Starting Over?

When I was MUCH younger we often entertained ourselves playing a variety of outdoor games. Sometimes we played touch-football, or baseball, on occasion: kick the can, hide-n-seek, ghost in the graveyard, tag, or freeze tag.  We picked teams according to “one-potato-two-potato” or “bubble gum bubble gum in a dish” or last but not least, “eany meany miney moe.” No matter how great we got along or who was winning invariably something went wrong somewhere and we needed an opportunity for a correction…we called that opportunity a “do-over.”

These days I’m doubtful that the youth of our day have “do-overs”—instead they simply push the “reset” but that allows them to go back to the beginning of the game or to the last place that they “saved” their progress within the game.  Too often we see life as a game that must be mastered—when we see life like that we WILL, periodically, make errors--unfortunately, life rarely allows “do-overs.”

However, what the natural world denies us the spiritual world assumes---second chances.  It is the essence of the concept of grace.  We invariably make mistakes but we are simply asked to admit them, apologize (if it was our fault) and go on. YES!! We must sometimes live with the consequences of those mistakes but we do NOT have to live with the guilt…that is what grace does…we continue to make mistakes and we continue to get chances to do better “next time.”

My wife, kids, extended family, and friends all manage to put up with me (most of the time)—they are willing to overlook my “issues” and continue to be supportive…I suppose because they care for me—though sometimes I am not sure why.  I assume the same goes for God.  Though I am baffled at the “why” question, clearly, the evidence in my life leads me to believe that for whatever reason He is willing to overlook my failures, and allow me to continue on—even though He knows I will never get it right.

In a mere ten days I will once again have the opportunity to experience a “do-over” in my life, though I confess that it will not be exactly like any other circumstance I have yet faced.  I have been given the opportunity to work with a struggling congregation as an interim (what congregation isn’t struggling right now!?!). I am unsure of how I might do things different this time. In twenty-five years I hope I have learned what NOT to do…but I am less sure that I have learned what TO do or to do better than I have before…which has caused me to reflect more deeply on both the prophetic and the priestly roles of those who serve congregations as “ministers.”  I am not a reverend (in fact, I may be one of the most irreverent people I know), nor am I a pastor (in the NT that is the elder’s job), while some like the title evangelist I don’t see myself as one of those either…because I believe, biblically, I spend most of my time training those who already believe to become disciples (or as Kyle Idleman would say “followers” as opposed to “fans”) of Jesus Christ.  It is Barthian because it requires a full understanding of both the bible and the daily news. In Jesus’ words we must be “in the world but not of the world.” But who has “cornered the market” on that?

It is not an opportunity that I take lightly.  There is no way that I can know what the future might hold…but one thing is for sure…I will more than likely mess it up in SOME way…I am thankful that I don’t have to be perfect…and even when I am not God allows “do-overs” for those of us who cannot get it right the first, second, third, fourth…well you get the point.