Second Chances

by Eddie Pipkin

One last thought on the just completed Olympic games. In all the hoopla over the superhuman performances of American gymnast Simone Biles, it’s important to remember that this wasn’t just any gold medal performance. This was an epic comeback story. Having dramatically withdrawn from the previous Tokyo Olympics, mid competition, with an onset of “the twisties,” she checked out of the sport for a year to tend to her mental health. Many commentators gave her no shot of returning to glory – some resorted to name calling and less than polite critiques. But she proved the naysayers wrong. She’s a shining example, not just of athletic accomplishment, but of the ability of people to rise above challenges and seize on a second chance opportunity. Who among us hasn’t needed the grace of a second (or even third) chance on our life journey?

The novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald once bitterly observed, “There are no second acts in American lives,” but the truth is that we all love a good comeback story. And Simone Biles has a great comeback story, attributable not just to her relentless work in the gym, but to her consistent work with her therapist:

Simone Biles wouldn’t be on the mat if she didn’t spend time on the couch, she explained at this year’s Olympics in Paris. . . .

The iconic gymnast made strides after the last Olympics, making a concerted effort not just to work on her mental health, but also to share insight about her journey publically to assuage stigma. She has also come forward as a survivor of sexual abuse by disgraced former national gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, explaining “it could help a lot of people.” Four years ago, Biles made headlines after dropping out of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo due to what is called “the twisties.”

The ailment is known as a disconnect between the brain and body that makes gymnasts disoriented. Biles’s candor regarding the toll that this condition took and her decision to leave catapulted her into a new type of spotlight: that of being a mental health advocate.

First and foremost, a shout-out to mental health advocates and their willingness to share their own stories, be they entertainers, athletes, or ministry professionals. The world is a better and safer place if we are all honest about our emotional and psychological wellbeing. Frank discussions of this topic can be challenging in a ministry setting, because we are so focused on our spiritual wellbeing that we can inadvertently give short shrift to the very real problems of mental health. “Just pray harder” is not a cure-all for the most paralyzing disruptions of our mental equilibrium. Local church leadership should do all they can to steer staff members, volunteers, and ministry participants to credible mental health resources. They should encourage those discussions.

Secondly though, in an era that can be unforgiving when people have fallen short of their best – or certainly when they have failed spectacularly – we should remember our heritage as The People of Second Chances. Jesus’ message is all about redemption. It is illustrated no more beautifully than in his response to the woman at the well, the woman who had been hauled before him by the religious authorities so that Jesus might be confronted with her sin and prodded to comment on it. Max Lucado vividly imagines the scene in a devotion on forgiveness and forgetting:

Her feet were bare and muddy. Her arms hid her chest and her hands clutched at each other under her chin. And her heart was ragged; torn as much by her own guilt as by the mob’s anger.

So, with the tenderness only a father can have, he set out to untie the knots and repair the holes.

He begins by diverting the crowd’s attention. He draws on the ground. Everybody looks down. The woman feels relief as the eyes of the men look away from her.

The accusers are persistent. “Tell us, Teacher! What do you want us to do with her?” He could have asked why they didn’t bring the man. The Law indicted him as well. He could have been asked why they were suddenly blowing the dust off an old command that had sat on the shelves for centuries. But he didn’t. He just raised his head and offered an invitation, “I guess if you’ve never made a mistake, then you have the right to stone this woman.”

You know the story. They all drop their stones and slink away, and Jesus tells the woman to “Go and sin no more.” We don’t know the details of what happens next for her, but we do know that the she was given a second chance. Not begrudgingly, but with love.

These two second-chance stories are dramatically different. Simone Biles struggled through no fault of her own. Hers is a more sympathetic narrative. The woman at the well has made poor life choices. Her mistakes led directly to her displacement from her local community.

Our lives are full of both kinds of disruptions. Sometimes, circumstances befall us that are beyond our control, but we need a second shot, a second chance to be who we have the potential to be. We need the grace to try again. At other times, we are derailed from our promise and potential because of poor choices we have consciously made. We have behaved badly. We have acted irresponsibly. We can, however, seek forgiveness, make amends, work towards redemption and restoration. And it’s a Jesus-oriented church that gives us the grace to do so.

If you find yourself in either of those scenarios in this season, I wish you strength and I wish you peace in your purpose, and I hope you are surrounded by a community that supports you in your journey.

We all will have chances to support others in their journey towards healing, redemption, and rebirth. Especially those of us in church leadership positions. Our local churches are notorious for casting people off when they have faltered or failed. We do this, arguably, in the pursuit of the health of our ministries, but when we discipline and discard people with no option for them to find their way home, we miss the powerful opportunity that Jesus demonstrated when he forgave and extended his hand in reconciliation, most famously, in repairing the breach with Peter, who rises from his moment of betrayal to be one of the most powerful forces in the formation of the early church. He doesn’t waste the lessons he has learned through his failure, forgiveness, and redemption. He experiences a rebirth of faith and purpose. That’s the power of a second chance.

In Simone Biles’ case, she’s not the author of her downfall; it was just a tragic turn of events. Even so, she was not gifted a spot back at the top of her sport just because people had sympathy for her circumstances. She had to earn her way back to the podium, competition by competition, and she did so without complaint. This is an illustration of the way that we can provide progressive opportunities for reintegration for those who have failed their communities. We don’t have to take their word for the ways they have changed their ways; we can establish a step-by-step process for how they reintegrate themselves into the life of the church. We can give them small assignments that, if accomplished well and with the right attitude, can lead to bigger assignments. We can even, if necessary, have a ‘contract’ with them (depending on their offense or the circumstance of their failure) that explicitly lays out the conduct we’re looking for.

The point is that we build cultures which honor the Gospel by offering second chances, not hypothetically, not in the abstract, but in the real world. We know that the offering of second chances will be a regular thing that will have to be done, and we have a thoughtful mechanism for how to do it. There’s a process in place, and we’re faithful to it.

Like Jesus, we can be cheerleaders for those pursuing their second acts. Jesus sees people, not as a collection of their worst moments, but as the potential of who they can still be. This is a spiritual superpower. We should work to achieve it in practice. If you’ve ever had to dig deep to figure out how to get a second chance, if you’ve ever faced the struggle of proving yourself to a skeptical community, you know the power of having someone in your corner, someone who believes in you despite the evidence of your previous bad behavior or insufficient skill set.

No matter who we are or where we are, we have opportunities to be those cheerleaders for someone else who needs support and encouragement. These moments can be crucial when we stand up for unlikely candidates. They can make all the difference. Simone Biles does not hesitate to name the people who helped her through the tough times and back to the pinnacle of potential.

The world is full of naysayers and judgment. Have you visited the social media sites lately?

How beautiful if we can truly be the People of the Second Chance.

I want to give you some homework this week. I want you to spend a few minutes thinking and praying about someone who needs a second chance. It may be someone whose fate you have a direct role in, second chance wise. It may be someone outside your immediate sphere of influence who just needs a supportive cheerleader, someone to believe in and encourage them on a difficult journey. Get involved. Reach out. Be a part of the second chance process. There are a dozen reasons to not get involved. Here’s one good reason to do it: It could be a decision that has a pivotal impact for them and could change the future of your greater community.