Jan 3, 2023
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Second chances
Work and home
In the area of
work, I've shared with you all how I spent this past year in
receiving correction at work and how I received a second chance.
Fortunately God worked through me to humble myself, receive the
correction, make improvements, and I've ended up a better worker
and better at what I do than before, and that has been validated by
the same people who were earlier being critical of me. At
the same time I've been appreciating my job more than ever
before.
Here are some random thoughts I have on this topic.
It's easy to look back on past events and have a good
perspective on this issue of receiving correction and having second
chances, it's harder when you're in the middle of it, but that is
when your attitude matters the most since it impacts the choices
you make in response.
How to respond: gratitude and make the most of it
Pay it forward
by giving others second chances. This reminds me of what we
have called the parable of the unforgiving servant which is found
in the 18th chapter of Matthew. Peter asks Jesus, or Yeshua,
how often he should forgive his brother who sins against him, up to
7 times? Yeshua replies that he should forgive seventy times
seven, which I've heard taught means an unlimited number of times,
though I recently heard an alternate explanation of the
significance of the seventy times seven, but I'll leave that for
another discussion. Yeshua then goes on to tell a parable
about the Kingdom of heaven where a king wants to settle accounts
with his servants. After one servant who owed a huge amount
begs for mercy the king forgives his debt. The king later
finds out that the same servant was unmerciful to someone who owed
him a relatively small amount and the king then delivered the
servant to the torturers until his large debt was
paid.
As believers and
followers of Yeshua, we know that his sacrifice on the cross and
resurrection paid for the infinitely great debt of our sin, and
that among other responses ours should be gratitude and to show
great mercy to those in our lives, regardless of their sin toward
us, owe us a relatively minor debt.
Regardless what specific second chances you've received in
your life, if you're a believer in Yeshua, you have received the
ultimate forgiveness of debt and as such we should show the
greatest possible mercy to others in our lives.
While it's easy
to focus on a particular, significant event in our lives, I believe
this concept of second chances is more appropriately thought about
as a journey than a one-time event.
While we are
alive, we will always have challenges, we'll always have sin in our
lives that we need to confess and repent of, we'll always need
forgiveness and we'll always need to forgive others.
Learn from it -
don’t forget!!! This is different than dwelling on the past,
but rather in a positive way take the lessons from the past
mistakes and apply them to your current and future
choices.
Avoiding second
chances is better. Recently, when I was talking to another
brother about something in my life I had said sorry for and it
wasn't the first time. He asked me how many times I had said
sorry, and I replied more than I could count. While it's good
to be genuinely sorry and to say so, it's much better to avoid the
need to say you're sorry and thus avoiding the need to get a second
chance, or in reality we're talking here not about second but
third, fourth, and fifth chances.
If you're into
golf, you might like this analogy. A mulligan is different
than a handicap, it’s not a pass it’s another chance and requires
effort, more effort or a better effort than what was made the first
time. Even if at your work or in your personal
you're forgiven, or given a pass (kind of like being given a
handicap or an automatic reduction in your golf score), you should
treat it as if it’s a mulligan and needs to be corrected either to
prevent it from happening again or out of sense of integrity, love,
or justice (whichever applies).
This may sound a
bit like the difference between law and grace. I don’t
believe grace has been properly defined and understood in the
church but I’ll save that for another discussion since I’m still
working through that theological concept, but I believe John 14:15
applies well here "If you love me keep my commandments". If
if we're saved and forgiven for our sins, out of our love for our
Savior we should treat it like a mulligan not a handicap, and
choose to obey and correct what we've done wrong, and do things His
way as He has told us is His preference.
Just watched a
movie on Amazon Prime called The Vow and here's a spoiler
alert. A couple gets married and is very happy. The
wife gets in an accident and as a result loses all her memory of
the period of time during which her husband and her met, fell in
love, and married. The husband struggles with the loss of his
wife's love for her and tries his best to recreate her love for
him. In her mind, she is not the same person she was when
they first met and they ultimately divorce. Over time,
though, she comes to love him and they end up together though in a
different way and a different love than they had
before.
THis makes me
think that when we're given a second chance at work or at home, the
correct response may not be just to recreate what we think worked
in the past, but we may need to assess what is true about our
current reality and what changes do we need to make in our way of
thinking and our actions to meet the need that is present. It
may be that our poor choices created a different dynamic that
requires us to get out of our comfort zone and change and
adapt. I know that may sound a bit abstract but I'm praying
this thought I had may be what you need and that God speaks to you
in how you need to apply it to your situation.
This whole idea
of getting a second chance makes me think of the larger concept of
free will vs. God's sovereignty. I heard a great message from
Pastor Julio Calderon from the Mikdash Congregation this past
Shabbat on that topic and here are some of his thoughts on this
issue, paraphrased by me:
"As with Joseph in prison, the best of us will come from
difficult situations, God does not enjoy taking us into bad
situations, but we sometimes make bad decisions which He does not
approve of (e.g. the brothers decision to throw Joseph in a hole
and them sell him as a slave), but Yah will use these bad decisions
for good. If not He is not sovereign. This frustrates
Satan.
"Story of woman praying for food and witch giving bread and
saying it was from Satan, woman thanking the LORD that even the
evil one obeys Him". Big question: how much free will do we
have?
How do we believe both in divine intervention and free
will?
No perfect answer but imperfect answers are that only God
knows how they mesh together, and that God only sometimes
intervenes to accomplish his purposes, both are common explanations
and both are imperfect.
In the end God always wins, and if He wins, we win
Goliath made David great, he made the best that was in David
come out
The movie of our life is not over yet but it has a happy
ending.
Perhaps the most
relevant scripture for this is one we probably are all familiar
with, Romans 8:28-29"28 And we know that all things
work together for good to those who love God, to those who are
the called according to His purpose. 29 For
whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of
His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many
brethren"
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From Patrick Morley video 4 in man in the mirror
dealt with the issue of purpose which all of us men struggle
with at some level
He asked "If who I am is what I do, what will I be when I
don’t do what I do?"
Who am I? A disciple in Christ
Why do I exist? To abide, love and serve
John 8:31 "Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed
Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples
indeed"
John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love
one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one
another. 35 By this all will know that you are My
disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 15:5-"“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides
in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can
do nothing"
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For this is commendable, if because
of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering
wrongfully. 20 For what credit is
it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it
patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it
patiently, this is commendable before God. 1
Peter 2:19-20
https://www.patreon.com/christianmenatwork
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Dad jokes from Country Living website:
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"How does a taco say grace?" "Lettuce pray."