Feed My Sheep

Failure has a way of making us feel disqualified from Kingdom Laborership.

Years ago, while living in Kenya, I was in a serious driving accident. The man I hit was badly injured, and the situation that followed was complicated, painful, and full of things I could not fix. I came to Kenya to love and help people. In one moment, I felt completely disqualified from that calling.

The hardest part of that whole season was not the accident itself. It was getting back behind the wheel and stepping deeper into the ministry God had called me to. I wanted to make myself smaller and choose something safer to do with my life. The fear of failing again almost won.

I think about that season when I read John 21. Peter had just denied Jesus three times, at the very moment it mattered most. Now Jesus is alive, standing on a beach, cooking breakfast over a charcoal fire. He could have reminded Peter of the denial, or been distant. Instead, He asks Peter three times if he loves Him, gently undoing each denial with a question. Each time, He follows the question with a calling: “Feed My lambs.” “Take care of My sheep.” “Feed My sheep.” Jesus not only forgives Peter; He restores his calling exactly in the place where his failure was loudest.

This is who Jesus is. He calls us back into the very thing we thought we had disqualified ourselves from. The accident, the broken relationship, the moment we are most ashamed of, the season we are not sure we will recover from: Jesus walks straight into those places and gently asks us, “Do you love Me?” And when we say yes, He reminds us who we are and what He is calling us to.

We don’t have to be flawless to keep going; we just have to keep listening for His voice, even in the places where shame, guilt, and fear are loudest. That same Jesus who met Peter on the beach walks with you now. He is not finished with your story. He is still calling you forward, and He still calls you friend.