The God of the second chance
Yesterday and today we are snowed in. So, I watched one of my favorite westerns "Wyatt Earp." Early in the movie Wyatt's young wife dies. The death hits him hard and he turns to alcohol to deal with the loss. Walking down a street he meets a man and asks for money for help. The man says "It's not my practice to help drunks."
I know it was a movie, but the man's response bothered me. I know what his intentions were but think about what he said; "It's not my practice to help drunks." That means "get out of my face... I don't want to be bothered."
That statement bothers me for a couple of reasons.
Earp had experienced one of the most difficult things in life... the loss of a spouse. His grief and hurt led him to the bottle. It's easy for someone to say "It's not my practice to help drunks" when they may have been a drunk themselves if they had experienced the same thing. I think, at times, we all have a tendency to forget that, except for the grace of God, we might have been in the same situation.
Second,we all slip or mess up. We don't like to talk about it, but the fact is, most of us make mistakes and slip up in life. Some times they are big slip ups and some times they are minor, yet they are mistakes... slip ups.. regardless of the size.
The question is not "Will it happen?" The question is "How will we respond WHEN it happens?"
Sunday one of the songs that was sung in worship had the lyrics we serve "the God of a second chance." I like that. In fact, we the serve the God of the second chance, third chance, fourth chance,... .. well, you get the picture." God loves us. His love never runs out. He forgives.
Psalm 103:12 says "..as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."
Casting Crowns has a song entitled "East to West." The song speaks of the forgiveness of sins. Today, our sins are forgiven. Jesus loves us. Jesus wants to help us get up.
Simon Peter denied Jesus yet God used him to preach the first Christian sermon in history.
Matthew was a crooked tax-collector yet Jesus called him to be one of his disciples.
Paul had stood on the edge of an angry crowd listening and watching as Stephen was stoned, yet later, God saved him and called him.
We serve a God W
ho is in the business of taking people who have messed up and using them.
Unfortunately, it may be that some person says "It's not my business to help drunks" but, Jesus says "It is MY business to help drunks." Help someone today.
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