treasurer—who I’ll call Barry—knocked on my dorm room. It was late at night, and he had a pile of books in his hands. He told me about how he’d been struggling with his faith, and he wanted to read through some of these resources with me as he attempted to splice together the crumbling remnants of his Christianity. I was club president and pastor at the time, but I was also struggling to balance the load of club activities and classes with the minimum free time I thought I needed for myself. So I blew him off, and within the next couple weeks, we no longer had a treasurer.
I Failed
I was reminded of Peter in the Gospels. When Jesus said all of His disciples would desert Him, Peter excluded himself from that group. When Jesus said Peter would deny Him three times, Peter effectively called Jesus a liar. He promised he’d suffer to the death before he denied his Lord and Savior (Matthew 26:31-35). But within a few short hours, all of Jesus’ disciples deserted Him and Peter denied Him just as He had said.
Yet none of this was a surprise to Jesus because God knows our frailties better than we do. He knows when we’ll snap at our spouse or disappoint our children. He even knows when we’ll fail the people who need us the most in their hour of need.
What I find most comforting about Jesus’ prophecy is that right after He tells the disciples they will desert Him, He says, “‘After I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee (Matthew 26:32).’” In other words, Jesus had already baked their failure into His plan. When His followers fell, He rose. When they stumbled, He went on ahead, both to catch them and to prepare the way.
He Never Does
A few years later, I saw Barry again in college. He had reestablished his faith, and he was doing well academically and spiritually. Even though the shame of my failure still burns within me, I’m grateful that I learned a valuable lesson. I will continue to fall short of the perfect standard of love I strive to live up to; however, my God never will. And He can redeem even my greatest failures for my good and for His glory.
“None of the good promises the LORD had made to the house of Israel failed. Everything was fulfilled.”
(Joshua 21:45)