Who am I?  What am I made of?  Am I better than how I was treated?

Do I have what it takes?

These questions haunt us.

Part of me expected that at 36 and married, I would have answered those questions many years ago.  I thought I would be talking about lawn care and painting my white picket fence.

But the questions still whisper.

And if I listen closely, they mock.  They do not just question who I am, but they challenge, they berate.  It is no longer, do I have what it takes?.  It becomes you do not have what it takes.

And ill equipped as we are, when those questions become statements we have no idea how to fend them off.  Maybe because we were not given the tools to do so by those who should have passed them on, maybe because the loudest voices we heard growing up agreed with the statements in our head.  Maybe because the road we are travelling is a road our fathers should have walked with us.

And now here we stand, asking ourselves that question.

Do I have what it takes?

I can only imagine the first disciples were haunted by the same questions.

They were not highly educated men, they were not wealthy or from important families.  They were laborers.  Fishermen.  They worked each day in the most deadly profession of all time.  And the livelihood of their family, the next meal they ate depended on these men and their ability to catch fish.

Maybe they weren’t given the tools as children to deal with those voices.  Maybe their fathers were absent.  And maybe Christ knew all of this when in Matthew 16, he asked them

Who do you say I am?

It’s funny, to think that in the midst of such a huge need Christ would chose not to ask about who they thought they were but instead asked who they thought HE was.

When Jesus arrived in the villages of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “What are people saying about who the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some think he is John the Baptizer, some say Elijah, some Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”

But that was not enough.  They didn’t answer the question.

He pressed them, “And how about you? Who do you say I am?”

Simon got it right.  He listened to that still, small voice when it whispered that the man standing before them was not just wise, but was the Christ.

Simon Peter said, “You’re the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

And in that instant, when he answered honestly and declared that Jesus was the Christ, Christ answered the most important question Simon would never ask out loud.

Who am I?  What am I made of?  Do I have what it takes?

 Jesus came back, “God bless you, Simon, son of Jonah! You didn’t get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am. And now I’m going to tell you who you are, really are. You are Peter, a rock.

 

You are Peter.  A Rock.50338-Everything-Changed

The answer to the question everyone asks in the silence of their own thoughts, Christ proclaimed in the presence of Simon’s friends.  From that day forward, everything changed for Simon, including his name.

Simon Peter realized who Jesus was, and in declaring that truth, Jesus revealed to Peter who he really was.

You are mine.  You belong to me and have always belonged to me.  There is nothing you can do to change that because I have chosen and created you.  

You are not alone.  You are now a part of me.  

You have what it takes.  

Future of Forestry – Slow Your Breath Down