Isaiah 55:6-7 – ⁶ Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; ⁷ let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

"PLEASE, just give me one more chance! I know I can do it!"

How many times have we heard that one? And how many times have we thought, "What difference does it make? You're a hopeless case."? Why do we think we deserve a second chance anyway? Are we that confident that we can change, get better, and reform our lives? Why would we need to do that? We have free will; if we want to be "like this," why should we want to change? Here's what I think: Because change matters in relationships.

Somewhere along the line, at least once, you've been asked to mend your ways. Somewhere along the line, at least once, you've asked someone else to mend their ways. You've probably been in a situation where both of you were saying "I'll do that if you'll to this." It's how we learn to get along. We come to consensus, we compromise sometimes, we give a little to get a little. Sometimes it's really hard to forgive even the first time. You've seen on the news where a relative of a person who was brutally murdered states, "I can never forgive you for what you did to my loved-one." In our hearts, we understand, but in our minds we say, "Ummm, that's not good. Hating tears you up inside and forgiveness is healing." Sometimes it seems some of us are less interested in healing than we could be.

But, what if we really could change? What if we're not really the bad, bad persons we believe we are? Would others see the potential for change in us, and take a step closer to us so we could step closer to them? On which side of a wrong do we begin to make things right? Is it our repentance or our neighbor's forgiveness? Maybe there's a scriptural way to see this question answered.

We can start with today's text: Let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. So which do you think happens first? The sinner forsakes his way or God is generous in forgiving? My money's on God being first. He's always ready to forgive because he always loves us – no matter how messed up we are. It's like he knows we're going to need forgiveness, so he's just standing there with a big bucketful of it waiting to douse our grubby sinfulness with his cleansing Grace. He is always ready to forgive. But we need to build some intentionality. I chose that word because it expresses "the quality of mental states (e.g., thoughts, beliefs, desires, and hopes) that consists in their being directed toward some object or state of affairs." Say what? It means we have to be focused on the goal of [1] finding God, and [2] asking for forgiveness. The first one is generally pretty easy; I mean God is everywhere, right? Except maybe sometimes we crowd him out of our hearts, yeah? Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. That's a clue that it's easier to lose track of God that we usually want to admit.

It turns out though that seeking God is a pretty common theme. Check these out:

1 Chronicles 28:9 – ⁹ “And you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve him with single mind and willing heart; for the Lord searches every mind, and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will abandon you forever.

Deuteronomy 4:28-29 – ²⁸ There you will serve other gods made by human hands, objects of wood and stone that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. ²⁹ From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul.

Here's a trio of references about seeking God that will help you identify something important about intentionality: 2 Chronicles 15:2, 4, 15. The key is that I need to search for him, not casually, but diligently, with my "whole heart and soul." That's the same way I am supposed to love him; I guess you could say I should seek him in, through, and for the sake of Love.

Since he's everywhere to be found, seeking him is simply a matter of loving him enough to admit he's really right there with us while he may be found. So step 1 really is pretty simple. It just requires keeping our heads on straight and admitting God knows what we're up to – all the time!

Part 2 – ask for forgiveness – is what usually trips us up because … we have to admit we were WRONG! Why is that so hard to do? Well, that one's a three-part deal. First we have to get past our pride that makes us feel we are superior to everyone else because – although we may not always be right – we are never wrong. That's also what did in Adam: "It wasn't my fault! She made me eat it!" You've been through that enough times that I don't need to spell it out. Next, even if we can wrestle down our pride and admit we were wrong, we have to be willing to say – and mean – that we are sorry. "I'm sorry" gets stuck in our craw for the same reason as admitting we're wrong: Pride. It takes humility to apologize and most of us are wired to avoid humility. Lastly, we have to make up our minds not to do "that" again. We have to repent. We have to reform. We have to go back to being without that intention to gratify our egos and, in so doing, hurt someone else – or even ourselves.

So here are a few thoughts on that 3-step process:

2 Chronicles 7:14 – … ¹⁴ if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Acts 3:19-20 –¹⁹ Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, ²⁰ so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah^[a] appointed for you, that is, Jesus

Romans 6:23 –²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matthew 3:2 –² “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Acts 2:38 – ³⁸ Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. …"

Matthew 4:17 – ¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Luke 5:32 – "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."

Psalm 25:11 – ¹¹ For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.

Joel 2:12-13 – Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; ³ rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.

Isaiah 44:22 – ²² I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.

Psalm 103:12 – ¹² as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.

Zechariah 1:3 – ³ Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.

COME BACK TO ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART, TURN FROM YOUR SIN. I WILL FORGIVE YOU BECAUSE I LOVE YOU. I FORGIVE ALL OF IT!

"Well," you say, "that might work for some people, but God doesn't want to have anything to do with me. I'm too much of a sinner!" Well, that's a good beginning; you've confessed you are a sinner. 1 John 1:8-10 – ⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.See what I mean? And how about this?

ROMANS 2:22b-23 –For there is no distinction, ²³ since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Or this? Isaiah 53:6 – ⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Romans 7:15-20 –¹⁵ I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Romans 7:24-25 – ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

So, did I really just use up my 4,357^th second chance? You probably think that's just some random number; I chose it for a reason (it spells out HELP on our phone buttons), but the number isn't what's important. What's important is the time-span. Is that for my lifetime? Or is it just this year? Or maybe it's just for today??? Here’s the thing: IT DOESN'T MATTER. There is no limit on forgiveness if we put no limit on finding God, repenting, asking forgiveness, and reforming our lives by returning to God.

Change that fosters closeness and minimizes separations matters in relationships. God's only human Son was brutally murdered, and because God is Love and Love yields forgiveness, EVERY sin from Adam's to ours can be forgiven. We are not only one step closer to eternal holiness as is the Life in Heaven, but also we are one step farther from being the grubby little sinners who are cleansed and healed by perfect, completely unqualified, and absolute forgiveness.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.