I went to one of my favorite local restaurants today and ran into someone I haven’t seen in a while. It’s always fun to be around my hometown because I run into to people that I haven’t seen in so many years. I haven’t seen Monika since our junior year of high school, but we were still able to recognize each other. One memory I have of her is one of the most epic fights I’ve seen in my life. I went to a school that had a lot of them, and Monika was one of the girls that no one messed with. Luckily, I was on her good side.
We caught up for a few minutes and I asked her what was going on. She told me that she was in a meaningful relationship and was trying to make it work, but was on a good path. She was nailed early on as one of the “types” that wouldn’t make it very far and she told me how much of a blessing it was she wasn’t in jail, pregnant, or dead. I couldn’t help but ask her what had changed and she just said that she had.
It was an interesting process to hear how she had just decided to be a better person and things had just fallen into place. As I travel to other countries, one thing I’ve noticed is it’s really hard to make a change in your situation. You don’t just wake up and decide to change. It’s a lifelong process that doesn’t normally show much. For Monika, she was written off early, but has made a decent life for herself. This blessing doesn’t really come in many areas of the world. Once a screw up, always a screw up.
This is a blessing we have in our culture and I pray we continue to cultivate an environment of second, third, fourth, and more chances. It’s a privilege so many people around the world never experience and as much as I want people in our culture to understand that, I really want others to experience it. The Gospel is centered around extra chances and I want the world to feel that. I wish the kids in the Philippines could get the chances to experience this same gift…
