do overs

irony to the “mth” degree

Posted on by Grace Day

My last post was all about second chances, actually second, second chances to be specific. My days are filled with them. Some are obvious and others I am oblivious to, not realizing the grace I have been granted. However, I don’t want to take any of my second chances for granted or to be unaware that I have received yet another second chance. Being aware of all the different ways God grants me mercy every day, leads me to thankfulness. If I don’t realize the grace I’ve been granted, I fail to appreciate the magnitude (and the kindness) of God’s protection, provision and patience with me on a daily basis. My Heavenly Father’s patience is what allows me all these second chances. I want to remember to thank Him –

“Let them (me) give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men. Let them (me) sacrifice thank offerings and tell of His works with songs of joy.” (Psalm 107:21-22)

Now some second chances are more dramatic than others. The near miss in traffic or being spared power outages and property damages in last week’s intense storms, as I was, leads me to “give God thanks with a grateful heart” as the song says. Interestingly, I just experienced a very ironic “second chance” shortly after completing the previous post – “second, second chances.” You can’t make this stuff up.

A few hours after publishing the post, I closed a tab from my “mtothe5th” site on another computer and somehow the “second, second chances” post was deleted except for the first paragraph! I couldn’t believe it. One thousand plus words had just vanished! I was panicked. I checked and rechecked, but the post was now just one paragraph long. All that time and effort gone. Gone where? To the cloud? Had technology stolen the very personal sharing of my heart and life experience?

You should know the backstory on this, dear readers. Technology and I are not on the best of terms. We have a love/hate relationship. I can’t decide whether she is a friend or a foe. She has played the role of both in my life. Still, I often feel that technology hates me without reason. I don’t hate her, but I don’t trust her either. Technology is so fickle and unpredictable. Just when I think I’ve got her figured out, she goes and does something like this. She steals what I labored over for so long. My post had literally disappeared from my blog and from cyberspace. I couldn’t retrieve it no matter what keys I hit on the keyboard.

If technology had stashed my post in the cloud, I have no idea where this elusive cloud resides, nor do I have the keys to gain access to all that the cloud hoards within her mysterious vastness. I thought all was lost. Until I found a way to a second chance. It occurred to me that my post had already gone out a few hours prior and that there were those who would have received it via email. Would their emails have disappeared also? I called a friend to find out the answer to this very important question.

Enter my second chance! My friend had received the email and it did contain the full text of my vanished post. However, technology would not let her forward this email to me. I guess technology was not giving up my post without a fight. BUT – my friend was able to print out her email which contained the full text of my post. I gladly went to her home to pick it up! Now I had in my hands the concrete evidence of my day’s labor. I had not labored in vain!

I now had the opportunity to restore my vanished post to the blog. This was definitely a second chance for this post about, of all things, “second chances”. Hence the irony. The post about second chances that was stolen away from me (or I inadvertently hit some wrong key on the computer) was now returned to me, giving the post its second chance to be published. What remained was for me to retype it into the computer, which I gladly did. My “second, second chances” post was itself getting a second chance! The irony of this is not lost on me, probably because it is off the charts inescapable! And while I totally appreciate the humor in this particular second chance scenario, the initial panic I felt when I thought all was lost, is easily recalled.

My Heavenly Father continues to give me forgiveness and second chances, some are just more obvious or in this case, more ironic, than others. But hopefully each second chance gets my attention, causes me to give thanks and compels me to take advantage of the “do over” and do better. I keep thinking eventually I’ll get some of these repeat opportunities, some of these second chances, right. After all –

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are (I am) not consumed, for His compassions (mercies) never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

“new every morning” – that’s the beauty, the hope and the promise of the second chances God gives to me – they are like His manna and His mercy – they are new every morning!

sincerely, Grace Day

second, second chances

Posted on by Grace Day

“Dodged a bullet” – that’s what they say when something bad or harmful or negative could have happened to you BUT – it didn’t. Therefore, you dodged a bullet. It’s a common enough expression, used often, probably because our days are filled with near misses or dodged bullets, even if we are unaware of just how many bullets miss us each day. Maybe ignorance is bliss, but I think not. If I truly recognize how many times I have been rescued, how many times I have been spared from some hurt or harm or danger or disaster – this knowledge should lead me to gratitude every time – gratitude to my Heavenly Father, who watches over me, whose mercies towards me never cease. After all,

“My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip – He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you – the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm – He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” (Psalm 121:2-8)

This has been a week of particularly stormy spring weather here, complete with lightning, thunderstorms, heavy rains, high speed winds and even some tornado touchdowns one evening. We have been under weather advisories multiple evenings and I have found myself driving in some challenging conditions this week. I have definitely dodged a few bullets on the pothole filled roads this week, (post – “pitfalls and potholes”) resulting in multiple second chances for me and for my car.

BUT – in truth, is this me dodging bullets, due to my skill, dexterity, wisdom and wits? OR – is this me receiving God’s freely given, undeserved grace, mercy and protection over my daily life? I think we both know this is the latter and never the former. I am not a skilled bullet dodger in the least. But God is a skilled protector and a merciful giver of second, second chances. And I am the thankful recipient of all those second, second chances that His mercy and His protection give to me. My response? I definitely say with the psalmist –

“Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103:2-5)

My Heavenly Father “forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases” cancelling my debt and setting me free again and again. (just like the fellow in my previous post – “second chances”) I experience this on a daily basis, although some of my rescues are more dramatic than others and some of my cancelled debts are larger than others. Nonetheless, I want to be aware of and thankful for each and every one of my second, second chances, of every forgiven sin, every cancelled debt that I never could have paid myself.

Just this past week, I received yet another kind of second chance. It started with a medical test that required “more testing”, meaning – maybe something is wrong, let’s take a closer look. So in the interim between first and second tests, I lived with the possibility of this diagnosis being reality. When the second test revealed “nothing to see here, false alarm”, it was for me a new beginning, a clean slate. I was freed from the burden that this diagnosis would have entailed, a great weight was lifted from me, my debt was wiped away, there would be no “jail time” for me due to illness. I have been given yet another second chance.

Now that I have been set free, what will I do with my new-found freedom? Go back to my old life? Do what the guy in my previous post did when his debt was forgiven and he was set free? FYI – he was so grateful to have his debt forgiven, that his first act as a forgiven, free man was to go out and send to prison the first person he came across who owed him an inconsequentially small sum of money. (Matthew chapter 18 – the parable of the unmerciful servant) No, that is NOT how I want to live out my debt free, sins forgiven, bailed out of jail life.

Maybe I should think about sharing the good news that I have experienced with others, letting them know that they too can have second, second chances in this life. God is not stingy with His forgiveness, nor with His mercy and lovingkindness. In fact, in Psalms I read –

“He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on His children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him; for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:10-14)

It’s not that I have been getting better at dodging bullets, or that I have been dodging bullets at all. The truth is that God is being gracious to me and continues to give me undeserved, unearned second, second chances every day as I walk with Him. I want every second chance God gives me, to conform me a little closer to His image and to His will. So that the next time God forgives me for saying harsh words instead of kind words, His forgiveness will change me, so much so, that when given that next second chance – I will say the kind words He desires, instead of the harsh or hurtful words I might speak if left unchanged by His forgiveness and love.

However, I will allow God’s forgiveness to change me. I will not squander away the precious gift of second chances, (like the unmerciful servant) nor of second, second chances, nor of all the second chances God gives after that. Each second chance is a gift. I will thank my Heavenly Father for each and every one of them that He sends my way. And God gives me these second chances at just the right time. Just when I think I’ve messed up too bad to come back from whatever it is, I’m reminded of others who must have thought this very same thing. They believed that they too, had used up all their second chances with God.

There was the prodigal son, the disciple Peter and the thief hanging on the cross beside Jesus, to name a few. Each one of these had messed up big time with some really bad decisions. BUT – each one was rescued, forgiven, and restored to family, to their calling, and to eternal life respectively. The Good News of the Gospel – you and I are offered a second chance every day. I just have to humble myself, confess my failure and ask God for forgiveness. God is faithful to respond by giving me that second chance. Then I must be brave enough to accept the opportunity and face the challenge that a second chance always brings with it. In humility I pray King David’s prayer –

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. . . . Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. . . . Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. . . . Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (Psalm 51:1-2, 7, 10 & 12)

Second, second chances – King David received them multiple times. And so did a most unlikely woman – the infamous woman caught in adultery. Her second chance encounter with Jesus was truly dramatic. She was called to account publicly, in front of a large crowd, by the religious leaders of the day. However, this situation intended for public humiliation of the woman and for catching Jesus in some legal misstep, didn’t unfold as the religious leaders had planned. Instead, it ended with the woman receiving a much needed second chance in life. Their law demanded that the woman be stoned to death for her crime of adultery. BUT – Jesus said to the crowd,

” ‘If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ . . . At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’ ” (John 8:7-11)

This woman received her second chance – a clean slate, her past forgiven, her sin debt paid, no jail time, no more death penalty hanging over her head – she was free – free to go and live a new life, a life free from the bondage of sin! Talk about your second chances! Yours and mine, dear readers, our second chances are no less miraculous, no less life changing, no less undeserved, but just as earnestly desired and needed as was this woman’s.

Every second chance is a miracle. Every second chance is a gift from God.

Thank You, Heavenly Father, for every second chance You give me. May I not waste a one of them!

sincerely, Grace Day