When I was a young lad growing up in England I had many dreams about what I wanted to be when I grew up.  First I wanted to be an astronaut, after all, the Apollo missions were in full swing, Neil Armstrong had walked on the moon, and Star Wars was a huge hit in the cinemas, all of which had set my imagination on fire.  However, realising that wasn’t going to be possible I set my sights on joining the Royal Air Force and maybe being a pilot, but my dad wouldn’t let me!  Never-the-less, it’s good to dream, isn’t it?  After all, as the saying goes ‘you’ve got to be in it to win it’, because we will never achieve unless get involved.

But of course there’s another side to all this, as well as wanting to achieve something great we must also be prepared to make a few mistakes along the way, or even fail from time to time, and not be discouraged in the process.  Perhaps it’s that fear of failure which prevents us from making the effort to at least try and make our dreams become reality.  This is true of a lot  of things, not least in our willingness to serve God, to allow our skills to be used in his service.

The Apostle Peter is a real example to us all, he made mistakes, he had failure in his life, yet he was prepared to have a go, and because of that Jesus called him ‘the rock’, the one whose faith became the foundation upon which he chose to build his church.  In Matthew’s gospel Peter’s faith is seen in dramatic fashion as he jumps out of the boat to meet Jesus walking on the water.  And guess what, he succeeds,well for a bit anyway for a time, but Peter soon loses focus and, taking his eyes of Jesus, starts to sink.  You have to give Peter credit though because at least he had a go.  How many of us would be prepared to do the same?