When the God of Second Chances Gives You the Chance to Change Your World

I re-read the story of Pharaoh and Moses this morning and marveled at the ways of men.

You know this story, but reviewing it might help us see the incredible plan of God in a fresh light...

The Hebrews had multiplied in Egypt to the point that they were a cheap source of labor. Eventually, Pharaoh began to worry that the laborers would revolt and take over because there were more Hebrews than Egyptians in the Egypt.

When oppression and coercion of the midwives didn't decrease the number of male children, Pharaoh issued an edict that astounds me every time I read it. 

Hebrew parents were to throw their male babies in the river.

My first response was incredulity over the law, but I quickly realized that the real shocker was that the Hebrews actually complied with the law. 

Parents drowned their own sons because the government told them to do it... 

I can't comprehend it. 

In the midst of that evil and insane situation, God's plan began to unfold. It took years to complete, but when it did, it was a beautiful deliverance.

When Moses was born, his parents took one look at him and loved him. They were desperate to protect him and had no intention of obeying the "boy drowning" law.

After three months, it was no longer possible to hide him, but his mother had a very unusual plan of faith. She put the baby in a floating basket and put it in the reeds at the edge of the Nile, then she set his sister nearby to see what happened. 

Technically, she obeyed the law. She "cast" her son into the Nile. The only difference was that she "cast" him in a floating basket.

Amazingly, Pharaoh's daughter found him and decided to adopt him. In an even more amazing twist to the story, she hired his own mother as Moses's wet nurse. When he was weaned he became the princess' son. He lived as a prince, and grew up in the palace, where he was trained in the leadership expected of Pharaoh's grandson.  

When Moses was grown, he saw an Egyptian beating one of the Hebrew workers, and was enraged. That rage progressed to the murder of the Egyptian. In an attempt to hide his crime, Moses buried the corpse in the sand, but his crime was discovered, and he ran for his life. 

In what seemed like no more time than the blink of an eye, Moses went from being a Hebrew baby in a miraculous basket to an exalted prince of Egypt to a fugitive murderer. 

Then, the story took another twist. He fled to the wilderness of Midian, where he became a shepherd. 

Forty years later, he saw a burning bush, God called to him, and he approached the bush. When Moses realized it was God calling, he was afraid and hid his face. 

In that instant, the pieces of God's plan finally began to come together in a recognizable way. 

The years of training in administration and leadership in Egypt, followed by the years as a shepherd in the wilderness weren't wasted. They were part of the essential preparation for the most important job Moses would ever undertake. He was to lead the Hebrew people from Egypt to the promised land. 

Over the course of the next forty years, Moses walked with God. In fact, he became a friend of God, so much that he met face to face with Him. Afterwards, his face shone so much that, instead of hiding his face from God, he had to cover his face with a veil and hide it from the people. (Exodus 34:34) 

Being in the presence of God left a change in Moses that everyone could see. His experiences caused another change, too. Instead of an angry, vengeful young man, Moses became the most humble man on earth (Numbers 12:3).  

That humble man led millions of Hebrews to freedom from slavery as he walked with God. 

Moses left his world a different place because of the humility and the faithfulness to God that came after the mistakes that shattered his comfortable life. 

Despite his immense sin, Moses was given a fresh start and the opportunity to change the world by our ever-loving and forgiving God.

God has a plan to use all the mistakes in our past to make a difference in our future.

Have we made mistakes and have had a rough start to our lives thus far?  In the shortest time imaginable, we can answer the call of God and He can begin to unfold our second chance.  Our third chance. Our many-eth chance. 

No matter how far we've run, how low we've have sunk, how long we have been mired in sin, our Lord can deliver, cleanse, and transform, and He will. We have only to repent of our mistakes, surrender our will to His, and follow Him. 

When the God of second chances gives you the opportunity to change your life and your world, what should you do? Take it and follow Him until He leads you home.  

"I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11 
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photo above is of the empty tomb of Jesus. It's the power of the empty tomb that makes the redemption of our second chances possible.

In case you missed it, here's the link to yesterday's post: Doing Life Together: The Beauty of Multigenerational Community

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Second Chances

Health insurance companies have discovered that healthy behavior on the part of their customers results in lowered overall insurance payments, and are actively encouraging healthy habits. My insurance company is no exception. They give "points" for a variety of things ranging from exercise to getting a flu shot to decreasing your waist size. The points translate to a higher wellness rebate at the end of the year. To help with the process, they offer an app that syncs with my wrist-band step meter. 

Recently, they offered extra points for signing up to do a two-week step challenge and I enrolled. Frankly, I thought I was doing pretty well, getting 10,000 steps most days. The front-runners, however, were getting an insane number of steps. The person in 1st place had 279,710 steps after 3.5 days, which was just under twice my total steps for 14 days. I was shocked! It turns out I'm not nearly as active as I thought.

About the time the challenge was winding down, the company announced a second step-challenge. To be honest, I thought, "Why bother?" In the interest of earning more points, though, I finally signed up for round two. This time, I joined the "team for fun" team and decided to see how well I could do. I've gotten 20,000 steps in most days. At the end of round one, I finished 1,983rd. I have no idea how big the field was, but I wasn't last. On round two, I'm ranked 1st on my team and 324th overall. Admittedly, 324th is not the same as first place, but it is amazingly better than 1,983rd, and it shows significant improvement. I'm really glad for the second challenge that gave me a second chance. 

Second chances are wonderful things, aren't they? Whether it's in a step-challenge, a relationship, or at work, getting another chance to make things right is worth pursuing. It's a kind of grace, this second-chance opportunity. In case you've forgotten, grace, unmerited favor, is simply God not giving us what we deserve. When we do wrong and deserve judgment, God offers forgiveness and a second chance. How precious that second, and third, and fourth chance should be, but do we value it enough to take advantage of the opportunity? Even though we will never be perfect on this side of eternity, we can all do better than we have so far. The grace of God gives us that opportunity.  

Consider the areas in which you have performed in less than stellar ways, the times you've failed. Did you just give up or did you give it another try with a firm commitment to doing better the second time around? Let's thank God for the gift of second chances, and be sure we take advantage of them when they come our way. We can do better, we should do better, and with God's grace, we will. 

The Ripe Tomato

My friend Debbie Hayden saw a great raised bed on Pinterest, and talked her husband Durick into building it for her. Little did she know, but I had been pondering raised beds and an easier way to garden. For two decades, I had huge gardens, spending innumerable hours canning and processing the vegetables I grew. The last few years, however, I've skipped the vegetable garden because of the work involved. I missed having my own vegetables, though. I didn't have time for lots of hoeing and tilling, but something easier might work, and I pondered it so long that I finally realized I was "too late" to plant a garden. 

I was too late, that is, until Debbie and Durick made their raised bed. When Debbie posted pictures on Facebook, I began to think I might have a garden after all. When she posted pictures of the seedlings growing, I was sold on the project. 

The old white farm truck was loaded down with concrete blocks and garden soil that early Saturday morning. Bill the Magnificent took one look at the load and said, "What in the world are you up to now?" Before long, he could see for himself. The raised bed was a reality. I planted my seeds and an heirloom tomato plant and started watering and watching. In no time at all, I had seedlings of my own. 

In Blue Springs, gardeners plant with the idea of having a ripe tomato by July 4th. Of course that date came and went with the only ripe tomatoes coming from someone else's garden. This week, however, there's been just enough from the garden: one squash a day, plenty of herbs, and lovely cut flowers, but no tomatoes. Yesterday, one of the tomatoes was finally red. After one more day to ripen on the vine, it was part of supper tonight. Yum! Home grown tomatoes!  It turns out that I wasn't too late after all!

You may not do this, but I have so much going on that the most pressing things get done first, leaving some of the less pressing but most desired things undone. That ripe tomato reminded me that second chances are worth seizing. 

Are you putting off something you'd really like to do (or really should do) because of more pressing matters? Why not take advantage of a second chance and get it done. After all, there's truth in the old adage, "Better late than never".  My ripe tomato is proof of that! 

(PS - I know that's a picture of squash, but I'd already eaten the tomato!)