Years ago, when I played at golf (I make no claim of actually playing golf since my game was so bad) I played an informal game that included ‘mulligans.’ A mulligan is a ‘do-over!’ Formal golf counts every stroke, good and bad. When playing mulligans, the first shot that went awry is set aside. Only the second one counts.
In those final seconds of last night’s Bengals vs. Chiefs game I thought of mulligans when Ossai of the Bengals hit Mahomes out of bounds and set the Chiefs up for the game winning field goal. He made a split-second decision that went wrong, badly! At game’s end, he was sitting on the bench, towel over his head, dejected. We can all identify with Joseph Ossai’s regret, can’t we? We all have made decisions too quickly, said something in anger, or impulsively acted in some way. If only life offered mulligans, right?
Fact is, though God does not provide do-overs, He does offer forgiveness and new beginnings for those who come to Him in full faith. The promise is this – “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:17-19, NIV)
We look at our lives, our sins and mistakes, our disappointments, and we have a choice: we can grow bitter or we can get better. People who keep reliving failure – their own and those of others – will become angry and/or depressed over time, focused so much on the past that they are unable to see the future. God invites us to look forward, to leave those things we got so wrong with Him, and to take His grace for a new day.
Paul had plenty of regrets. He was a man who persecuted Christ’s followers, who vehemently opposed the Gospel until he met Christ in a Damascus Road conversion moment. Later he reflects on his choice to accept forgiveness and renewal. "No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven." (Philippians 3:13-14, NLT) He found something better than a mulligan. He found a new life in Christ Jesus, his Savior.
What’s dogging you this Monday morning?
Is there something to which you return, wishing for a mulligan?
Instead of wishing for what can never be trust Christ. Tell Him honestly of your regrets. Take your failures and sins to Him without excuse or justification. He ‘makes all things new,’ reconciling us to our Heavenly Father and giving hope for each day.
Here is a word from the Word. Meditate on the challenge and the promise. "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One." (1 John 1:8-2:1, NIV) In Christ there are no mulligans, but there are new beginnings.
(Video of this blog at this link)
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Who am I that the highest King
Would welcome me
I was lost but He brought me in
Oh His love for me
Oh His love for me
Who the Son sets free
Oh is free indeed
I'm a child of God
Yes I am
Free at last
He has ransomed me
His grace runs deep
While I was a slave to sin
Jesus died for me
Yes He died for me
In my Father's house
There's a place for me
I'm a child of God
Yes I am
I am chosen not forsaken
I am who You say I am
You are for me not against me
I am who You say I am
(Oh) (Yes) I am who You say I am
Ben Fielding | Reuben Morgan
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