Oh Danny Boy

We all are like Danny. Danny is a rooster. At least “Danny” is the name I gave to the rooster that recently took up residence in my cul-de-sac. I live in a planned neighborhood where houses are built on less than an acre and next door neighbors might as well be in the next room. Farm animals are the last thing one might expect to find in that kind of community. So you can imagine my surprise, when one day last week, I awoke, walked out to my car, and there in my front yard was a rooster.

Danny let me know rather quickly upon our meeting one another that morning that he had no intentions of being a neighbor of the friendly sort. He cocked his head back, ruffled his feathers, and strutted with a swagger that the old John Wayne would have been proud of. I minded my own business and left him to mind his.

None in the neighborhood seemed to know if he might actually belong to someone, so no one knew what to do with him other than just accept him into our cul-de-sac community. For a few days, Danny roamed from yard to yard strutting his stuff, and every morning at sunrise he proudly announced his presence in the neighborhood.

That’s when it dawned on me (pun intended - “dawn” = sunrise). We all are like Danny! There are times when we strut our stuff. We cock our heads back, ruffle our feathers, and swagger. Peter, the disciple, had such a moment.

Near the end of His ministry, Jesus told his disciples that He would soon leave them. His destination was not a place that they would go to immediately. They would have to wait awhile. Jesus was informing them that he would die soon. Upon hearing this announcement, Peter, the old rooster, cocked his head back, ruffled his feathers, and strutted his stuff as he boldly crowed, “I will lay down my life for your sake!” Peter boldly professed his absolute and undeniable loyalty to Jesus. What a rooster kind of move!

Jesus heard Peter’s bold proclamation, but He knew better. Jesus knew that Peter really would have to lay it on the line. Peter would have to choose between loyalty to Jesus and saving his own life. Moreover, Jesus knew the choice the Old Rooster would make. So, Jesus' response to Peter revealed what He knew. Peter’s apparent boldness would soon manifest itself as the unimpressive cockiness it really was. “Before the rooster crows” in the morning, Jesus said, “You will deny me three times.”

Intended boldness is reduced to unimpressive cockiness when at the defining moment cowardice sets in and takes over. Rooster moves become chicken dances. Sure enough, Peter’s defining moment came in the wee hours of that Friday morning while Jesus faced the trial of his life. Jesus was undergoing his trial in the courtroom, while Peter was dealing with his own trial in the courtyard. Three times someone asked Peter if he was a follower of Jesus, and each time the Old Rooster chickened out. His rooster move had become a chicken dance and just in time to hear the barnyard rooster signal the dawning of a new day and the disappointment of an old friend.

The other day, I walked toward Danny, and Danny ran! I was reminded that Danny is as much a chicken as he is a rooster. Peter once was too. You and I are also. There are times when we strut our stuff -- we cock our heads back, ruffle our feathers, and swagger. Then there are times when we dance the chicken dance. Most assuredly, we all are Danny-like.

I haven’t seen Danny in the cul-de-sac lately. I guess he has flown the coup! How can we rid our ‘hood of the Danny-like tendencies within us? How can we move from unimpressive cockiness to genuine boldness and do great things for God? How did Peter make the move?

Here’s how. Peter got re-instated. After His resurrection, Jesus sought out Peter and intentionally asked him three times if Peter loved Him, once for each time that Peter had denied Him. The number three is significant in the Bible because it represents completeness. By stating three times that he was not a follower of Jesus, Peter had completely and totally turned his back on Jesus. By asking Peter three times if he loved Him, Jesus completely and totally re-instated Peter.

Like Peter, we move from unimpressive cockiness to genuine boldness when we receive the grace God offers to re-instate us when we fail. We receive that grace when we confess our chicken dances and submit our lives to the Lord of the dance. His Holy Spirit then emboldens us and empowers us to do and to be what we might have thought impossible. Godly boldness is not something that we can manufacture or fake. Godly boldness that enables us to do great things for God begins with the humble awareness that were it not for God, oh Danny Boy, a cocky coward is all we would be.

The story of Peter as summarized in this blog can be found in The Gospel of John, chapters 13, 18, and 21.