Over on the facebook presentation of last Friday’s post, Rich Dixon asked, “Do you think Peter ever completely internalized this truth? I ask because no matter how much I ‘know’ it, write about it, tell it to others, and claim it for myself, I’m still trying at some deep level to make amends. I suspect I’m not alone in that.”

It’s wonderful question. There are at least three kinds of answers.

One is to explore Peter’s biography. We get several glimpses of Peter after that conversation with Jesus. In Acts, we see his earliest works of living it out. Then in Galatians, we get a glimpse. And First and Second Peter reflect his more mature thought (though there are some arguments that these letters were written in the name of Peter)

A second is to explore some questions around mastery and growing and arriving and perfection. To contrast being a perfect follower of Jesus and being a maturing follower.

We sometimes ask, “Did Peter ever finally put into practice being the person Jesus saw him to be? Did He ever get it?” My first thought is that living a life of following Jesus is never a matter of arriving at perfection. We will always forget. But are we more and more becoming people who habitually love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, with all our strength? So it’s less a matter of having got it and more a matter of getting it.

The third kind of answer is to say, “Here are a couple ways of exploring that. Someone work on those and let us know what you discover through study and conversation with God and others.”

Today, my answer it the third one. I’d love to have someone explore Rich’s question through Peter’s biography or through got vs getting.

Or maybe even another way.

Thanks.