Did you see the movie, “Liar Liar”? You should. Jim Carrey, who’s about the funniest guy alive, in my opinion, is a lawyer who just can’t tell the truth about anything. He makes a vow to not tell a lie for a certain amount of time. At one point he goes into the bathroom in the courthouse and starts beating himself up. Someone comes into the bathroom and asks him what he’s doing, to which he replies, “I’m whipping my a#$!” It’s really pretty funny!

The world is a tough place; people can be cruel. It’s easy to find yourself on the receiving end of people’s bad intentions. Nothing pleasant about that at all. But in my 60 + years of experience, I’ve seen as much, or more, ‘self-inflicted’ pain, discomfort and mental anguish as the other kind. I really don’t think the Father likes us to do that!

Most everyone I know has made monumental mistakes in their lives. I’m pretty sure that most of us have regrets; things we shouldn’t have done; things we should have done differently; maybe even things we should have done but didn’t. It’s just kind of how life goes. We could keep our focus on those things and let them rule our lives today….or we could learn from them and move on. 

Peter is a great example. He failed Jesus at a time when the Lord needed him the most. He denied Jesus three times in the dark hours before the cross, once to a little 12-year-old girl. In the greatest test of his life, he folded like a cheap lawn chair. But something happened to Peter after Jesus was resurrected. You know the story; Jesus took him aside and asked Peter if he loved Him three times. His encounter with Jesus, somehow, healed him from his epic failure. And the rest of the story: Peter was the most important man on the planet, as it relates to the plan of God, for the next 25 years or so.

If the Father doesn’t hold those things against us….maybe we shouldn’t either! One thing I know….our failures dim in comparison to Peter’s. We really should quit whipping’ our own a#$ and move on with our destiny!