New Year Second Chances

Forgiveness and second chances are weighted words in our society today.  They are interesting concepts because they are filled with both hope and despair.  There is hope for new beginnings – new life – in second chances.  Yet there is also despair and fear that forgiveness may not come, or even be possible – despair that something has happened that needs forgiveness.  It is confirmation of our own brokenness and our great ability to mess things up, but also a beacon of hope that change and healing may be possible.

Forgiveness and second chances just seemed so much easier when we were children.  I remember the many times I had to go and tell my sister that I was sorry after I hurt her in some way, and the amazing part of it was that we just assumed that it also meant forgiveness and a second chance.  As a child, apologizing always seemed to go hand in hand with being forgiven and it was like the offense never happened.  But as we get older, it gets significantly more complicated.  It seems to be harder to apologize, and it can be a lot harder to forgive.  No one is there to make us go say we are sorry and forgiveness and second chances are no longer automatic. 

Sometimes we apologize, but forgiveness does not come and sometimes forgiveness is given even though there was no apology.  An apology, forgiveness and second chances no longer have an easy or automatic connection, because they are now surrounded by many other weighty words like anger, jealousy, fear, resentment, pain.  Getting older just seems to complicate something that seemed almost simple as a child.  This concept that seemed so simple becomes mired in broken dreams, broken lives, broken relationships, broken hearts, and broken people, and it is a complication we take into our relationship with God.

The beginning of a New Year provides a great opportunity for us to reevaluate our relationship with God.  We are called to recognize that we are all sinful and broken and confess our sins both individually and corporately.  We are called to reassess our lives and relationship with God to make sure we have not strayed from God and God’s plan for us.  We are called to recognize that we can’t save ourselves.  We can never be good enough; we can never pay the price for all of our sins.  We have grumbled, complained, failed to trust, failed to follow, and messed up so many things.  We deserve death.  But we also stand with the confidence of knowing that we have a mediator, someone who was able to pay the penalty for our sins.  We know we are forgiven through the death of Christ.

In this New Year, may we recognize that we have been truly forgiven, no matter how difficult or bad our sin may be, and that God loves us no matter who we are or what we have done.  Thankfully we worship a God of second chances.  Through Christ, God receives us with open arms, every time, when we confess our sins and repent.  We recognize that Jesus is the only one who could pay the penalty for our sin and died so that we might truly live.  May we recognize the amazing grace, mercy, and gift of love that we have received through the death of Christ on the cross, that we have been truly forgiven of our sins and given a second chance.  That Christ has taken that burden from us forever.  May we truly live as people who are able to recognize our own brokenness, but are also able to stand with the confidence of knowing that we have been truly and mercifully forgiven by the death of Christ for us.

God bless, Rev. Liz Arakelian, www.LivingHopeEC.org