Failure and Second Chances

This post is dedicated to Ginny who shows the direction everyday and to Mother Teresa who saw the face of Christ in the poor and destitute and never failed to help.

Sweet-faced old man

at the grocery entrance.

A smile. A shy smile.

A blush.

A woman fusses in her car

hoping the man will go

away. Digs in her purse and

finds two one dollar bills.

The bills burn a hole in her

pocket as she enters the

market.

He smiled again but does not

say

a

word.

Shame.

Magazines beckon and

Mother Teresa is turning

100 this week. The pictorial

says "Take me home".

Mother always had the same answer when she was asked what kept her going. She always said, "I see the face of Jesus in the poor and I do it for Him".

I had fail to do the same.

This week's Arise reading is Luke 15:1-10, The Parable of the Lost Sheep. I learned a big lesson from the encounter with the smiling old man. I learned that I was the lost sheep, not him.

?What would I do if I could replay that moment? Would I - step out in love; smile back; ask him "how are you" and wait for an answer; ask him if he needed anything; was he hungry? What might I have done? What might you have done?

I shared this story with my Arise discussion group and the additional account of my second chance.

This morning I saw a woman walking her child to school. I assumed it was school because the little girl was pulling her school bag on wheels. The mom was young, disheveled and wrapped in a black blanket. It was chilly outside and I recall thinking that I wished I had a jacket in the car that I could give her. But then I drove passed and did not give it another thought.

The drive-thru at Starbucks was hanging three deep in the street so I turned in quickly to House of Java and ran in for coffee to go. As I returned to the car preparing to unlock it, I heard a voice call out to me. It was the blanket wrapped woman and her little girl.

She was asking me if I could possibly drive her daughter to school. They were running late, there was a field trip to a retirement home, her daughter would miss it if she didn't arrive on time. My second chance had arrived.

It's funny how disconnected thoughts hopscotch around -

Mom giving me her child;

Was child comfortable going with me - a stranger;

Me not thinking of mom going too. My typical tight focus on the moment;

Asking little girl if she is comfortable going with me;

She asking mom to go too.

Well, duh! I so miss the obvious sometimes. Of course the mom will go with me.

Adult stranger behind me. Keep my eyes on the mirror;

Stop it. You are being ridiculous. You've been given a second chance.

TRUST. You are doing the right thing.

As I dropped her off at school, the little girl saw her classmates and whispered "They haven't left yet". She was glowing as she ran off.

Driving the mom home, I learned a lot about sadness and disappointment. What a terrible thing to believe your mother hates you. Her mother wanted sons and had four daughters. The young woman had two sons and a daughter. She was estranged from her mother and trying to be a better mother by loving her children better than she had been loved herself.

No question - life was a struggle for the young woman but she was willing to step out in faith and ask for help from a stranger. Helping her underscored how lost I had been a few days earlier. But, a few days of reflection and a second chance had been allowed for me and God had sent me my shepherd. I felt found and safe again.