The God of a Second Chance

Wow, it does not seem like it's been two weeks since I last posted anything but it has.  I have a legitimate excuse however, I've been on vacation.  My wife took the entire family to Hawaii.  She saw an advertisement for a medical conference in Hawaii at a new Disney resort and it was on from there.  All she has to see is Disney and we are booked before you can say Mickey.

Hawaii is a beautiful place.  Mountains jutting up out of the sea, blue skies and crystal clear water as far as the eye can see.  I couldn't help but be in awe of the breathtaking scenery and the lush vegetation.  The grass seemed greener, the trees a little healthier and the flowers a little perkier.  Let's just say that if the cost of living was not so exorbitant we would pack up and move there immediately.

Disney's resort, Aulani, was beyond excellent.  If there is one thing Disney does well, it is customer service.  If you can think of it, they have already thought of it and have it available to you.  Condensed milk on top of shaved ice, done.  Warm towels at poolside, done.  Lifeguards every 10 feet along the Lazy River...done.  Greeters/rovers to come and check on you while you bask in the sunny Hawaii climate...done.  The atmosphere is the closest thing to perfection that is earthly possible.  That's why it costs so much!  The high cost aside, you will be hard pressed to find a company that caters to its customers more than Disney.

En route to the resort, I had the opportunity to witness to several people.  On the flight from Atlanta to Phoneix, I met a young man and his sister and had a chance to witness to the young man about Christ.  On the flight from Phoenix to Hawaii, I sat next to a former youth minister and had a chance to witness to him as well.  I didn't really ask him why he wasn't a youth minister anymore, I was simply trying to plant seeds.  Most of my mornings at the resort were spent lounging in a chair under an umbrella reading my bible and praying.  Because of this, I met several interesting people, namely, a gentleman from Cleveland who had recently lost his wife.  He spoke to me on one morning that I was reading and we hit it off from there.  We spent the next few days chatting about life and taking turns making sure that the kids that were with us were ok, taking them on the water slide and watching them swim.  There were others that I had a chance to interact with and it was awesome.  We are constantly told that there are not many Christians in the world and that the world has become increasingly atheistic but what I realized is that there are a lot of people that believe in God, they just don't necessarily know how to get to him.

We even had a chance to attend church while we were there.  Makakilo Baptist Church was a great place and the love of God was on display.  A couple invited us for coffee after church and they had never seen us before!  They simply wanted to show love to the visitors.  The message was excellent from Pastor Jon and I was geared up for bible study on Tuesday night but something came up.

All of this leads me to my main point.  Why am I talking so much about witnessing?  Shouldn't this be about uploading pictures and about eating pineapples?  Well it would be if I didn't want to share a deeper message here.  My trip to Hawaii was a second chance.  A chance at redemption because I had failed miserably at being an effective witness for Christ shortly before we left to go on our trip.  I was giving a seminar at Alabama State to incoming freshmen and I was talking to them about their spiritual welfare.  I had a slide in my powerpoint that talked about the only way to have a future is with Christ.  Well, when I got to that slide, which was one or two slides from the end of the talk, I skipped it.  I talked to the students about going to church, praying, reading the bible, etc. but when I got to the slide about Christ, I skipped it.  Witnessing MUST be about Christ since He is the essence of the gospel message.  Why would I do such a thing?  Honestly, I don't have an answer for it, but afterwards, I felt like I had failed God.  I was quite distraught. 

I prayed and asked for forgiveness and what did God do?  He opened the door for ministry with just about everyone that I met on my trip!  It was totally amazing and I would not have seen that unless I had reflected on my mistake, my prayer for forgivenss and my prayer for a second chance.  God granted me that second chance because of His grace and His love.  To anyone reading this that has screwed up something, anything, and you feel like you have failed God, there is a second chance waiting for you too.  God is slow to anger, abounding in love and ready to forgive us when we repent of our mistakes and turn back to Him.  He gave Peter a second chance even after Peter denied Christ three times and would, only from a distance, watch Christ be riduculed and mocked before he was ultimately crucified.  Although Peter failed miserably as a disciple, and even DURING his ministry had some issues with being free in Christ (Galatians 2), God did not simply hang Peter out to dry.  That is good news for those of us that are striving to be a good witness for Christ, those of us that struggle with finding the right moments to witness and those of us that want to serve God with everything in us.  I prayed for God to open a door for ministry (Colossians 4:3) and He did.  I prayed for a second chance and God gave it.  He will do the same for you as well.  Grace and Peace.