Post by: Samantha Ho
In the abundance of my mistakes, I quickly came to accept that there wasn’t going to be another second chance. I wouldn’t have another opportunity to prove myself worthy of their time, energy, care, and perseverance. To be honest, even if I did, I would find some way to ruin it anyway.
We are told that our mistakes don’t define us, yet we so often encounter people who do define us by our mistakes. My mistakes are enough for them to label me as "cold," “difficult,” “troublesome,” and “challenging". As hard as I try to change, they will continue to see me, labels firmly attached, as someone who isn't worth investing in. "I still care about you," they would say...as they slowly backed away, eventually walking out of my life. I don’t blame them. I made the mistakes, after all. And although I tell myself, over and over again, that Christ died so that I can be freed and forgiven, I can’t help but feel like I am unworthy of another chance—a feeling of being unwanted and uncared for.
God’s Answer
“Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:18-19 ESV)
“Remember these things, O Jacob,
and Israel, for you are my servant;
I formed you; you are my servant;
O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.
I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud
and your sins like mist;
return to me, for I have redeemed you.” (Isaiah 44:21-22 ESV)
God is a god that chases after us, even after we shut the door on Him a hundred times. He’s the one that warns Peter that he’s going to mess up three times, but STILL redeems him, using him to save over three thousand souls. God is a god who, in Saul’s persecution of God’s people, does not kill him, but rather gives him a whole other restored and redeemed life as Paul, one of the most significant apostles of the Bible. He is the same God that heard David’s cries of repentance after he killed Bathsheba’s husband, and showed him mercy. The one who gave the nation of Israel opportunity after opportunity to let go of their selfish lives and come back to Him. He is the patient father welcoming his misguided prodigal son home. He is to us, as Hosea is to Gomer: a faithful pursuer, a loyal protector, a gracious lover.
So even if other people don’t offer us another chance after our mistakes, know that God does. He has. He has given us new life. He trusts that the old, unrepentant sinner is dead, and that a heart joined with the Holy Spirit is alive. He doesn’t ask us to prove it to Him, and He doesn’t bitterly keep count of the countless times we’ve messed up. He doesn't say that we’re not worth it. He does not say that we are unwanted.
God wants to give us a second chance because that’s what redemption is. He bought us out of muddied darkness so that we can be freed from our mistakes and guilt. By God’s overwhelming grace through Jesus Christ we are welcomed into the everlasting light of eternity with Him.
Sam is a lover of Jesus, working as a strategic planner by day, and a graphic designer by night. Running off of chocolate, Sam loves to spend her time savoring the intricacies of life with others, immersing herself in words, art, and plenty of good food. She has witnessed the strengths and weaknesses of the Asian American church, and has a heart to help build up this generation to be strong in faith and equipped with Truth and Grace. Her ultimate aim is to encourage others to love and cherish Christ even more.