Lent 2021 Day 40 – Choices and Nexus Points

Lent is over today. The commitment is complete. I will try to continue to write, but I will make no promises, since I do not want to break them. I do not know how often posts will appear, but the one promise I will make is that they will appear.

It has been a long road. It sort of reminds me of the commitment to doing a Knowing God study. That takes 27 weeks of classes and longer in time since we usually take two or three breaks. I say sort of because this was a lot easier than Knowing God. But it had its challenges as well. The hardest was coming up with something to write about at the end of a long day. When I say something to write about, I mean something within the framework of Lent and Christianity. I must admit, sometimes God chose the topic, since what I thought when I started typing had nothing to do with where I went, once I got going. I don’t know where this is going.

There has been a recurring theme throughout this effort though. It has revolved around choices and their effects. I have always believed that life is filled with nexus points. For me these are defining choices that change our direction in a way that matters to what comes after.

Let me give you an example. Peter faced a nexus point at the trial of Jesus. He had always thought of himself as strong and reliable, but at that moment of choice, he chose wrong. I believe it was one of the most important decisions of his life. What the Devil hoped to use for evil, to destroy Peter like he does Judas, God meant for good as one of the most important lessons Peter would ever learn. When the cock crowed after Peter’s three denials, each successive one more violent than the one before, he learned the depth of his weakness. In a sense, God vaccinated him against this failure in the future. God does that; takes our failures and turns them into the means for future successes.

Peter died a martyr’s death because he never denied Jesus ever again. In closing this Lenten observance, I want to encourage you to look for God’s lesson in your failures; to examine how God has turned what the Devil means as a nail in our casket into a builder’s nail to build something strong in our life going forward. Do not waste your failures. Use them to advance your discipleship efforts as you pick up your cross and follow Jesus down the Via Dolorosa.

May God bless you and keep, may his face always shine upon you. Amen.

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