Second Chances!

I was thinking this morning when I woke up super early on a cold Harare winter morning to go meet with the youth leaders at Celebration Centre, about how blessed I am that God loves to give second chances.

I do not LOVE to give second chances. I have opted to not spend time with people because of the choices that they make, to not talk to them, to not let them into my personal life because they have hurt me. I like to remember what happened the first time.

I woke up this morning, and said “Good morning God.” Like it sometimes happens, my first thought was, “how did I get here?” That is not an easy answer. I didn’t grow up thinking, I want to be a missionary… frankly, I didn’t know what a missionary was! I didn’t think, I would like to live in Africa, frankly other than my grandpa’s National Geographic mags, I didn’t even know Africa existed. Even a couple of weeks before I came here, people were not saying, “Regina is just the kind of girl that God would call to serve in Africa.” I was the girl who shopped, the girl that you didn’t invite rock climbing in Joshua Tree! It seems pretty ridiculous…. But more than being ridiculous because of who I am, it’s ridiculous because of what I have done!

You see as a young girl I learned to hide my difficulties and failures rather than face them head on and overcome. I am a girl who spent years of my life addicted to everything one can be addicted to. I have done ugly things, I have hurt people that love me. I have been rebellious and yet I am in Africa, living an amazing life of adventure. My life is full of love, beauty and passion. I live a story that is better than I could have written. How does that happen?

It happens because our God doesn’t exclude us. He doesn’t choose to remember the painful choices and rebellion. He pursues us and when we accept Him for exactly who He is and what He has offered we receive a gift. It is bigger than salvation. I know that missionaries have been talking about salvation for generations, but the gift is bigger than that. Yes we wont go to Hell. Hell is a very real place and if you don’t know FOR SURE that you aren’t going there… find out, get right, but that is not what I am talking about here. The gift is bigger. Not only do I know for sure that I am not going to Hell, but I have an AMAZING life. The gift is not just eternal life, it is LIFE!

He choose not to remember that Peter had denied him three time the night His savior was arrested. He chose not to remember that Paul had persecuted (and murdered) the people that were spearheading HIS mission and He chose not to remember all of the things I had done in blatant disobedience to His word.

What He remembered was this: That Peter and Paul were His son’s, that Regina was His daughter. That His one and only son was given as a perfect sacrifice so that we could have LIFE, not the one we deserved, but one that is better than that. Better than what we dream of.

WOW. Second Chances. Thank God for second chances. I could be Regina the drug addict, I could be Regina the unfaithful, Regina the unreliable but I am not… I am Regina, daughter of the King, missionary to Zimbabwe.

And I should probably start being a little more generous with second chances myself…