“Those who have fallen may remember the fall,
even when they forget the height…There is such a thing as the momentary power
to remember that we forget. And the most ignorant of humanity know by the very
look of earth that they have forgotten heaven.” G. K. Chesterton - The Everlasting Man.
One afternoon, I was set up on a
busy street with a radar gun watching for speeders. It did not take long to catch a
guy driving much faster than the speed limit and I pulled him over in a gas
station parking lot. A contact like this always starts the same way, “Good
afternoon. My name is Officer Aspland with the Santa Barbara Police Department.
I stopped you for speeding. Is there any lawful reason why you were exceeding
the speed limit today?”
The guy was quick to admit he was
speeding. I suppose part of his motivation was that a cloud of smoke smelling
very much like marijuana was wafting out of the cab of his truck. I told him, “I need to see your driver’s
license, registration, proof of insurance and the rest of the marijuana you
haven’t smoked.” He looked surprised. I figured he did not think I would notice
the smoke and the odor if he admitted to speeding. He popped open
the center console of the truck and gave me a baggie of pot.
I had him step back to my car and
my partner stood by with the guy while I searched the truck. He left the keys
on the truck bench and I noticed a very small Tupperware bowl hanging off his key
ring. Inside the little storage container was a rock of cocaine. My speeding ticket turned into a felony arrest
for possession of coke.
The following year on the Fourth of July, I worked foot patrol at Shoreline Park just north of the Santa Barbara harbor. It was in the parking lot that
this guy walked up to me and told me his arrest was the wake up call he
needed. He told me that he was so strung out on cocaine that he forgot that he stashed his dope
in a key ring, Tupperware charm. He was now sober, reunited with his family and
salvaged his marriage. He walked me over to his picnic area, introduced me to
his wife and insisted that I share in his barbeque. Rock bottom was in this situation was a key ring charm.
For the Apostle Peter, rock bottom happened when he denied he was a follower Jesus during the crucifixion.
Peter’s denial came on the heels of his proclamation that he would never abandon the Lord. To make things worse, Jesus told Peter that he would deny him three
times before the night ended. “Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows,
you will disown me three times!” John 13:38
Matthew 26: 69-75 tells the rest
of the story, “Now Peter was sitting out in the
courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. ‘You also were with Jesus of
Galilee,’ she said. But he denied it before them all. ‘I don’t know what you’re
talking about,’ he said. Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant
girl saw him and said to the people there, ‘This fellow was with Jesus of
Nazareth.’ He denied it again, with an oath: ‘I don’t know the man!’ After a
little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, ‘Surely you are
one of them; your accent gives you away.’ Then he began to call down curses,
and he swore to them, ‘I don’t know the man!’ Immediately a rooster
crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: ‘Before the rooster
crows, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly.”
After Jesus died, Peter
went back to his job as a fisherman. What else was he going to do? He spent three
years of his life serving Jesus and then denied knowing the man Peter believed
was God. A few days following the resurrection, Peter went out all night fishing
and caught nothing. He was bringing the boat into harbor when a man standing on the
shoreline called to him and told him to cast his nets over the side of the boat
for one more try. Peter did as he was told, he had an empty boat with nothing
to lose. The net was so full that he could not haul all the fish in. Peter
realized that the man on the shore was the resurrected Jesus. He jumped over
board and swam in from his boat. He walked onto the beach and found Jesus had prepared
... a barbeque! After breakfast, Jesus called Peter to begin his ministry to build
the church. Rock bottom for Peter
was the foundation for changing the world.
“Blessed are you, Simon son of
Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in
heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Matthew 16: 17-18
Rock bottom is
different for everyone. The question is what will you do when you get there?
“For it is by
grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it
is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
