{"id":1566,"date":"2022-04-15T08:31:32","date_gmt":"2022-04-15T12:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1566"},"modified":"2022-04-15T08:31:32","modified_gmt":"2022-04-15T12:31:32","slug":"you-will-get-through-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/15\/you-will-get-through-this\/","title":{"rendered":"You Will Get Through This"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For the four weeks leading up to and going beyond Easter, we’re looking at the life of Peter.\u00a0 Because he\u2019s so often at the center of both the brightest and darkest moments in the Gospels, he has always been a source of hope and inspiration for those endeavoring to follow Jesus.<\/em>


On New Year\u2019s Day 1929, Roy Riegels made one of the most famous plays in college football history.
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Famous for all the wrong reasons.\u00a0
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It was the Rose Bowl.\u00a0 Georgia Tech squared off against the University of California at Berkeley.\u00a0 Riegels, Cal\u2019s All-American middle linebacker (then known as a \u201croving center\u201d), picked up a second quarter GT fumble and took off.\u00a0 Unfortunately, he took off in the wrong direction.\u00a0 Cal\u2019s coach Nibs Price unhesitatingly described Riegels as the smartest player he ever coached.\u00a0 But in the chaos of the action on the field, Roy lost his bearings.\u00a0 Instead of heading toward Tech’s end zone he barreled down the field toward his own.
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He might have made it unless his speedy teammate Beany Lom \u2013 you can see him closing in on Riegels in the photo above \u2013 caught him at the three-yard-line.\u00a0 Before Riegels could make progress back up the field, he was buried by Georgia Tech tacklers.
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Moments later Cal attempted to punt the ball from deep in their own territory.\u00a0 But the punt was blocked and bounced out of the end zone.\u00a0 Tech 2, Cal 0.\u00a0 That was the score at halftime.
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In the locker room, Riegels put a blanket around his shoulders and buried his face in his hands.\u00a0 Coach Price didn\u2019t have much of a halftime speech for his players.\u00a0 When the timekeeper arrived to say that the game would resume in three minutes, Price announced there would be no changes in who would take the field on defense.
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Riegels sat motionless as his teammates filed out.\u00a0 \u201cRoy, didn\u2019t you hear me?\u201d Price asked.\u00a0 \u201cThe same team that played the first half will start the second.\u201d\u00a0 Riegels looked up and said, \u201cCoach, I can\u2019t do it.\u00a0 I\u2019ve ruined you, I\u2019ve ruined myself, I\u2019ve ruined the University of California.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t face that crowd to save my life.\u201d
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Coach Price memorably responded:\u00a0 \u201cRoy, get up and go back out there \u2013 the game is only half over.\u201d
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Riegels played inspired football during the next two quarters, even blocking a Georgia Tech punt.\u00a0 Cal nevertheless went on to lose the game 8-7.\u00a0 It was impossible not to note that the safety that resulted from his mistake accounted for the final point differential.\u00a0
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Roy promptly became \u201cWrong Way\u201d Riegels.\u00a0 For years he flinched whenever he heard those two words, no matter what the context.\u00a0 Were people laughing at him?
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Ultimately he decided to laugh at himself.\u00a0 He parodied his errant run in Depression-era vaudeville acts.\u00a0 He accepted a membership card into the Georgia Tech Letterman\u2019s Club 42 years after the game, noting, \u201cBelieve me, I feel I\u2019ve earned this.\u201d\u00a0 Roy also made a habit of writing notes of encouragement to others who had committed seemingly life-altering mistakes.\u00a0 You will<\/u> get through this, <\/em>he assured them.
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Simon Peter, son of John, could have used one of those notes.\u00a0 He was also at the center of a famous story \u2013 famous for all the wrong reasons.
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Peter denied his Master.\u00a0 While sitting by the fire in the courtyard of the high priest, waiting to hear what was going to happen to Jesus, he spluttered three different times that he didn\u2019t even know who Jesus was.
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He had faltered on previous occasions.\u00a0 He had opened his big mouth when he should have stayed quiet, had tried to talk Jesus out of following the path of redemptive suffering (and been called \u201cSatan\u201d as a result), had flailed with his sword at the moment of Jesus\u2019 arrest, and had even fallen asleep earlier that same evening when he was on Prayer Watch.\u00a0
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But this was different.\u00a0 This was so much worse \u2013 quantum levels worse than any of his previous screwups.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
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That\u2019s because he had promised, in front of all the others, that he wouldn\u2019t let Jesus down.\u00a0 \u201cLord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m your guy.\u00a0 I\u2019m the Rock<\/em>.\u00a0 But Jesus wasn\u2019t fazed.\u00a0 \u201cI tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me\u201d (Luke 22:33-34).\u00a0
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His telltale courage was clearly on display when he showed up at the high priest\u2019s courtyard.\u00a0 Where were the other disciples?\u00a0 Hiding, presumably. \u00a0\u201cJustice\u201d in Roman times meant that if you were a known associate of a convicted criminal, you just might end up in prison or on a cross yourself.\u00a0
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But when the moment came for Peter to acknowledge his relationship with Jesus, he folded.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t because of the intimidating presence of a drawn sword or a threatening magistrate.\u00a0 He was undone by the curiosity of a servant girl.\u00a0 \u201cYou were with him, right?\u201d\u00a0 He denied it.\u00a0 With curses.\u00a0 Three times.\u00a0
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Then he caught a glimpse of Jesus, who at that moment was being escorted by the courtyard.\u00a0 Stricken, he fled the scene.\u00a0 Then he cried and cried and cried.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
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As we noted at the beginning of our series, Peter\u2019s name is mentioned 120 times in Scripture \u2013 far more than any of the other disciples.\u00a0 There are many Peter stories.\u00a0 But only one of those stories is reported in all four Gospels \u2013 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.\u00a0 It\u2019s this one.
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We can only conclude that this became The<\/u><\/em> Peter Story because Peter himself wanted it to be that way.
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And because, in the end, he knew that he was not defined by the worst moment of his life.\u00a0
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He was defined instead by the fact that Jesus forgave him and restored him even after an unimaginable failure.\u00a0
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On this Good Friday, you may be in the same place.\u00a0 You wonder if you can survive that wrong-headed decision.\u00a0 Or the foolish thing you said during the heat of emotion.\u00a0 Or the aching memories of the relationship that you destroyed because of an act of betrayal.\u00a0 Or your overwhelming sense that all hope is gone.
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But you will<\/u><\/em> survive.\u00a0 You can<\/u><\/em> get through this.\u00a0
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What are the grounds for such confidence?\u00a0 God isn\u2019t finished with you yet.\u00a0
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Besides, it\u2019s only halftime.\u00a0
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Get back into the game<\/em>.\u00a0

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For the four weeks leading up to and going beyond Easter, we’re looking at the life of Peter.\u00a0 Because he\u2019s so often at the center of both the brightest and darkest moments in the Gospels, he has always been a source of hope and inspiration for those endeavoring to follow Jesus. On New Year\u2019s Day 1929, Roy Riegels made one… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[39,76,421],"class_list":["post-1566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-failure","tag-forgiveness","tag-peter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1568,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566\/revisions\/1568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}