I Peter 2:6-8

For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,” and “A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

Peter tells us, reminds us, that Jesus is our cornerstone, the sure foundation of our life. And because we have faith in Jesus, we are a very blessed people: chosen, royal, holy, God’s own. And because we are all this, we can, through our words and actions, proclaim to all we encounter the words and actions of Jesus. We can lead others to the same faith we have. We are to lead others to that faith.

For just as Jesus is the cornerstone of our life, so must we be the cornerstone for others in their lives. We must be that sure and certain foundation for them. On the other hand, unfortunately, we can also be, we may also be, a stumbling block, to others as they try to live out their faith.

Not all stumbling blocks are bad, however. Sometimes in our own lives we have to stumble and fall just so that we get the message. We can so easily go merrily along in our lives, never really thinking about how our words and actions affect others or affect us. Then something happens that forces us to stop and take a good look at the way we are living our lives. We, in effect, stumble over some something that finally gets our attention and forces us to consider or reconsider what we are doing.

When that happens, we can either ignore the wake up call or wake up. The choice is ours. We are where we are in our lives of faith today because we have stumbled at least once or twice over Jesus’ words or the words of our teachers. Just as others have been that spiritual alarm clock for us, so we are to be that wake up call for others. By our words and our actions we force others to stumble and take notice, to examine their lives. Once they do, the choice is likewise theirs, as it was once ours, as to what they are going to do now that the message had been delivered.

My suspicion is that we live our lives being both stumbling blocks to others and stumbling over those rocks and blocks that others, either deliberately or accidentally, lay across our paths. We are reminders to others of and are reminded by others about what it means to live a life of faith in Jesus. Growth, unfortunately, is not a straight-line process. It has its ups and downs. We fall down to rise up to fall down again. The hope is that the falls become fewer and the bruises less painful. That is the hope. Whether it is the reality or not is another matter.

I pray: Lord, I thank you for all those people in my life who continually teach me what it means to be a person of faith. Help me be to others that same source of strength and courage, that living reminder of what it means to follow you. Amen.