Remember when we were kids in elementary and middleschool, and we loved a good game of recess kickball? It was a battle really, it was war. In the heat of late spring before summer vacation we really got down and dirty. Time was running short then. I can almost smell the dirt, the grass, and I can almost hear the cicadas in the trees as we played - remember? And we had a very limited time to get a game in. Sometimes we would get so hard core, so entrenched in a close heated game that we'd continue the next day where we left off.
The game was important. Braggin' rites were huge.
At some point, maybe even more than once, we'd see the ball go fouling off way right, then we would hear it. Someone would yell "DO OVER!"? I yelled it too from time to time. And we all understood. We all wanted to be looked at with respect, wanted to make a better impression, to hold our own, to be picked again the next day to play too.
So we were happy to oblige the occasional 'Do Over'.
Unless that is, that it was the one kid we all knew who with every kick, with every throw, with every move in every game, ALWAYS wanted a do over. They would just never ever own up to the mistake and move on at all. That kid, no one wanted to give THEM a do over.
But to the ones who really tried, we happily dealt out the 'Do Overs'.
I still have things in my daily life that end up like a big old foul ball kicked over the right side fence. I try to do better. I mean, I can see growth. It's longer between times that I find myself tripped up by the same action, or reaction, or choice.
The game is still important. The prize is even bigger today.
But the voice of the enemy sometimes beats me up to a bloody pulp and tells me I am the kid who never changes. That I'll never get a kick off good enough to round first let alone even attempt to reach second. That I will never do any better at making the right choice, that I will never stop reacting too quickly in frustration, or whatever my weakness is on any given day.
But Christ tells me some things very differently.
That "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NLT)
And that 'Neither do I condemn you, Go now and leave your life of sin.' John 8:11 (NIV)
As long as I am trying, and growing, and seeking forgiveness, then I AM leaving that life, that sin behind. And I get picked to play every day, I'm still in the game. And I get dealt a 'Do Over' from the only one whose voice really matters anyway.
