I believe in giving people a second chance.
~George Zimmerman
Every morning I have my routine. It’s a new routine but after almost 2 months of following it, I think it’s stuck.
I wake up, make coffee, then sit down to read an inspirational message and bible passages. Then I talk with God for a bit before beginning to get ready for my day.
When I get into my car for work (or sit at my desk thinking if I’m home), I play a podcast that I discovered called “Pray As You Go“. I am delighted I found it because it has really made my day better. It helps me focus on God and what my goals are for the day.
Having not actively read the bible in about 30 years, I’m diving back in and having to learn how to really read it. See, before it was stories. I mean, Jesus had his parables but the Old Testament was just a bunch of myths about people from long ago who did stuff I can’t even relate to. I’m now discovering how wrong I was. The podcast is helping me read and discover the bible in a new and wonderful way.
Here is Wednesday’s reading. (February 21, 2018)
3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
I listened to it and my first thought was “oh goodness those poor animals. Why is the King making them fast? WTF?” I pushed that thought down and then wondered how that story relates to my life today. Because obviously it doesn’t. (ha)
According to the narrator of the podcast, the message is about second chances.
I was shocked. How could this be about second chances? It was about sackcloth and a King who sat in ashes and starved the animals and and and…..
Then I shut up and listened to the narrator.
Do I know people who deserve second chances? Do I wish people would give me a second chance? If God Himself would give the people of Nineveh a second chance, shouldn’t we do the same?
I thought about that and, quite honestly, wasn’t able to hear it. It hit too close to home for me so I pushed what the narrator aside and just focused on the animals and the king and ashes and sackcloth and………
Hey, I never said I was a saint. Sometimes God’s message is hard to hear, especially when it hits hard.
Later I read chapter 4 of Jonah. And then I got it.
Jonah’s Anger at the Lord’s Compassion
4 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
My friends, this passage has hit me hard. Tears streaming hard. Tears streaming and thanking God at the same time.
Is it right for ME to be angry? Angry at those who have hurt me? Those who have hurt my friends? Those who have wronged me?
I’m struggling with the whole idea of second chances. There are people who have caused me and those I love incredible pain.
I’m finally starting to get the message about forgiveness. That it’s something I need to work on. That holding on to that anger, like Jonah did, hurts no-one more than me.
For now? I’m just glad I didn’t have to wrap myself in sackcloth and sit in ashes for God to give me a second chance. That His forgiveness and love for me is unconditional.
Best of all? I’m rejoicing because I gave God a second chance.