Past Performance/Future Results

Moses got one when he was 80. It took 40 years for them to find it, but the nation of Israel was given one. Jonah got one, too, and so did the people of Nineveh, even though he was reluctant to even tell them about it. Peter got his after his courage failed. Paul got one after theological failure. Apollos, after doctrinal failure. God even gave the Earth one back in the days of Noah. All of these people and millions more whose names we’ll never know got a second chance from God. Apparently, it’s His favorite gift.

Have you ever wondered why? I mean, wouldn’t it have been easier for God to raise up a different deliverer than Moses, maybe someone younger with less baggage and more verbal agility? There were plenty of other peoples to whom God could have granted most-favored nation status. Why did He give obstinate Israel so many do-overs? And surely He could have called a more winsome evangelist than Jonah to preach to Nineveh. Was he the only one who spoke Assyrian?

Of course, it’s impossible to speak of second chances without thinking of David. And he may offer a clue as to why God delights in giving people the opportunity to replay the down. In Psalm 40, David writes ruthlessly about his own need for mercy. “My sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, my heart fails within me.” He describes being stuck in a slimy pit, up to his elbows in mud and mire.

But God, David says, “turned . . . heard . . . lifted . . . gave . . . and (here it is) put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.” David’s second chance jacked up the volume on his praise, then broke off the knob. A few verses later, David writes, “I proclaim your righteousness in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, I do not hide your righteousness in my heart, I speak of your faithfulness and salvation, I do not conceal your love and your truth.”

Maybe God loves to lift the fallen and win back the washouts because nobody sings louder than someone who thought the music had been eternally silenced. Nobody leads like a leader who knows what it is to walk the wrong way. There is no greater courage than that shown by a reformed coward. Nobody loves like someone who gets a second chance at forever. And no one sees like someone whose sight has been restored.

This truth has implications. If you’re a mess right now (and you know it), God has you right where he wants you. Your current state of moral, ethical or spiritual insolvency is not immutable. I don’t know this for certain, but I’d wager there are times when God turns to the angels in heaven, points to a particularly failed human being and says, with a grin, “Watch this . . . .”

Second, like they say on the investment commercials, past performance is not an indicator of future results. Moses’ first attempt at deliverance looked more like a Burt Reynolds’ movie (think banjos) than an intervention of divine origin. The second time around, he did it right. When the pressure was on him in the High Priest’s courtyard, Peter swung and missed on three pitches. The next time someone challenged him, he brought a bat to the plate and put one over the center field fence.

Finally — and this will be the hardest — if you’ve been given a second chance (and you have), it’s your turn. God wants you to pass along the promise of a better future. That means you and I have to extend to those who failed us the same mercy we received from God. We have to take the risk that their future performance will be more faithful than their past. That requires a lot of hard, honest work — confrontation has to be partnered with confession; restoration has to be conditioned on repentance; boundaries have to be drawn and honored; accountability has to be established and maintained. As demanding as that process is for everyone involved, though, it’s what God did for us. And it’s what he wants us to do with and for his other less-than-perfect children.