Second Chance

Watching the AFL Grand Final and Collingwood are running rampant again like early last week. It will be interesting to see if they can hold on unlike last week where missed chances and tired legs almost cost them the game. But at half time with the lead they have...its hard to see the Saints coming back...

For some players, like Cloke and Milne, today is a chance for redemption, a second chance. Had Travis Cloke slotted even one of his two easy chances late in the first half...we wouldnt be hear watching the Grand Final replay. In some ways they can count themselves lucky, despite the mistakes they made, they have a second chance to make things right.

But this is similar to life in general...there are going to be times during our life where we make mistakes and wish that we could go back and do it again...replay the event to make things right. But as we know...things dont always work out the way we want. But worse than the mistakes are those feelings of regret that we live with after the event...and depending on how we move forward, they can ultimately bind us and have a severe impact on our future.

One of the key things that we learn we first come to Christ is the good news of the redemption we have when we are born again, when we begin living for our Lord. Psalm 130:7 makes reference to this -

put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.

No matter what we have done in our past, no matter how many mistakes we have made in our past, we can look forward with the confidence that our Lord loves us unconditionally and when we repent of our sins. When we say to God with a sincere heart that we no longer want to live that way, we have the confidence that we are forgiven. It is said well in 1 John 1:9 where it states -

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

But I know how people can percieve this - "this is all idealistic...in reality its not always easy to move on from some mistakes?" This is a valid point, and before you fully understand the love of Christ, its hard to believe that we can be fully forgiven of our sin if we pray to God for repentance. But thats the thing about the love of our amazing Father in Heaven! I mean...simply look at the fact that He gave his only son for us, so that we could enter heaven, as we all know from that famous verse John 3:16 -

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

But just because we have the promise of forgiveness, that doesnt give us the excuse to continue sinning. For we have not only been forgiven and have a second chance, we are no longer bound by the sin and we have the opportunity to move forward without the weight of sin on our life. This is said well in Acts 3:19 -

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord

To close, on a personal note, when I do find myself in a position of regret, when I reflect on something and wish that things had panned out different...I always look at things with the perspective that - despite the negatives that have gone on in my past, I am happy in the place Im at now. The people I have around me, close to me, the life that I have...I thank God for all things and praise Him for it.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 

(Ephesians 1:7)