Rewind!

For you, O God, are both tender and kind. not easily angered, immense in love, and you never, never quit. Psalm 86:15 The Message

One of the features that we enjoy most when watching a movie or a recorded television show is the rewind button. This ingenious feature allows us to go back and watch or relive the parts of the movie which somehow we missed while it was happening. Often I find that I go back to parts that I love even though I can recite every word in that scene!

I’m pretty sure that each of us has a time in our lives, whether it’s a decision we made, a path we took, time with loved ones we missed, or simply a special time, that we wish we could live again. The rewind button would be awesome!

Realistically, that only happens in the movies, so we just have to deal with the good and the bad of those mistakes we made, time we let slip by, or decisions that took us where we are today. We hear the cliches like “you get what you deserve, God helps those who help themselves, so and so have so much, it’s just not fair, and own up to your mistakes,” and we can feel defeated.

None of us live a totally perfect life. The thing is we, as Christians, do have a rewind button, and it is called grace. We don’t have to earn forgiveness or beg for a new start, God gives it to us freely. Interestingly, the word, earn, is mentioned zero times in the New Testament.

The prodigal son is a prime example of someone who needed a rewind button. This son took his share of his father’s property, packed his bags, and went to a foreign country. There, because of bad mistakes, he wasted everything. When he came to his senses, he returned home to beg his father’s forgiveness and acceptance. He wanted to rewind his actions, but there was no need because his father had already forgiven him and welcomed him back. That’s grace in action.

What about Peter? He was one of Jesus’ closest friends yet when Jesus was being crucified Peter denied ever knowing him not once, not twice, but three times! Peter needed a rewind button. He said to Christ, “I’ll never deny you. Others might, but not me, Lord.” Jesus gave him the gift of a rewind when he saw him again and offered grace to him. This encouraged Peter to fulfill his destiny.

We’ve probably all been in a place where we wonder, “What was I thinking?” On New Year’s Day in 1929 Georgia Tech played UCLA in the Rose Bowl. In that game, a UCLA player, Roy Riegels, recovered a fumble, got confused and ran sixty five yards the wrong way. One of his own players tackled him before the goal line to save a score for the opposing team.

Everyone was asking, “What will Coach Nibbs Price do with Riegels in the second half?” The locker room was quiet during half time while Coach Price sat thinking and Riegels sat alone with tears of humiliation running down his cheeks.

When the time keeper came to tell Coach Price that the second half was beginning, he looked at his team and said, “Men, the same team that played the first half will start the second half.” The players got up and walked out, all except Riegels. Coach faced him and asked, “Roy, didn’t you hear me?” “Coach.” Riegels said, “I can’t do it to save my life. I’ve ruined you and the team. I’ve ruined myself. I can’t face the crowd in that stadium.” Coach put his hand on Roy’s shoulder and said, “Roy, get up and go on back, the game is only half over.”

The Georgia Tech players will tell you that they’ve never seen a man play football as Roy Riegels did in the second half! The grace of God is like Roy’s coach. Sometimes we feel like we’ve messed up so badly that we want to give up, but God never gives up on us. He offers each of us the grace of a rewind!

We should all rejoice today that our God is one of multiple rewinds. How many rewinds do we get? The answer is as many as we need.

You’ve never gone too far that God can’t redeem you, restore you, forgive you, and give you a second chance (a rewind). Lysa TerKeurst