The Other Peter Principle

Simon wasn’t very good at his job. For most folks, fishing is a hobby a good time on the lake even if you get skunked. Not so for the professional fisherman. A day without a catch means no product to sell, no money collected, and nothing to bring home to the wife and kids. Those days seemed to happen a lot to Simon.

Maybe I’m wrong but all I can go by is the history we have on him and every time we have it recorded, he caught nothing, at least on his own. You would have to be hard headed to keep at it with all that failure. No wonder he got the nickname of rock.

So perhaps, that’s why when he got the chance at a new career he jumped at it. Well, not so much a new career but a different form of the old one. He would still be fishing just going after a different kind of fish. This time he would have a boss, one that had shown him, even in his old job, a better way to do things. And that made all the difference.

Simon didn’t always do everything quite right, he stuck his foot in his mouth on more than one occasion and got a scolding from the boss from time to time. Once during a tense meeting with a former employee set on bringing legal action against his Boss, Simon acted out and got violent. Fortunately, The Boss was able to fix everything. Despite all this Simon would become the spokesman for the group, and when the Boss moved on to better things he gave Simon the responsibility to keep things going.

It wasn’t because Simon was the brightest or most beloved, but maybe it was because he was the most stubborn. His foolish hard headiness had in his training had gone from a liability to an asset. Now when it seemed when things were going nowhere, when obstacles and barriers were set in his way, Simon just kept on doing what he knew he was supposed to be doing. You couldn’t get him to stop doing his job no matter what you tried. You could beat him, throw him into jail, kill his friends, and run everyone else out of town but Simon was still going to keep fishing.

That fisherman Simon wasn’t just given a new job by his Boss, He also was given a new name Peter, which meant rock. It wasn’t just nickname, it what made him finally become a great fisherman, a fisher of men. A man that thru success and failure, mistakes and setbacks never quit going back for one more catch.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

1^st Corinthians 15:58

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