The pastor of a congregation preached an unusually short sermon one Sunday. As he came to the conclusion, he offered this explanation for the brevity of it all. “We have a new dog at our house," explained the pastor. “The dog is prone to get into things and chew them up. Last night the dog got hold of my sermon and chewed up the last several pages." The congregation seemed to understand the plight of the pastor. In fact, one visitor to the church shook the preacher's hand after service and said, “If that dog of yours ever has pups, let me know. I'd like to buy one for my pastor."

When Peter came to the conclusion of his little letter to the churches in Asia Minor he was brief and to the point. Like any good writer he summarizes his main points on how to handle suffering and says goodbye i…