When I was in elementary school a teacher once reminded our class that just because we got good grades in religion didn’t mean we were good Christians.  To become good Christians we had to act as if we believed the words we knew so well.  The apostle that appeals the most to me is Peter. He always seemed to get the answers to Jesus’ questions correct.  Yet the living out of those answers proved much more challenging.  I wonder sometimes whether Jesus was speaking to the Israelites or directly to Peter when He said, “Not everyone who calls me Lord Lord will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father”.  Peter certainly had a mind of his own.  At the transfiguration Jesus wanted to show him that although the road to his suffering and death would be difficult there would be moments that God’s glory would shine through.  All Peter seemed to hear was the glory ingredient because he wanted to stay on the mountain forever.  When Jesus came walking toward the disciples on the water Peter wanted Jesus to prove it by having Peter do likewise.  So he walked on the water until he took his eyes off of Jesus.  When Jesus asked the apostles “Who do you say I am?” Peter said “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God”.   Three versus later Matthew Peter responds to Jesus realization that he must suffer and die by saying “this must never happen”.  Jesus then tells the man upon whom he will build his church to “get behind me Satan”. Later on Peter confronts Jesus and says “Look we have left everything and followed you. What will we have?’  At the last Supper he refused to have his feet washed.  Jesus had named him as the “rock” of the church.  Yet Peter didn’t seem to grasp that in Jesus’ kingdom the greatest are the least and must serve the others. When Jesus predicts Peter’s denial, Peter responded by saying “I will never say that, even if I have to die with you.”  Later that evening in a sin equally as grave as that of Judas; Peter denied Jesus.  He had gotten all the answers correct yet he had failed the test. Peter appeals to me because his journey is my journey.  I experience the moments when God’s glory shines forth, yet I want them to last forever or at least occur more frequently.  There have been occasions when my accomplishments made me feel like I was walking on water and as quickly as I was filled with pride at my accomplishment I sank.  I have prayed and labored for God while asking what’s in it for me?  I have tried to emulate the servant Jesus, but I do enjoy the perks that come with being called “Father” and it seems that every time I say that I would never deny Jesus I do it more than ever.  What Peter and I have most in common is our inability to follow Jesus with our lives.  Yet the story does not end there.  At the moment of his greatest despair after saying “I know not the man” Peter remembered that Jesus had come to give hope to the hopeless.  Despite his sin Peter sought forgiveness.  Unlike Judas, he didn’t give up.  He had learned Jesus’ greatest lesson: No one is hopeless! He then truly believed the words he had spoken to Jesus before, “to whom shall we go, and you have the words of everlasting life?’  Not only did he speak them again, he lived his life like he believed them.  In the Acts of the Apostles Peter speaks with authority.  His words have meaning not because he is a highly qualified defender of the faith but because he speaks from his heart.