GOD OF THE SECOND CHANCE

(Excerpt from Ch. "My View from the Summit")

The God of the Second Chance also gives us a third, fourth, and even fifth-and-beyond chance. He is patient and merciful with us as we go through His learning process. How thankful I am that He doesn't follow the rule “Three strikes and you're out!”

I've fallen short and failed so many times in my long life, but the Lord always reaches down and picks me up, brushes me off, gives me a hug, and sends me on my way again.

I learn from my failures—sometimes—and sometimes I don't, and God has to bring me back to kindergarten class again. Psalm 23 declares, “He restores my soul.” It happens over and over, and I am ever so grateful.

RESTORATION

Long ago on a distant hill

in the springtime of my soul

I gathered a pile of stones

beneath an ancient oak.

It was my altar

where I knelt unseen by man

in intimacy with my God

for my special consecration.

Occasionally I return

if only in my memory

and seek that tree and the stones

and my place of sacrament.

Sometimes I find

the rocks scattered haphazardly

by insensitive hands

or nature's accident

perchance by passing time.

So I perform

the ritual of gathering them again

piling one upon another

to reassemble my altar.

I kneel to restore my commitment

to the Lord, my Rock.

Such is life:

the rebuilding over and over

of personal altars and the renewal

of promises made

to our Ever-Merciful and Forgiving God

The God of the Second Chance.