For many years, Peter was one of my closet friends. We challenged each other spiritually, many times over lunch. He was a year or two older than me but we shared many of the same things growing up. We were both heavily influenced by the Jesus Revolution in the early 1970’s and grew up in 1950’s America. It was always fun to discuss those days and to see the similarities since we grew up in different states. He was raised in Florida and I was raised in northern Illinois. The same Spirit influenced our lives yet we were miles apart! We were kindred spirits. Peter passed away a couple of years ago and I miss him dearly.
What was different about Peter was that as a child he contracted polio. He spent time in an “iron lung”. All the years that I knew him, he was in a lot of pain with severe back and spine issues. When I first met him he used crutches and as time went by he had to start using a wheel chair. He was still able to drive so he would pick me up for lunch and when we got to the restaurant, I would get the wheel chair out of the trunk and help him get in to it. We both cherished those lunches.
Peter told me that as a child, he always “knew God”. He did not blame God for his condition, he was “content with his weakness”. He had a wonderful ministry of helps and encouragement to others. I can still see him sitting there at the back of the church in his blue wind breaker, with people coming to him for advice and encouragement. I myself sat with him back there for some of that encouragement. It was the Apostle Paul who wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:10 “I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong”. That was Peter! A living example of being content with the hand that God had dealt him. Peter was at peace with it and was used of God in many ways. He was not mad at God, he was content.
He was always glad when people wanted to pray for him to be healed, but he told me that in his heart he always knew that God had him that way for a reason. That is a hard thing for many to understand, especially in some churches where there is so much emphasis on healing and deliverance. Peter had a deeper wisdom and understanding. He understood why, when the Apostle Paul prayed and asked for healing, that the Lord denied him of that healing three times. 2 Corinthians 12:8 “Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness, most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me”. I have never met anyone who understood this more than Peter. Peter’s depth in the Lord was formed by his suffering; many people do not understand that.
Even Jesus Himself in Hebrews 5:8 “learned obedience thru the things that He suffered” and in Hebrews 2:10 “In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting for God, for whom and through whom all things exist, to make the author (Jesus) of their salvation perfect through suffering’. Hebrews 11:34 talks about those who “out of weakness were made strong”.
That was Peter, out of weakness he was made strong! And he shared his strength with many.
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