Treasures In God's Word

The God of Second Chances
by Chris McCurley

It was amid the rice fields of northeast Arkansas where I grew up; Paragould to be exact. Arkansas offers some exquisite scenery; unfortunately none of it is in Paragould. Actually, that’s not completely accurate. There is a unique beauty that can be found in the acres of rice and soybeans lining both sides of the road. They may not be as majestic as the Rocky Mountains but they do have a certain aesthetic quality. There is, however, a major downfall to living in northeast Arkansas; it’s that blood-sucking pest known as the mosquito. There aren’t too many late afternoon, early evening picnics in Paragould. The mosquitoes see to it that everyone stays hunkered down in the safety of their own homes.

I’ll never forget when I was kid, my grandfather would make me crack the door and slip into the house as quickly as possible, and then he would beat me half to death trying to kill the mosquitoes that managed to slip into the house with me. One mosquito in the house rendered the home a biohazard. All operations ceased until the intruder was destroyed.

It begged the question in my mind, what are mosquitoes good for anyway? Besides being a terrible nuisance, what purpose do they actually serve? They suck our blood causing us to itch which, in turn, causes us to scratch vigorously. They transmit all kinds of diseases including malaria and the West Nile virus. In fact, in much of our world mosquitoes pose a major health problem. They are estimated to transmit disease to more than 700 million people annually, and will be responsible for the deaths of about 1 in 17 people.

Why mosquitoes? What possible good could they serve? The truth is mosquitoes serve two very important functions. First of all, they are a very important food supply. The larvae and pupae are chock full of protein; 42% to be exact. Therefore, they are great food for many kinds of fish as well as a number of birds and even bats. Secondly, mosquitoes are important pollinators. Not all mosquitoes suck your blood; only the females. The males act like butterflies and bees in that while traveling from flower to flower for nectar they pick up pollen, which is then brought to the next flower that they visit and deposited. Pollination, of course, is a very important role in nature.

Does the good outweigh the bad? I’m not convinced, but it is clear that mosquitoes do have some benefit in this world; they do serve a purpose besides being a disease-carrying pest; they are of some value; they do have worth, and so do you!

Unfortunately I have known people who, in a spiritual sense, felt that they were nothing more than mosquitoes; that they had very little value. They felt that they really served no purpose or were of little benefit in this world. Before God they saw themselves as pests or nuisances rather than beloved children.

It’s difficult for us to fathom a God who accepts us despite our shortcomings; a God who loves us even when we don’t always show love in return; a God who redeems us even though we don’t deserve it; and a God who considers us worth it.

Have you ever asked yourself the question, how could God love somebody like me? How could He ever accept someone as pitiful as I am? How could a loving God ever see past what I am today? The answer is because He is God. God is love and, lucky for us, He is in the saving business. Lucky for us He doesn’t see us the way we see ourselves. And, lucky for us, we don’t have to be worthy or deserving or flawless; we just have to be His.

Christ came into this world, over two thousand years ago, to save those who were flawed, those who were not worthy and those who didn’t deserve it; that was His mission. The reason it was His mission is because God saw ALL mankind as being worth it. God gave the very best, which was His Son, for the very worst. Even the most defiled sinner has the hope of eternal life, because even he is valuable to God.

I like to play golf. And there’s an unwritten rule in the game of golf that says that if I hit a bad tee shot on the first hole I get to try it again. The technical term for this is a mulligan. A mulligan is a redo, a second chance, another opportunity to get it right. How many times have you wished that this unwritten rule applied to life? How many of you have wished you could take a mulligan?

The God we serve, the God we read about in the scriptures is the God of mulligans; the God of second chances. Regrets, mistakes, bad choices, shortcomings and failures should not leave us hopeless; they’re not deal-breakers when it comes to a relationship with the Heavenly Father. God’s grace provides for second chances. Even though you don’t deserve it and even though you’re not worthy, your self-esteem should be bolstered by the fact that God loves you anyway. You are important to Him. You are priceless to Him because you bear His image. You are worth something to God simply because He created you.

Failure is not Final

Mike Grady played third base for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1895. In a key moment, in a tight game, a routine grounder was hit to third where Mike bobbled it. He then picked it up and threw to first, but the ball went sailing over the first-basemen’s head. By the time the first-basemen had retrieved the ball the runner was rounding second and heading for third. The first-basemen threw over to Mike so he could apply the tag, but he missed it and let it get past him. So Mike then picked up the ball and, hoping to get the runner out at home, he fired it to the catcher but promptly sailed it over his head as well. What should have been a routine ground ball resulting in an easy out turned into a game-winning run for the opposing team. And unfortunately, Mike Grady and his 4 errors on one play were solely to blame. But that didn’t end his career. No, Mike Grady played 11 more seasons in the big leagues, and when he retired in 1906 Mike did so with a .950 fielding percentage.

Have you ever made a mistake? Have you ever made multiple mistakes? Have you ever failed at something? Sure, we all have. One thing we all share in common is that we all have failed at something.  And when it comes to living a righteous life we have certainly all failed there as well. Paul tells us as much in Romans 3:23 when he states, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”

Sin is failure; it is failure to live the way God would have us to live. None of us can claim perfection here. ALL of us have sinned, and all of us have fallen short of what God expects of us. Unfortunately many people close up shop right there. They see no reason to go any further. They have failed and that’s that; end of story. But failure is not final, not in life and not with God.

In Ephesians 2:4-7 Paul writes, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”  All of us have sinned, all of us have failed, and because of God’s holiness and justice we deserve to be punished. Our failure deserves to be final, but thankfully it’s not. God provided the means whereby we could be saved. He sacrificed His one and only Son so that failure would not be final.

God has compassion on His people, and God has a passion for you. He loves you even when you don’t love yourself. He is rich in mercy even when you don’t deserve it. Mercy is love directed toward sinners who deserve to be punished, but instead are saved. If failure was final then none of us would make it. You would have no reason to go to church, no reason to pray and no reason to try and do what’s right.

There would be no reason for you to read your Bible. In fact, there would be no Bible, because the Bible is one story after another of people who messed up repeatedly and yet were coached along by God until they got it right. The pages of scripture are full of people just like you and just like me who failed before God, yet found a second chance. People like Abraham, Moses, Isaac, Jacob, Jonah, David, Peter, Paul, and the list goes on. If failures were not included in the Bible then there would be no one to read about. And if failures were not included in the church there would be no one there either. Remember this, our sins are never greater than God’s grace. Our failures are never greater than the love of God.

Bad Results Can Be Overcome

A couple of years ago my family and I were vacationing in Colorado. While there we spent some time in Colorado Springs. We decided to set up camp and then go do some sight-seeing. After visiting some of the attractions, we were heading back to our place of stay and I somehow got turned around. Normally I am very good with direction, but in this particular instance I found myself completely out of sorts. I turned down the right road, but nothing looked familiar. I followed the compass on our rearview mirror, but that didn’t seem to help either. I finally made the decision to go back and start all over from the place we had just left some thirty minutes earlier, but that didn’t help either. It was like the streets were intersecting with themselves. It was completely confusing. I finally had to face facts and admit what every man despises—I was lost. Actually, I don’t like that word. In this age of political correctness I choose to say that I was “directionally challenged.”

It’s easy for us to become directionally challenged. It’s easy for us to get turned around, to stray off course and to lose our way. Throughout the gospels Jesus refers to His followers as sheep, and Himself as the Good Shepherd. “The sheep follow Him,” He says, “Because they know His voice (John 10:4).” But if you know anything about sheep you know that it’s not unusual for them to wander from the flock or venture off into solitude. As sheep in Christ’s flock, there are many of us who have lost our direction.

Bad choices lead to bad consequences, and there are many of us who are living with the results of a wrong decision. Notice I didn’t say that bad people lead to bad consequences. It’s not that we’re all bad people; it’s just that we don’t always make the right decisions when it comes to being a follower. For whatever reason we lose our way, we lose our focus and we lose sight of the shepherd. When this happens we gradually find ourselves moving further and further from our Divine guide and leader until, before long, we are lost.

But again, failure does not mean you are finished. The future is open. The future is as bright as the promises of God. You are not doomed to live in your mistakes forever. Bad results can be overcome. God considers you valuable even if you have made some mistakes, even if you have made some wrong decisions and even if you are a directionally challenged sheep.

In Luke 15:4-7 Jesus says, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need repentance.”

It wasn’t consolation to the shepherd that he still had ninety-nine other sheep in his flock. No, he desperately wanted to find the ONE. The one that was lost in solitude without the safety and security of his master. The shepherd doesn’t view his sheep as one big flock. He sees each individual sheep. He cares for each and every one of them. He takes great pains to see that every sheep in that flock is well taken care of and looked after.

It’s very similar to the attitude of a parent. Parents of multiple children love all of them the same. Even though they are all different they still love them all equally. If one of their children were to become lost, the parent would never say, “Oh well, I’ve got three more at home.” Instead they would be very upset and distraught because one of their children was missing. They would do everything in their power to bring the child back home safely, and the reason is because we individualize each of our children. We don’t see them as a mass or a group. We love each of them individually.

God is the same way. His people, His sheep are not just a flock to Him. Each person, each sheep has his or her own individual identity. Each one is highly valued; so much so that the Good Shepherd will leave ninety-nine just to search for one that is lost. And when He finds it, He doesn’t whip it with His rod or scold it for running off. Instead, He gently picks it up, lays it across His shoulders and carries it back to the flock. He then rejoices, because joy is the natural response to the recovery of something lost; especially something that’s so valuable.

Author John Ortberg writes, “God’s favorite department is ‘Lost and Found.’ If there is one way that human beings consistently underestimate God’s love, it is perhaps in His longing to forgive.” You don’t have to be controlled by your past. You don’t have to relive your mistakes. You don’t have to be lost. There is hope for directionally challenged folks, and it rests in the Good Shepherd; our guide, our compass, our protector, our Master.

My freshman year in college I took a class entitled General Biology. It’s not that I wanted to take it, but I had to as it was part of my basic requirements. The first day I arrived at the door of the classroom only to find that this wasn’t your normal classroom; this was an auditorium. And as I proceeded through the door I was amazed to learn that I was one of about 250 people in Freshman General Biology. I went to a big high school but never had I witnessed anything like this. And because it was such a large class I checked my identity at the door. No longer was I known as Christopher K. McCurley. For the rest of the semester I was 2636—the last four digits of my social security number. The teacher never knew my name; never did he recognize me outside of class; never did he make a personal connection with me. I was just a number.

It is not so with God. You are not just one person among many. You are not just a small part of a greater mass. You are not just a number. You are somebody. You are highly esteemed. Jesus says in Luke 12:7, “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.” We are so individually important to God that He knows the number of hairs on our head. To God, every soul is valuable. Someone once said that “God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love.”

New Beginnings

The most destructive thing one can say is, “This is just who I am. There’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t change at this stage in my life.” A second chance is contingent on the individual making changes. There seems to be a great gap in our culture between our Christian beliefs and our moral behavior. I think many people want to be Christians, but they also want to do what they want to do. So when it comes to a choice between being a Christian and giving up something they want, Christianity goes out the window.

A second chance does not mean much if one continues in their sinful behavior. Paul writes, in Romans 6:1-2, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin live in it?” Second chances must lead to new beginnings. Second chances are a fresh start, and a fresh start signifies a change in lifestyle.

II Corinthians 5:17 states, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” We must open the door to our hearts. We must invite God to come in and occupy our lives. No longer can mistakes, failures, sin and shortcomings occupy our lives. They are no longer in control. We need to clean house. We need to sweep out every room and get things in order. We have a new occupant. No longer is God a hobby or a passing interest—He is life itself. He has moved in, set up residence in our hearts and has taken over. Everything is different. No longer do we follow our own lead. No longer do we succumb to self-loathing and low self-esteem. No longer do we serve ourselves. We live for the real purpose for which we were created—to serve God. When God fills our hearts He fills our lives. We are whole, we are complete and we are new.

Not only must we open our hearts, we must open our minds. We must listen to what God has to say to us, and we do so by studying His Word. Part of the reason that we have failure and dysfunction in our lives is because we believe the wrong things. We consciously or unconsciously reject God’s truth. Some people want to figure things out for themselves. They want to trust their own thinking rather than submit to the Word of God. They follow their own agenda rather than God’s plan. When they do this, chaos and dysfunction enters into their lives.

Wrong thinking results in wrong living. Actions begin in the mind; they begin as ideas. If our ideas are wrong then the things we do will be full of error. Therefore, we must fill our minds with the Word of God. The Word of God is truth on any and every issue, therefore we must submit ourselves to it, listening to all it has to say, and correctly applying it to our lives.

A second chance is a gift; it’s an opportunity to start over; an opportunity for a new beginning; it’s a mulligan. In a spiritual sense, the second chance is a sign of God’s grace and God’s mercy. We don’t deserve it and we’re not worthy, but the opportunity is there because, to Him, we are priceless.

Conclusion

There are two types of artwork. There are prints, which are mass produced on a large scale with all of them being identical. And then there are masterpieces. Masterpieces are truly unique; they are one of a kind, there is no other exactly like them. We are not mass produced by God to be just like everyone else. We are masterpieces; one of a kind and highly valuable.

In Ephesians 2:10 Paul writes, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” We were all created for a purpose; the same purpose. It was not to be a failure, nor was it to live with bad results. We were created to serve God; the God of love, the God of grace, the God of mercy, the God of second chances.

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