When our son Beau was in high school he, and consequently us, were engulfed in the world of water polo. My wife and I frequently went to tournaments and were witness to some incredible endurance, strength, and competition. It was a wonderful sport that we are thankful Beau gravitated towards, though through that time Nina and I came to label water polo as aquatic Darwinism.

One afternoon we were attending a tournament at a prestigious Southern California school and a man came walking on the pool deck and everyone started excitedly whispering, “That’s Azevedo!” Tony Azevedo is a legend in the water polo community. He was a five time Olympian, Silver medalist, and fourth on the all-time scoring list for the Olympics. But seeing him up close he was decidedly …unremarkable. He looked like he could swim well, but wasn’t overpoweringly large, muscle-bound, or intimidating. Looks are quite often deceiving.

I’m always encouraged when I read the Bible and see how the Spirit was pleased, through human authors, to point out the weaknesses of the heroes. David’s sin with Bathsheba and his execution of her husband so he could cover his own sin is glaringly clear. Abraham would pass on to his son his own proclivity for calling his wife his sister, so men would like him and not try to kill him. In unvarnished pride, the “sons of thunder” asked to sit on Jesus’ right and left hand in glory. The Bible never dabbles in hagiography as so many other works of religion do. This gives us confidence in the text, but it also gives us clarity that these lauded so highly in scripture were, after all, still human.

Peter seems to lead in this area. He would rebuke Jesus, later turn his back on him, and would be called out by Paul because he would start to deny the gospel through his refusal to sit with Gentile believers. But he would also repent, turn back to the truth, and would be a pillar of the early church. Peter knew failure, but he also knew the grace of God in helping him get back up and keep walking on. The Bible says Peter was known for being “common and uneducated” (Acts 4:13). If we were picking men to lead the first wave of Christianity, he would not be on that list. But God seems pleased to use the ordinary and unremarkable.

Three weeks ago, I had the privilege of seeing and being a part of a sending organization’s (Global Serve International) new missionary orientation. Thirty-five new missionaries getting ready to head to the furthest edges of the world, leaving behind everything they know and love to have the chance to present Jesus Christ to a language group that does not know him. Because many of those thirty-five had gone through the Radius training program I was familiar with their backgrounds. A few came from great family homes, many from mediocre homes, some from horrific backgrounds. A few were from wealthy families, many from middle-class families, some from quite poor backgrounds. A few were sports or scholastic stars in high school and college, most were average, some were not so gifted athletically or academically. On the whole, they were quite average.

During the four days I was there, I sat in the back with the pastors and some families of these missionary candidates. Speakers got up and talked through hostage and kidnapping policies, the stress that is coming on the children in the coming days as they land overseas, and the great price that will be extracted from them to see the gospel to the ends of the earth. As I finished my morning devotional the president of the organization got up and asked us all to pray for one of the families in the organization that were working in Southeast Asia. The night before the police had taken the parents into custody, separated them, and they had now been in interrogation for over 12 hours. The gravity of what they may be going through hung heavy in the air. Some tears were shed as we prayed for the husband, wife, and the children, that they would know the comfort of our loving God in those hours. And then the orientation kept going.

At the very end of the week a specialty group of trainers was brought in to give hands-on security training to the orientees at different location. I sat in on day two as I heard that was when the “heavier” lessons were going to happen. Some hours into the classroom teaching the instructors abruptly shifted gears. A handful of couples were chosen, feet and hands were roughly bound, black bags were placed over their heads, and the questioning began. No one panicked, strategies were remembered, instructors pressed as hard as they were allowed, and then the exercise was over, back to the classroom. I wondered if I had witnessed a gentle dry run of something that some of them would later experience in foreign lands, with much higher consequences.

Church history tells us that Peter was martyred just outside of Rome. Some accounts say that his wife was crucified in front of him and then he was crucified upside down, refusing to be killed in the manner of his Savior. The uneducated, common, ordinary Peter ran his race to the end. So many start well, so few die well. May the Lord be pleased to find many Peters among those thirty-five. Ordinary, mistake-prone, repentant, faithful to the end Peters.