Then, the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Jonah 3:1
…allow me one more test with the fleece…Judges 6:39
Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow. John 18:27
Failure is never final with God. Our stumbles, our disobedience, our failure to obey his commands, follow his instructions, share his grace is never the end of our chances. We always, so long as we are willing to ask for one, get another chance.
Jonah, after three days in the belly of a fish, got his second chance. Gideon, the prophet, tested God not once but twice. Peter, the apostle called the Rock, denied Christ three times in his hour of need. Yet, he became so powerful a witness for the Gospel, so filled with the Holy Spirit that the mere touch of his shadow healed the sick and infirm.
The opportunity to get it right comes around again. We should remember such second chances and the failures of Biblical greats when we find ourselves unhappy with our performance as the parents of disabled children. If God is willing to give us another shot, so too, should we be willing to forgive the man or woman in the mirror.
This path on which we travel is imperfect, unpredictable and difficult. It is fraught with the perils inherent in the chronic conditions that afflict our children. The challenges affect each child in a different way, requiring different solutions and plans for each child, each parent, each family.
That we will stumble is inevitable. That our stumbling will lead to a fall is likely. That we will fail – at some time, in some way, in some key moment – is virtually guaranteed. It is the reality of being human.
We must remember we serve and we are loved by a God of second chances, of lost opportunities, of rebirth. When we stumble, we cannot punish ourselves over the missteps. We must work to right ourselves.
When we fall, we must not wallow in the muck and mire of our imperfection but rather we should muster the strength to stand up again. When we realize we have failed our child in some way – be it big or small – we must look for the lesson to be learned in our mistake, we must discard the debris which it creates, and we must turn our face into the wind once more.
Wallowing in the dust, unwilling to try again, will win us nothing. In the standing up, in the gathering of our strength, in the calling out for the help of God, we will find our second chance, our opportunity to get it right renewed.
God understands the flaws that trip us up. He’s unwilling to let them define or finish us.
