How Many Second Chances?

How many second chances should I get? I don't know of any objective criteria that tells me how many times I should get to screw up. But I know that in my life, I get many more chances than I should. In Matthew 18:18, Peter asks Jesus how many times he ought to forgive someone, and tosses out a number than seems generous enough - seven times. Jesus responds by taking Peter's number and moving it another decimal place! He gives us chance after chance after chance to get it right.

In the parable of the Prodigal Son, (Luke 15:11-32), the younger son runs off with his inheritance and wastes it all on living in the moment. Money never lasts, and soon the boy finds himself living a poor man's life, feeding pigs. The boy's thoughts of returning home are not repentance - not yet. Instead, he remembers how it was - his good father surrounded him with an environment that treasured life much more than where his dissolute living had gotten him. Even his father's servants were cared for better than where he had ended up.

When he decides to re-approach his father, it does not even occur to him to ask for forgiveness. Instead, he intends to plead for a lower station, some way of attaining his father's mercy in a reduced dignity. But similarly, it never even occurs to the father to do anything but welcome home his son, as his son! Even though the boy has still not demonstrated the maturity to fully evaluate where he went wrong, the mere fact that he turned his path homeward was enough. His father leaps for joy at only this!

We do not have to get it totally right, for our Father to rejoice at it. He is more than happy when we even start to look in the right direction. Every journey begins with a step, and the Father is already rushing out with a ring for our finger when we begin to take it.