Do you have weak moments?

You don't judge the beauty of this array by just one flower!

We all tend to do it, decide a person's character by a few actions instead of keeping the whole picture before our eyes. We do it even with our own lives, think of ourselves as good or bad from a moment of strength or weakness. But our actions are not in and of themselves definitive. We are not stones, whose choices are engraved upon us. We are hunks of clay, forever being molded and shaped.

Take Peter. During Holy Week, we see his weak side, the side that denied Christ in a moment of fear. We think of Peter strong only after Pentecost, when he stood up before the crowd and spoke to the multitude. But that is a mistaken.

Peter was strong right from the beginning. When Jesus called him to get out of the boat and walk on water, Peter did not hesitate to do so. When Jesus said to Peter "Follow me," Peter left all he had and held dear to follow this itinerant preacher. Peter's weaknesses do not cancel out all of these examples of Peter's strengths.

The same goes for us. We need to remember that our weak moments in life do not make us weak people. We need to stop defining ourselves and others by a few actions, and keep the whole picture before us. The truth is that we are a combination of many things.

It is the journey that is important, not the inividual stops along the way. Weak times can be learning times, reminding us where we get our strengths (God), why we should practice compassion, and just how fragile we are as a people.

As we go forward, let us keep the words of Psalm 139:14 in mind: I praise you Lord, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. A divided image negates this psalm. And then we forget just how wonderfully made we really are.