Slow Learner
Sometimes I am so encouraged by the disciple Peter. He was there for everything: the miracles, the messages, the baptisms.
However, Peter was very human. He was argumentative. He made a lot of mistakes. Even so, Christ gave him the task of leading His Church. Peter’s story gives me hope that if Christ can use someone like Peter, he can use someone like me, and someone like you.
Peter was with the Lord in Samaria when Jesus said “Open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest.” He was there when the Lord commanded to “Go and make disciples of all nations” and “Be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
But he was a slow learner, perhaps from cultural and ethnic prejudice. It took a peculiar vision and the Holy Spirit’s specific directions to convince Peter to associate with a Gentile, the Roman centurion Cornelius, and preach the Gospel to him and his household. Sometimes it takes a while for a message to sink in.
Sometimes it takes us a while to see our own prejudice and blind spots. What matters is what we do next: how we confess our sins and change our actions.
The process can be painful, but we need to be honest about what words of Christ we may have overlooked because of our prejudice. Then we can confess, change, and work to bring about God’s beautiful kingdom here on earth.
“Sometimes it takes us a while to see our own prejudice and blind spots. What matters is what we do next: how we confess our sins and change our actions.”
Acts 10:34
“So Peter opened his mouth and said: ‘Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.’”