Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on (for he was stripped for work), and threw himself into the sea.

—John 21:7

Yesterday, my pastor preached from John 21. His focus was on failure. He talked about Peter’s reaction to seeing Jesus even though he was still struggling after his triple failure while Jesus was being crucified. Today we’re going to look at the same passage, but with a slightly different lens. 

This chapter follows Peter and some of the disciples after the first two appearances of Jesus. Little is recorded in John about the first two appearances, and Peter isn’t mentioned at all in either account, which seems a little out of character for him. He was the loud one, the one who always had an opinion, so the silence doesn’t seem to fit.

This time Peter tells the disciples with him that he’s going fishing, and they choose to come with him. After a full night without even a nibble, the disciples are on their way back in when a man on the shore asks them if they have any fish. When they say no, He tells them to throw their nets to the other side, and immediately, their nets are full to bursting. John finally recognizes the man as Jesus, and in response, Peter puts his shirt back on and dives over the side, heading straight for Jesus.

While the pastor was preaching, I kept thinking about the faithfulness of God, how constant He is even in the face of our most horrible failures, and there was one thought I couldn’t get rid of––there would be no need for faithfulness if there wasn’t failure.

There are two implications that follow from this idea. The first looks at God’s faithfulness. Just like we wouldn’t have to worry about our spouse’s faithfulness if we were the only two people on the planet, we wouldn’t need to worry about whether or not God would be faithful to us if we’d never messed up. It would be a trait of His that we’d never have the opportunity to experience without us failing to live up to His standard.

I can see how someone might look at that last paragraph and think I’m suggesting that God caused or allowed the fall to happen so He could show of His faithfulness, but that’s not what I’m saying. Over and over again in Scripture, we see the pattern of our Heavenly Father stepping into the mess we’ve made and bringing redemption and beauty with Him. 

That’s what I think we’re seeing here—a wonderful and gracious gift God’s given us in the midst of our failure to demonstrate His love for us.

The second implication looks at what faithfulness looks like in us. As a teacher, I live in a state of being chronically fixed in a growth mindset. This means that at something pretty close to a soul level, I believe that anyone can get better at just about anything. 

This mindset also affects how I see failure. Through how I discuss grades in my classes, I always try to communicate to my students that failure is only failure if it’s final. If a student fails an assignment and gives up, it’s final—it’s a true failure. However, if a student fails an assignment and chooses to try again on the next assignment, they’ve exercised their power to turn a failure into a mistake. It’s not final, so it’s not a true failure.

If we take that view of failure—that it’s only failure if it’s final—we can start to see where faithfulness comes in for us. When we talk about being faithful to God and what He’s called us to do in our lives, we’re not talking about the same kind of perfect faithfulness that God displays by never wavering. We’re talking about never letting our failures be final.

There have been so many times over the six years since God called me to write that I stumbled and dropped the ball. There have been times when I pretended I didn’t sense God’s leading, sometimes for months or years at a time. There have been times when I completely misunderstood God’s leading. There have been times when I wanted to give up (and almost did) on what God was leading me to do. And there have been times when I straight up told God no. 

I have failed, but I haven’t given up. And as I’ve been faithful to get back up and repent of my mistakes and rebellions, God has been faithful, never leaving me and continuing to lead me.

That’s exactly what happened with Peter. He messed up big time, but when Jesus showed up, he didn’t hesitate to run…or swim to Him. And when Jesus gave him a new step to take, he didn’t shrink from it but was obedient.

If you’re in a place where you feel like you’ve messed up too badly, like you’ve failed God and you’ve gone too far to ever be used by Him again, take a cue from Peter. When he got to Jesus, he wasn’t scolded or punished. He was fed, loved, and healed of the pain of his sin. So get back up, and run to Jesus. He is faithful.