There may be sounds that remind you of what went wrong for you.
Sounds of what you have lost. Sounds of your failure. Sounds of your missed opportunities. Sounds of your own impetuousness.
But I want to tell you there is a sound of heaven which is far more important than the sound of the earth.
“Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said. But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.” He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!” After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.” Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.” (Matthew 26 v 69-75)
I wonder in the years to come what the sound of the rooster would mean to Peter?
Matthew writes Peter goes outside and weeps bitterly. John just ignores him. We know nothing of what happens to Peter until after the Resurrection. The man who wanted to be involved in everything and the first to volunteer for anything is not part of the most important part of the story of Jesus.
Do you remember when you failed miserably and it took you out of the action for a while?
It seemed that God removed you from the place you were in and looking back you know it came as a result of your failure.
The sound of denial can haunt a person for the rest of their life.
But we of course know there is another reminder.
The sound of my new beginning
The rooster crowed and a new day began.
Our lives don’t change on our success but on the trauma of failure, brokenness and repentance.
There is a brokenness that leads to death as Judas experienced. But there is a brokenness that leads to life.
From that moment Peter was moving into a new day. It was recognition that he needed saving. A few days later Jesus would meet him and restore him fully and appoint him a leader.
But he would forever remember the moment (whenever he heard the morning sound) the turning point of his life when he became a broken man that led to new life.
Missions Paul 