One More Chance

"Please Give Me One More Last Chance" is the title and refrain for a country and western song popular a few years ago. The irony of the title is self evident - makes you wonder how many previous last chances the writer has already had. Starting over, turning around, beginning again and conversion are frequent themes in the Bible. As you read more closely, or at a distance, the reader will see that many times there are multiple restarts.

A friend of mine makes a habit of reading through the Bible each year - using a different translation each year. I asked him what new insights his discipline had brought. He said that the major story of the Old Testament is how often the Israelites, God's chosen people, found themselves moving back and forth between obedience and open disobedience.

Starting over, especially in the spiritual life, your only option. If we are to learn and grow, we are called to begin again at various times. Jesus was especially tuned in to this inexplicable cycle as he called his followers to account and then embraced them as they made yet another mistake and then a faltering restart. Simon Peter was a case in point. His supreme act of starting over is described in today's devotion. So many of the characters in the Bible had multiple restarts that for a character to not have experienced at least one restart is a rare exception.

What does starting over spiritually mean to us today? No matter what our level of knowledge or service or spiritual maturity may be, Jesus keeps calling us to new beginnings with him. Why? Perhaps it is because if we think we know a lot, then there is no room for the new knowledge or insight that we might otherwise embrace. Perhaps our pride, apathy or fear keeps us from answering the call to a new start. Starting over is a very Methodist notion often referred to as the call to conversion. Conversion is a simple notion: I find myself heading down one path and realize I simply must change course, often drastically, and often at the cost of giving up some or most of the worldly progress on my present course. I once heard a Methodist preacher from Oklahoma say he had been converted a thousand times. At the time, his confession shocked me. Today, however, I may be on the verge of breaking his record.

There is a danger inherent in all of this new beginning business: the possibility that we take the grace of God for granted. We are tempted to rely on God's grace as an excuse for our disobedience and lack of faith, knowing that, no matter what, God will take us in. This is dangerous theology and worse, a recipe for a duplicitous and unsatisfying life. Our new beginnings must be genuine - it is clear that God can tell the difference between a sham and earnest repentance. God's grace is not cheap.

Some refer to grace as God's unmerited favor. I once told a pastoral counselor that I wanted to completely understand grace. He paused for a moment and said, "Joe, I hope you never understand grace." And he was right of course. I did do a lot of reading, and in the end, I reached a simple conclusion. Some gifts are just as free and necessary and refreshing as the air we breathe. To understand would not enhance the effect or make us more prepared to offer our thanks. And all we have to do today and any day is to accept God's grace with an open and clear heart. Again.

— Joe Matney

Courtesy of The Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist