As I was teaching from Galatians 2 and got to the part where Paul pointed out Peter’s “hypocrisy” in no longer eating with Gentiles once other Jews arrived from Jerusalem, I started wondering what must have gone through Peter’s mind as Paul was addressing him and the others who had been swayed by peer pressure to revert to their old ways.

Fifteen or sixteen years later, after graciously being restored by Christ, after his triple denial of Christ, Paul was pointing out yet another act of hypocrisy. Did Peter want to run and hide? Probably. Did he want to go back to fishing? Probably. Did he want to lash out at Paul as he did to Malchus? Perhaps. But he didn’t. Once again, he picked himself up and allowed the Holy Spirit to restore him and use him. Evidence shows us that Peter didn’t let this failure stop him, just like he didn’t let the previously.

I don’t believe Scripture details Peter’s reaction to Paul, but I wonder if he heard a rooster crow. I wonder if he thought, “Drat, (don’t know what this would be in the Greek) I did it again.”

In chapter 5 of “Wild Goose Chase,” Mark Batterson considers what might have gone through Peter’s mind when he heard a rooster crow. Crowing roosters would have been fairly common in Peter’s time and could have been a pretty consistent reminder of his failure to follow after Christ.

I wonder how many failures there were. Probably more than what is recorded for us in Scripture. Yet God used Peter, a man of many faults, to help lead the early church, to write two major letters to the church (perhaps 10-15 years after this event) and to help mentor young John Mark, who also was familiar with failure. (John Mark went on to write the Gospel of Mark.) Perhaps God used Peter’s familiarity with failure to help a young man who also had failed.

Rick Warren made a great statement during his teaching of the Purpose Driven Small Group studies. He simply said, “God will not waste anything that has happened to you.” I love that!

For Peter and John Mark, it would have been easy to give up and simply believe they would fail once again. (Perhaps we are also tempted to entertain those same thoughts about ourselves.) But God doesn’t see us as failures. That’s why we still have dreams and things that happen to others still make us cry and pound the table wanting to do something that bring about a change.

Perhaps the crowing rooster is not the end of the race. Perhaps the rooster crowing is really the start of another adventure that God wants to take us on.