We Are All Like Peter

Today I attended a production of Rob Gardner’s Lamb of God that has become a beloved part of Easter for my family.  As I listened to the phenomenal performance by the singer who played Peter I was struck with the thought that we are really all like Peter.  The oratorio displayed how Peter pledged faithfulness to the Savior and then, as we traditionally understand it, in a moment of weakness denied his acquaintance with Jesus.  The man who played Peter literally wept as the stirring music portrayed the apostle’s agony at his own failure to be true.  As I took it all in I thought of how as disciples of Christ we are all like Peter: we verbally commit to being the very best for the Savior, but then in moments of weakness we fall short and ultimately prove to be “unprofitable servants” (Mosiah 2:21). 

                President Hinckley commented on the experience of Peter in a similar vein: “As I have read this account my heart goes out to Peter.  So many of us are so much like him. We pledge our loyalty; we affirm our determination to be of good courage; we declare, sometimes even publicly, that come what may we will do the right thing, that we will stand for the right cause, that we will be true to ourselves and to others.  Then the pressures begin to build. Sometimes these are social pressures. Sometimes they are personal appetites.  Sometimes they are false ambitions.  There is a weakening of the will. There is a softening of discipline.  There is capitulation. And then there is remorse, self-accusation, and bitter tears of regret” (see here).  President Hinckley seems to have been talking about those who make serious and even life altering mistakes after pledging their allegiance to the Lord.  But I think his words and the experience of Peter apply just as much to the little daily failings in our lives in which we prove less valiant in deed than in word.  We express love to our families and then treat them poorly; we testify of the power of the scriptures and then fail to even open them; we teach a lesson on virtuous living and then participate in inappropriate media; we express devotion to Christ and then treat our fellow men with very un-Christlike behavior.  Of course the list of how the small actions in our lives go against the principles of the gospel could go on almost indefinitely.  We all have these little moments of “denial” in which our actions go against our profession of faith.  As Elder Bednar put it, “What we know is not always reflected in what we do” (see here).   

                And so, like Peter, we all depend upon the Savior to help us truly “become converted” and live as the Savior would have us live.  Each day we fall short, but we praise God that through the atonement and grace of Christ He can make our weaknesses “become strong” (Ether 12:27).  As Peter himself invited the Saints, we must “humble [ourselves] therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt [us] in due time” (1 Peter 5:6).